Amici

Meal for two: Rs.1300

 

Amici at Khan Market is sort of an Italian Mama's kitchen meets a chic American cafe. Wooden floors and practical furniture make for a relaxing ambience. There are gorgeous black and white photographs on the walls, Italian movie posters and suddenly one of Che Guevara. (This made us wonder if we missed the point.)

We started with a pineapple, green apple and banana smoothie  ( Rs.160) which tasted like banana with sour butter milk so best avoid it but the Oreos shake (Rs.150) is rich , tasty and definitely a safer bet .

The crostini with goat cheese, walnuts and caramelized onion (Rs.200) had a nutty interesting flavour.

The wood fired pizzas are authentic and offer good value for money. Two people can share one. We had one with mascarpone, mozzarella, parmesan  and a generous sprinkle of fresh rocket leaves(Rs.350). It was excellent, thin crust and light but to my companion used to the fire of chilli chicken, a little bland, the chilli flakes gladly came to her assistance.

 The pasta with pine nuts, pesto, parmesan and peanuts (Rs.300) – a grandmother's recipe from Genoa tasted comforting and homely and as if Nonna (naani in Italian) actually stood in the kitchen and supervised every step.

We had the classic aglio olio peperoncino(Rs.260)  - garlic, olive oil and chilli flakes for the uninitiated .

Salty, sharp and garlicky, it made for a good meal except when we found a tiny piece of plastic in it which the waiter insisted was black pepper. When he realised it wasn't, he made up by offering us free Tiramisu (Rs.180)  described in the menu as the best in town and quite close to being it actually.

It had the right level of sweetness and the cream was nicely separate from the intense and bitter coffee.

All in all, a hearty Italian meal – good for a meal out with friends – the meaning of Amici in Italian after all is 'friends'.