KikoBa — Restaurant in New Delhi

Recently visited this posh upmarket east Asian restaurant with minimalist interiors yet upmarket look called Kiko-Ba. At the same place where once stood TGIF, this place brought us in nostalgia mode. We tried different flavors of gin and tonic including green apple and orange mango. Each one being equally refreshing. 🍹 The chefs inclination to a vegan cause is seen with the judicious use of avocado and tofu on the menu. 🥑 They have a concept of farm to fork which explains the freshness and food being so delicious. They also have ample variety of vegan dishes in the menu. Bringing you a beautifully curated menu of dim sums, there is ample space given to a live Robata counter next to the bar. The Japanese barbeque that introduces the concept of fireside cooking to the menu. Corn on the Cob, grilled sweet potato, Shiitake Mushrooms and more are grilled to perfection. Embracing and celebrating local produce, Kiko Ba brings their signature grilled Indian Seabass. This delicate dish is cooked with a beautiful mixture of soy, ginger and scallion and drizzled with charred lemon. We relished the famous spinach Gomai salad and the variety of dumplings like crystal vegetables, truffled edamame and prawn curry. Edamame emerges as the first love here with a lot of dishes in the menu. I definitely relished the butter garlic prawns which were excellent in taste. The mock meat pan cake roll is a beautiful curation and do it yourself kinda dish which was also one of the highlights of the evening. The well-aired dining area is a great place for large family gathering and cocktails by the bar. We will be definitely coming here again to try out more dishes from the menu and enjoy the signature cocktails...

Three of us went to Kiko-Ba on 07.05.2023 for the Sunday Brunch.

The Positives:

The food (from the options available on that date) was outstanding in every way. Taste, quality, authenticity, presentation, and portion sizes. The Dimsums were the best I have had in recent times. Every course was fantastic.

The ingredients were authentic, qualitative, and freshly sourced.

It is a vegetarian friendly place, with ample options to fulfillingly sate folks of any and all preferences.

Ambience and interiors were nice.

The waitstaff AMAN was a very decent guy, who tried to make up for the negatives below, sometimes by replacing one or two dishes that were unavailable out of the brunch menu. However, he should not have had to shoulder the burden, and forced to be in an apologetic position to consumers, for aspects that had nothing to do with his role.

The Negatives:

The restaurant is extremely understaffed.

Out of the Brunch Menu, several items (over 6-7) were missing/unavailable. Further. they had only one portion available of multiple dishes. This is simply unacceptable. They had a good brunch menu (costing close to 3 K per person), and to say several items were unavailable from the brunch menu of the day at the beginning of the brunch reeks of extremely bad management, and horrible planning. This makes it a bad experience.

Service quality was very low, with dishes brought out without any...

The location is where Friday's used to be. Looks snazzy from outside and inside, the decor is close to perfect. They have done a good job on the interiors. On the ground level you have a 61 seater and in the basement you have this interesting jungle themed club. We went to the ground floor restaurant called KIKOBA. The food is great. The service is quite ad-hoc. They didn't have 75% of the alcohol listed on the menu. For example some basic gin and basic shots weren't available. The staff is quite untrained and lack basic courtesy like "ok, sir" "sure, maam" and don't have any basic verbal queue etiquette. There were many of them but this place lacks a good manager who can control them and give them some direction. This was my biggest pet peeve. Our server really tested my wife's patience but his food recommendations were good. We went at 7PM so there was no reason for any kind of a lapse in experience. Also the bartenders and waiters are quite informal in their interaction literally we could hear their conversation. I would bring my parents here but with this amateur service, I don't know. Its a pity when restaurants this new take things like service easily. What would places like Bukhara and 360 be without their service? Get a...