#blahvsfood goes to Inja, Delhi

Inja shouldn’t work.

When I first heard about it last year, I dismissed it as a gimmick. 

I mean what is Indo-Japanese?

It gave me visions of dhokla sushi and pakodas with ponzu, a vision as barbaric as Indo Chinese. It may work for many. But I had no interest.

Japanese bhel 

Even when it became the hottest new restaurant in Delhi last year I stayed away. 

But then many of my friends went and they loved it. Mayur. Priyanka. Somanna. Diganta. All people who know their food. 

I ate at Inja popups in Bangalore and Gwalior and I was intrigued. I saw potential and something original.

So finally, this week I decided to come and eat at the restaurant over two nights.

First things first. If your experience of Inja is through popups, you should know that they don’t do justice to the restaurant experience. 

It starts with the decor. The Japanese prints. The peacock blue and gold trim. The elegance of the Manor Hotel

Lobster rasam chawanmunshi 

And it goes on to the food. The same dishes that spoke of potential at popups were coherent and complete in the restaurant. I’m not claiming that every dish is perfect or that the restaurant is fully articulated and expressed. But it is by some distance the most original idea and thought I’ve seen in India’s food scene in a while and it is an idea that is expressed creatively, consistently and flavourfully in dish after dish. Like any high concept menu, whether Indian Accent or Noon or Masque, it will take a few years to be fully formed. But it’s already a remarkably creative, tasty, fun restaurant serving food that is like no other place in the world and doing so successfully. 

Panta bhaat

Where chef Advaith does best is when he feels unconstrained by consumer expectations. The best dish for me was the panta bhaat. Far from the stereotypes of what people expect from stereotypical Japanese cuisine or Indian cuisine, this dish took fermented rice and starch and served it with natto, pickled cucumber and Kombu oil. Yes he served it with seared scallops but at its heart, this was a peasant conjee dish, connecting rural families from Japan to Bengal, a dish that went to the soul of both countries and cultures, that stepped beyond and outside of restaurants. 

Amritsari maki roll

Where the food is less assured is when he and the team feel the need to give the customer what they want. There is a surprisingly good tempura soft shell crab maki with an Amritsari curry inspired mayo. With a dash of wasabi, it is a subtle, excellent India accented take on sushi. But it is served with a soy which is superflous and which makes it taste over seasoned. It’s not an over seasoned dish. It’s a perfect dish. It doesn’t need soy. But the Indian customer expects soy with their sushi and at this young stage, the chef and the restaurant don’t yet have the confidence to tell the customer that what matters isn’t the customer’s expectation but the chef’s vision and sense of how the dish is to be eaten.

Hamachi bombay sandwich 

As it evolves and grows, this is the direction that this restaurant must head towards. To realise that what they are cooking is Sui generis. So they don’t really need to worry about the customer’s frame of reference or expectations. There’s no need to stay within the restaurant version of what these cuisines are supposed to be. The more it goes to the streets and homes for inspiration, the more triumphant and original the food will be. There is a hamachi bombay sandwich that I loved. High quality hamachi sashimi, whose fattiness was complemented by the wasabi potato, the crunch of the sweet potato chips, the chatpata flavours, the nostalgia of the bombay sandwich with the satisfaction of a good sando. This is the sort of dish that epitomises what I am talking about.

Palak paneer sarada

For now, Inja already has enough hits to build a deserved reputation as Delhi’s most exciting new restaurant since the pandemic. The Palak paneer sarada answers the prayers of every vegetarian Indian who loves Japanese flavours but has limited options. The lobster rasam chawanmunshi is silky and technically excellent but the rasam masala and drumstick marrow gives it a punch and bite that separates it from the classic. And the Alaskan King crab Raj kachori is the go to dish when it comes to indulgence, a little Asian, a little chatpata, Japanese restraint and Indian exuberance coming together surprisingly well in a flashy, luxurious seafood dish that has all of Delhi reaching for their spoons and wallets. 

Alaskan King Crab Raj Kachori

But for me personally, I am more excited about what the restaurant will be with more time, experience and confidence. When the inspiration is humbler and there is less pressure to blow people away with every dish. When (like with Manish Mehrotra’s dal or Gresham Fernandes’s duck chawal) it starts stripping dishes down to their essence, an act of creation by reduction rather than addition. That’s where global food is at in the post Noma world, and we’ve seen this happen successfully with French-Japanese and Japanese-Nordic cuisine. Inja, while already superb, has the opportunity and ability to look beyond India and tap into a larger global trend. I have no doubt that the team and chef have that ambition. They are young and brave and determined to make a mark. But equally importantly, in my interactions, they also have the ability and the humility to listen and learn and play the long game. I hope they get the right guidance and support and mentoring because with time they have the opportunity to do something very special. 

We ate:

• Hamachi Bombay Sandwich: Hamachi sashimi, wasabi potato, sweet potato chips, Ito-Katsu, sandwich chutney 
• Alaskan King Crab Raj Kachori: Alaskan King crab and ikura, avocado espuma, mango and furikake chutney, Ito togarashi 
• Hokkaido Scallops Panta Bhaat: Overnight fermented rice, natto, torched scallops, pickled cucumber, Kombu oil 
• Palak Paneer Sarada: Baby spinach, paneer tempura, curry mayo, baby sweet potato, bubu arare
• Japanese bhel: Wakame, shitake, kombu, Myoga, Shisho, Ume, Sweet potato, murmura, fried noodles, Nori chutney, kombu dashi 
• Amritsari spider crab maki: Tempura soft shell crab, Amritsari Mayo, Wasabi Tobiko, Nori salt 
• Lobster Rasam Chawanmunshi: Savoury egg custard, butter poached lobster in rasam masala, drumstick marrow, nasturtium

• 

  Koji chicken wings

  
  koji chicken wings: Koji chicken wings, tamarind and jaggery teriyaki, smoked Kashmiri chilli 
• Edamame Kulcha: Edamame and smoked scamorza, kulcha, Nori dust, togarashi butter, ema datshi

• 

  Kake soba gundruk

  
  kake soba gundruk: Soba noodles, radish leaves and wasabi curry, radish and ika kakiyage
• Shahi tukda: Japanese milk bread, sour Cherry compote, macerated fresh cherries, goma crumble, yuzu rabdi