At Pendulo, the Pendulum Never Stops Swinging
Makhani Mole Artichoke
Let me tell you about the Makhani Mole Artichoke first, because once I describe it you'll understand what Pendulo is actually trying to do. It is a Bottega-style artichoke cooked in a proper Old Delhi makhani gravy and dressed with an escabeche-style salad. The makhani is the real thing, deep and slow and smoky in the way that only a gravy with genuine history behind it can be. The artichoke, which you might expect to resist the treatment, takes to it completely. It is the best thing I ate there and possibly the most interesting thing I have eaten in Delhi this year.
Rating: 5/5
The restaurant is on the first floor of Ambawatta One in Mehrauli and its name is Spanish for pendulum. That tells you the idea: a kitchen that moves between India and Mexico, between Old Delhi's smoke and Mexico City's street food, and takes both seriously. Fusion restaurants usually signal their ambitions and then fail to back them up. Pendulo mostly backs them up.
The room is worth noting. It is low-lit and genuinely comfortable, the kind of interior that holds two design sensibilities in the same space without making a song and dance of the fact. You want to sit in it for a long time. Given what follows, that is fortunate.
How It Starts
Mango Mirchi Ceviche
The Mango Mirchi Ceviche arrives built over bhang seed and coriander chutney, crowned with kalonji, and ringed with Arbol Agua, which is a chilli water of real tang. The chilli is precise, not decorative, and the whole thing lingers in a way that makes you pay attention. If you came in sceptical about mango in a ceviche context, you will leave converted.
Rating: 5/5
The Crispy Yam Tostada follows: pomegranate-and-jalapeño chutney layered with crisp fried yam, beetroot, jalapeño gel, kale and the tostada itself, served cold. It is bright and textural and wakes the palate without overwhelming it. Two dishes in, the kitchen has already told you what it intends to do. It intends to be serious.
Rating: 4.5/5
On the Drinks
The Kokum Mezcal
The bar understands what it is supposed to be doing, which is to say it understands the food. The Mango Kimado, coconut and tequila and mango syrup with pepper and Mexican spice, is sweet and refreshing and has an unexpected note of aampapad, that dried mango sweet that most of us grew up with. The Mexican spice does not quite cohere but the drink is likeable, so I would give it 4 out 5.The Kokum Mezcal is the better choice: kokum in three forms, syrup and gel and powder, sharpened with beetroot, and served with beetroot chips on the rim that are more than garnish. It arrives tangy and stays interesting.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Main Event
Mock-Meat Tortilla
The Mock-Meat Tortilla, vegan plant meat in chipotle with refried black beans, jalapeño and pickled onion, wants more crunch than it delivers, and the rasam element underneath it needs more volume. It is wholesome and generous but it is the one dish that does not quite reach the level the rest of the meal sets.
Rating: 4/5
The Cauliflower Picante is another matter entirely. Tortillas, fried beans, crisp-fried cauliflower, achaari masala, water chestnut, apricot salsa, fried potato and avocado crema. On paper this reads as excess. On the plate it is one of those dishes where everything finds its place and the cumulative effect is more than you expected. The flavours build slowly and stay with you. Order it.
Rating: 5/5
Then the Himalayan Gujicotti Cheese, against a pine-nut-and-cilantro mole finished with chilli garlic and matcha. The cheese is dense and the mole absorbs into it with a generosity that feels uncontrived. And then, as I said at the start, the Makhani Mole Artichoke. That is the one.
Rating: 4.5/5
The breads deserve a mention. The Matcha Salsa Laccha Paratha is crisper and better laminated than most parathas you will find in a restaurant setting. The Tahini chilli Naan has a heat that is easy to miss on the first bite and very obvious on the second. The Pahadi Punch Mini Dal, five hill lentils under a Zakir tarka with arbol chilli, has the kind of straightforwardness that mountain cooking always has when it is done without interference.
Rating: 5/5
How It Ends
Rose Firni Tres Leches
The Rose Firni Tres Leches folds two milk-soaked traditions into one dessert and it works. It is moist in the way a tres leches should be and the rose comes through clearly without sweetening everything into submission. It is a good ending to a meal that has, for the most part, earned one.
Rating: 4.5/5
Sandeep, who looked after our table, was attentive without being present at moments when you did not want presence. The service across the evening was warm, knowledgeable and unhurried. In Delhi, that combination is rarer than it should be.
Should You Go
The idea behind Pendulo is that Old Delhi and Mexico City are natural partners on a plate. It sounds like the kind of thing that gets written in a pitch deck and then falls apart in a kitchen. Here it holds together, and holds together well. There are things to fix: a crunch that goes missing, a spice that doesn't land as intended. But the cooking at its best is genuinely exciting, the room is one of the nicer places to spend an evening in Mehrauli, and the Makhani Mole Artichoke alone is reason enough to book a table. Go, and order that.
Editor’s Rating: 4.5/5
