One8 Commune: Virat Kohli's restobar that follows his cool, casual demeanor

One8 Commune in Delhi’s Aerocity is unpretentious and to the point. It’s the kind of restaurant at which Team India captain Virat Kohli would have hung out in his younger days. The time when real food was not called a cheat meal and Kohli still had long hair and a chubby face. One8 Commune is his brand. The hospitality right are co-owned and managed by his friend Vartik Tihara, who knows the Kohli of those days, and restaurateur Ankit Tayal, who also part-owns a triumvirate of Delhi’s new, go-to bars — Auro, Summer House and Mango Kitchen & Bar. Together, they can get a crowd drinking, eating and grooving in no time. But for now they are keeping it down. 

“We want this to be your everyday bar,” Tayal tells me on the fifth day of the restaurant’s opening. He is coming in hot from a busy weekend that saw over 250 reservations. But before you make yours, it is important to understand that One8 Commune is closer to Kohli’s casual demeanour than his current celebrity status.

It is difficult to equate a modern restrobar with a man who self-admittedly has not had a cheat meal (or real, tasty food, if you prefer) in over six years. But Tihara and Tayal have tried. Located along the right flank of the Bharti Worldmark 2 building in Aerocity, you can’t miss the multi-directional signboards that read One8 in black and golden, a brand that has become Kohli’s alternative identity. Inside, an equally conspicuous indicator of Kohli’s association is his signature — large, backlit with golden outlines against a plain white wall.

“We are also adding a page on the menu with Kohli’s favourite dishes on it,” says Tayal. Rajma-chawal is sure to find a spot but chole-bhature will likely be absent. In terms of cuisine, One8 Commune does not have a coherent identity. The menu is a curation of dishes from the north and the south with a bit of Chinese, Continental and Italian thrown in — the kind that would excite a diverse Indian palette. So you can start with a small plate of dimsum or bao, deviate to a chicken or spicy prawn pizza and find your way back to an Andhra mutton curry, all within one meal. 

The enterprising head chef Pawan Bisht is also unabashed about the hotchpotch menu. He made me try a signature sharing platter in sync with their “commune” concept, which is good enough for four full appetites. The chicken souvlaki and the chermula fish deserve a special mention — fresh and moderately spiced that retained the flavour of the fresh, locally sourced meat. The non-vegetarian selection comprehensively outdid the vegetarian parts: the mock meat (soy) was a bit too chewy for my liking and the falafel too crusty, but two bowls of fresh hummus — chickpea and especially the beetroot — made up for it.

Aerocity has several bars going gaga about cocktails. One8 Commune, too, has a collection of cocktails popularised in different eras  — the 1960s, the retro ‘70s and also the American prohibition — on the menu designed by mixologist Yangdup Lama. The Jack Dempsey, a hazelnut twist to the classic old fashioned is for the brave. Without the extra flavour, the drink was very balanced — not too diluted, the right amount of bitters, a hint of orange with a cherry on top. 

My over-the-top experiment of the day was a millennial cocktail called Short Tempered, a pleasantly surprising concoction of bourbon, spiced rum topped with maple syrup and a cold brew. I think it goes really well with the muddled delicacy that the restaurant tends to recommend. But besides the drink, the one thing I will go back for is the exceptionally crafted caramel cheesecake served with a side of vanilla and caramel popcorn. After much deliberation, it is now among my favourite desserts in the city.

One8 Commune is a duplex with a narrow balcony and an outside seating area. The furniture might not be very comfortable for long hours so expect to be moving around and mingling in a while. The music gets louder after 10 pm and so should you if you would like to get your words through. It already seems like a high-energy, everyday bar the owners talk about, where you will see cocktails being poured at the bar and large groups ordering by the bottle.

Delhi-boy Kohli’s new venture is a folksy version of his fine-dining Nueva Bar and Kitchen in South Delhi. Everything about this place is without a lucid character. Perhaps diversity is what they were going for. Commune might just be the word to describe it best.

A meal for two costs Rs 1,600.