Venue: Vyapar Kendra, Gurgaon
Date: 2 March, 2016

To satiate the never ending appetite of diners in Delhi Gurgaon, restaurateurs are coming up with new concepts and ideas frequently. Some work and some don’t but a new theme definitely manages to entice the diners to try the place.

One such bizarre theme is executed at “Lockup” – Yeah it’s a restaurant in Vyapar Kendra, Gurgaon. The restaurant can actually be taken for a lock up from outside… They have a rusted confiscated looking car outside, hanging chains on stairs etc. Once inside, the gimmick goes to another level altogether what with the servers dressed as prison inmates and the moment you sit down you are behind the bars as they close the gate… and did we mention the hanging handcuffs!

The overall theme is fun – dark but not gloomy. Notwithstanding the prison look, they have managed to make the place peppy and youthful. And we don’t mind being behind the bars if the food served is delicious. 🙂

We started with a Smoked Chicken Salad, Garlic Chicken Kebabs and Fish Tikka. To gulp these down we had Fresh Lime Soda and Aam Panna. We liked the starters and the fact that the ingredients were used in moderation. They did not go over the top with mirchi in kebabs and big thanks for that. Moreover drinks were also subtle in taste and the sugar was not overpowering the taste of lime and mint.

For main course we ordered Murg Massalam, Daal Makhani and Lockup Waali Daal which was home style yellow daal. We had these with Plain Naan. On their recommendation we also tried Rogan Josh. Daal Makhani could do with a little bit of less salt. Rest was all good.

We were told that their Murg Mussallam may not be totally authentic as they have tampered with the dish a bit. We loved the honesty and this turned out to be the best dish for us in the main course. They had a few basic desserts as well but we skipped those as we were full and totally satiated with our dinner.

The staff is courteous and attentive, though we felt the service time was a little longer than we would like. All said and done we had a great evening and were happy that we had the courage (pun intended) to dine at Lockup.