From Gurgaon to Goa: A nation of BBQ

Grilled food in all its flavours - Japanese, Brazilian, live crabs, even tikkas done live on the table - is currently the rage.

You'd think barbeque as a concept would not hold a big sway on the imaginations of kitty-party sets. But Barbeque Nation, whose first outlet in Delhi has recently opened up, belies such expectations. When I visit the restaurant, on a working day afternoon, parties are in full swing.

The ladies are having a rollicking time but there are quite a few office-goers as well lunching out. The scenario is quite the antithesis of a Sunday beer-and-grills programme to counter corporate stress or a pleasant evening spent on the terrace or farmhouse lawn, the fancy electric grill that you have just bought doing the needful in one corner.

However, at Barbeque Nation the concept is just as lively and simple. Enter the restaurant, get seated on one of the tables and the service begins quite promptly. A charcoal grill is placed in the centre of your table and veggies and meats (90 per cent precooked) are presented in skewers, to be grilled live.

You can douse them in dressings of your choice, eat unlimited portions and finally get up to eat some more by way of a buffet spread. All this for just Rs 270 (lunch) and Rs 450 for dinner, when the number of grilled snacks goes up.

At each of the six outlets across the country where the chain (ironically owned and run by an Indore-based hospitality group, in the manner of a "European country home", or so they claim), the format is the same "" and fairly successful too judging by the number of people who turn up.

But what this success perhaps symbolises is the true coming-of-age of grilled food in India "" not just by way of tandoori fare that's been always popular but by way of other eclectic choices too: From Japanese teppanyaki to Korean "mixed grills" to Brazilian churraso (the 300-year-old tradition of bbq that originated in the Pampas), smoked offerings with a twist and, of course, Indian-style tikkas too done live at your table.

We may still be some way off from the George Bush-style, all-American family barbecues in Texas ranches but there is enough to pamper the gourmet in us (even while we crib that a decent steak is as yet unavailable in the country.)

In Pune, on the other hand, you may just find that steak available. One of the most popular stops for grilled food here is the Mad House Grill at Koregaon Park. It is a smallish place, includes outdoors seating and is sparsely decorated in the European style. It also has a reputation for a mean steak (in pepper sauce).

However, you could also try the whole leg of lamb or the "garlic chicken supreme", served with rice; both bestsellers. On the other hand, when it comes to our own subcontinental offerings from what is commonly known as "Frontier food", where would you head?

While Delhi and other north Indian cities have no dearth of such places (including at the celebrated Bukhara), in Bangalore, at a more modest, non-hotel level, you could go to Samarkand, part of the huge BJN group of restaurants that has brands across several cities now. But if you want something more exotic, try the yakitori (Japanese) section at a new restaurant in Goa called the Republic of Noodles.

As far as new standalone restaurants in the country go, Republic of Noodles is one of the most exciting concepts to have emerged. A brainchild of Raj Rao, a former director of F&B at the Oberoi group "" he was the man behind Three Sixty, the hotel's winner of a "coffee shop""" and was also formerly with Ananda, the Himalayan spa.

The restaurant essentially focuses on pan-Asian street food. The recipes are authentic, non-cliched, great stress has been placed on research, and you can't really go wrong with their yakitori. Or, you could opt for house-speciality grilled snapper in lemon basil sauce, beautifully presented too.

You could opt for an even fancier (Japanese) grilled selection at the fancy Tetsuma in Mumbai. The restaurant has a new menu by way of the robata (meaning "by the fireside", referring to the food of Japanese fishermen) grill, on one side of rose-petal strewn ponds that make up the decor.

Try the fresh black cod marinated in a saiko miso sauce and grilled to perfection or the grilled chicken breast with a dash of spicy red anticucho sauce or the Scallop Sumibi Yaki, served on half-shell in a butter-soya-black-pepper sauce.

On the other hand, if you were in Gurgaon and looking for an exceptional (meaty) experience, it would have to be by way of Wildfire, a churrascaria (Brazilian-style grill restaurant) at the Crowne Plaza hotel. Waiters, Gaucho-style, come to your table with swords (instead of skewers) bearing the meats. Truly a sight to behold.

But the finest new grill restaurant to have opened recently is the Charcoal Grill that has come up rather quietly in Kolkata two months ago. Touted as the country's only live seafood grill, it is also one of Kolkata's biggest.

At the restaurant, you can choose your own seafood "" squid, crab, lobster "" examine the live contents of the aquarium in the centre of the restaurant, walk around with the chef and point to what you'd like to eat and have the offering delivered to your table.

The price of the dish depends on the weight of what you've chosen "" a 2 kg lobster for around Rs 2,000 and so forth. Coastal food from Maharashtra, Goa and the southern states is available here. Go for it.