#blahvsfood goes to Kimono Club (and the brilliance of Vikramjit Roy)

I have followed Vikramjit Roy’s journey for a decade now, from his days at Wasabi in Delhi. Even at that early stage it was clear that this was a chef who would go places. He had an unerring sense of flavour but more importantly his passion and his curiosity were limitless. As he grew and travelled the length and breadth of the country from Pan Asian in Chennai to Tian in Delhi, POH in Mumbai and then finally back to Delhi with Whiskey Samba and now Kimono Club, it has been fascinating to see his growth and his ambition and how his journey of self discovery reflected itself in his food.

The challenge is with Vikram has always been that fine balance between reigning in his imagination and still giving it room to soar. I would always say “simplify, simplify... you don’t need the fancy presentation because it takes the focus away from the brilliance of your cooking”. But I also knew that he was on his own journey, that he had to find his own synthesis between classicism and innovation, that it was easy for us to ask him to simplify but it was not so easy to do so while not losing the creativity and the sophistication of technique, skill and thought that made him unique. 

Avocado and duck Carpaccio 

At his last stint at POH I felt that Vikram was almost there. There were still desserts inspired by Jackson Pollock which I guess many diners didn’t understand but on the whole the food was simpler in terms of presentation than anything he had done. Then I started eating some of his beautiful Bengali inspired specials at Whiskey Samba and I wondered if the way forward for him was to move on from his Asian food background and embrace his Bengali origins. 

The famous tuna tartare

Well I’m happy to say that I was wrong. I went to eat at Kimomo Club this month and was completely blown away. This is a chef who has finally found what he was seeking. His food is still presented beautifully, but it is simpler, focused on telling the story of the food and not making the presentation a talking point in itself. And the food itself is better than it has ever been. I had 31 dishes (scroll down for the list) and literally every thing worked for me.

I went with friends who have travelled the world over and whose brothers live in Singapore and they both agreed that the dim sum at Kimono Club was much better than that at Din Tai Fung or Crystal Jade. The oysters with foie gras were a thing of wonder, with the juiciest oysters I’ve had outside Japan, Seattle and Spain. There was a Voldemort from Japan (my expression for that thing which cannot be named in most Indian states) that was juicy, beautifully marbled and perfectly cooked until it melted in the mouth. The tuna tartare was not just an Instagram friendly dish but an evolved and improved version of the wasabi mainstay, smoother, creamier  and with more textural contrast. 

Oysters with Foie Gras 

Kimono Club is a game changing restaurant. There are buzzy Asian places like Koko in Mumbai and great food places like China Kitchen or Lings Pavilion. This place creates a perfect synthesis of food and drink and buzz, taking all of Ashish Dec Kapur’s trademark flair and pushing it to a hedonistic peak, part opium den, part Moulin Rouge and part Great Gatsby. Honestly it really shouldn’t work, but with the help of Freddy Birdy’s fabulous interiors, it works spectacularly. 

The best dim sum in India 

I do hope though, that the fact that Kimono Club is such a great party space doesn’t stop people from recognising it as India’s best Asian restaurant. This is the apogee of Vikram’s career so far. The years of rope burns with Chinese chefs, the sashimi knife cuts as punishment for getting the angle of the cut wrong by two degrees, the flung plates.. all those years when blood, sweat and tears were not a figure of speech but an everyday reality, have paid off spectacularly. He is still a creative genius, but his confidence and his sense of comfort with himself are reflected in cooking that is ambitious and skilled but never self conscious, that needs no bells and whistles, that comes as close to perfect Asian food as it gets. 

I have defended Vikram and his work for many years now with people who didn’t seem to fully understand his genius. I remember when POH opened, the owners of a highly awarded neighbouring restaurant passing some disparaging and mocking comments about the extravagant presentation and using it as a pretext to undermine his talent. I remember telling them to focus on the food itself because it was Asian food like no one else in the world is making. Well my friend Vikramjit Roy, I don’t need to speak for you anymore. No one does. Your food speaks for itself. Because you are not just the best Asian chef in India, you truly are cooking Asian food that can compare with the best anywhere in the world. 

  Clean starters.. just ingredients with some light sauce or pickling

Braised Peanuts with soy & sesame

Organic Cucumber with garlic & Chilli

Black fungus in Chinese vinegar & pickled carrots

Homemade tofu with house soy & crispy shallots

Organic spinach in roasted sesame sauce

Duck carpaccio with orange ice

Compressed avocado carpaccio, plum tomato ice

Chunky tuna tartar, accompaniments

Truffled edamame sushi roll

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Morning glory & water chestnut wonton

Chicken Gyoza

Lobster & truffle dumpling

Prawn wonton in chilli oil 

Black pepper fish 

Crispy Prawn Cheung fun 

Steamed pork spare ribs 

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Dehydrated lotus stem with black pepper

Oysters with Foie Gras 
Dehydrated lotus stem, black pepper 

Spring Chicken black beans, pepper 

King Crab, tobanjan aioli

Wagarashi Prawns, almonds

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Perfectly cooked black cod miso 

Fried rice with kale 

Stir fried udon 

Stir fried seasonal greens

Tamari glazed sea bass

Black cod miso

Tamari glazed Chilean sea bass

Spring chicken black pepper

Stir fried seasonal greens, garlic

Club’s fried rice, kale

Stir fried home made udon noodles

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Desserts at Kimono Club

Crispy chocolate dim sum 

Vegan salted caramel chocolate tart, mango nigari 

Tofu cheese cake, pineapple vanilla compote 

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