Karan Kumar: Review - The California Boulevard - Gurgaon Sector 29

Legacy

After a number of calls and requests from fellow food connoisseurs , I was keen that this review needs to come up on my personal webpage. Like you all know (my dear fellow readers and bloggers ) besides being an active blogger and a marketing speaker / learner , I am also an ardent follower and lover of good dining experiences and share them via my personal webpage on Zomato .

TCB

Recently I have been getting a lot of comments and inputs via emails that I start sharing my food journeys ( the ones which are worth it ) here as well . So as a kick-start I will take you through a lovely rainy Saturday Gurgaon morning and land up at an extremely well defined place – The California Boulevard ( TCB ). This place was on my to-do list since a long time but wasn’t getting the needed attention .

And this time , there were no-no’s since when I first described this place to my mom she approved it instantly. So , off I went with my parents for a private lunch dine-in of sorts.

Excellent team and the HD bike

Location

The location may be a tricky find as you mow down criss-crossing the lanes of Sector 29 and Leisure valley all the way up till Kingdom of Dreams and then when you finally see this place , opposite the SIEMENS IFFCO tower / behind IFFCO metro station and next to Sandy’s . So , as a quick summary this is NOT in SECTOR 29 Leisure Valley which you may think of .

Guests were welcomed warmly by a red Harley Davidson standing tall in the corner and people busy to get them clicked with the beast. Some actually miss this also . Reservations were already in place and the entire experience from stepping in till seating was really sweet.

Ambience

The place is plush and chic at the same time and I was impressed that both the owner and the designer have taken time to ensure this links back to a Hollywood top notch dining place. The walk way down is filled with galaxy of stars inspired by the Hollywood walk of fame and it has interesting wall art and décor with leading Hollywood celebrities.

Interiors at TCB

Layout

In between this I thought I should take a quick look around the place and the entire team at TCB was more than happy to give me a personalized tour. The restaurant is spread across two floors and the 1st floor is where we were seated nice. The moment we were seated all of us had a white tablet of sorts in a bowl and as soon as the server added warm water to it and WOW got converted to a wet tissue. Experiences, as I call.

As I was gazing outside , there is a courtyard area with temporary in-built light infused waterfall which looks romantic and really good. Though it was humid else I would have wanted to be seated outside.

Drinks

Soon as were seated we were greeted by the sweet restaurant manager along with TCBs in-house chef. We were given an option of going for the regular menu or a chef inspired and chef crafted special lunch menu. Needless, latter it was and within 10 minutes I had a hand written menu specially designed for me / us by the Chef and his team. While we were sipping banana cranberry and apple cinnamon drinks .

Starters

The first on the table was a freshly baked healthy warm bread basket with butter garlic spread.The starters were headed by the much loved - Delhi ki chaat – baby spinach fired and served with layer of curd, tamarind chutney and mint chutney - this one is a must have. Then in line were mozzarella sticks , artichoke tart and vegetable dim sums.

Delhi ki chaat

The chef had prepared the Sushi paneer and the pepper sushi rolls along with a Cheese fondue. Since the table was a vegetarian table Chef and team ensured everything was perfect both in taste and presentation . I loved the sushis and the fusion food which the Chef created for us . The stuffing were bang on and perfect.

A special mention to the TCBs Cheese fondue which for new readers is a Swiss, Italian, and French dish of melted cheese served in a communal pot (caquelon or fondue pot) over a chafing stand (réchaud) heated with a candle or spirit lamp, and eaten by dipping long-stemmed forks with bread into the cheese. It was promoted as a Swiss national dish by the Swiss Cheese Union (Schweizerische Käseunion) in the 1930s, and was popularized in North America in the 1960s. This one is prepared painstakingly and enjoyed at ease every bite-by-bite . It’s a beauty of a dish as I would want to call .

Main Course

We were already full with the series of starters and hence we made some changes in the menu . The Chef suggested a must try as California Veggie Pizza brick oven style and the Mexican veggie chilli which has smoky flavors due to the Mexican herbs. Both were crackers of dishes and we enjoyed every bit of it.

Deserts

For deserts, it was an easy kill since I knew this part of the course really well. We went for the house specialty TCB Gazak Kulfi. Kulfi here is infused with chikki covered with a layer of chocolate. Before we were served the Kulfi in our plates the server got the blow torch and melted the chocolate . Tasted great and really creamy with small pieces of chikki in it for the crunch.

Along with this we also tasted the Trio of crème brulle which is also known burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel. It is normally served at room temperature. The custard base is traditionally flavored with vanilla, but can have a variety of other flavorings.

Creme brulle and gazak kulfi

Overall

A wonderful afternoon well spent at a place which is now on my ‘specials’ list. Like I always say it’s not only the food and drinks which count, it’s all about creating experiences. Right from small detailing and personalized attention - all this makes a winning combination.

This is a brainchild of Mr. Rajan Sethi ( whom I am wanting to meet up soon ) and part of the Bright Hospitality group and also the official HOG place .

**

A Special View and Opinion

Also, a huge number of my fellow foodies and people who love to dine out wanted my take and thoughts on the recent debate / controversy surrounding foodies / food critics and restaurant owners. Like most of Delhi/NCR knows I am an independent food reviewer and this is the very reason I won’t / don’t get influenced by anyone or anything. The elements which go into rating a place are clear in my head and I rate a place basis these only. There is no personal animosity or hatred among anyone in particular since I am a strong believer a lot of effort and teamwork goes into creating a good place .

However, there would be scope for improvements which I am sure everyone looks forward to and those are the big turning points which if plugged in can go in a long way. So my summary pointer would be let’s ALL partner in making dining a curated experience and everyone helps everyone else in this journey.

BTW - I have my own personal FaceBook page now and may I request you to ' like' / 'comment' / 'share' , in case you like my writing or me :) .