Red Monkey, Defence Colony, New Delhi

[Rated: 2.5/5]
Defence colony market offers plethora of dine-in options catering to all tastes and pockets. Dhiraj & I decided to try this relatively new resto-pub with an eye catching name, ‘Red Monkey’.

The small 30-seater restaurant located on the second floor is nothing with whom one falls in love at the first sight, but the ambiance slowly grows on you. The lemon grass aroma, dim lighting created using mix of modern fancy lights and traditional candles, and some great music slowly relaxes you in its own world. The menu set on the back drop of a bill-book offers some interesting options chosen carefully by its widely traveled owners.

We ordered Green Fairy (Rs350; Gin, white wine, mint and green apple) and the Red Monkey Iced Tea (Rs 350; LIIT with a twist of iced tea in place of coke). Both the drinks were potently refreshing and relaxing. The Honey Bee (Rs350; Vodka, Lime juice, ginger ale, honey and Hazelnut liquor) had a velvety texture but the overuse of honey made it too sweet for my taste and remained untouched. The Mojito (Rs325) at Red Monkey is normally served with fresh sugarcane juice but due to the non-availability of the same we went for watermelon Mojito which was a refreshingly well-made drink. Since the sugarcane juice is procured from outside I wonder if the freshness can be guaranteed for the late-night parties.

Fish Hong Kong (Rs330) was pan fried and not steamed as it is normally served. Crispy Wasabi Vegetables (Rs 219) had no kick of wasabi, and we wanted to use the tissue paper to wipe off the overflowing oil. Popcorn Prawns (Rs359) was served with French-fries and after 6-7 small prawns we were only left with the unsalted non-crisp French Fries. We wanted to try the prawns wrapped in bacon, but they weren't available and the UnChicken Nuggets (Rs309) which we were told are made of tofu, turned out to be soya chunks. It's clearly a case of lack of training if the restaurant cannot correctly announce its basic ingredient.

Popcorn Prawns

Crispy Wasabi Veg

Fish HongKong

Unchicken Nuggets

The veg Tom Yum soup (Rs169) was nice; light and mildly spiced to not over-power the other ingredient. Only for the academic purpose I would like to highlight that the Red Monkey had used the name ‘Tom Yum Goong’ which is incorrect. There cannot be a veg option if the Goong is used, as Goong/Kung means prawns. The Thai Red curry (Rs309) used fresh ingredients and tasted good, though with mellowed spices. I like my Red Curry to be hot which it wasn’t. Only thing we truly appreciated was the warm Toffee Pudding with Vanilla ice cream (Rs199); Moist Date & Banana cupcake served warm and topped with mildly heated toffee sauce. Having been to Chilli Seasonss, a restaurant below Red Monkey, I am sure the dessert didn’t come out of the Red Monkey’s Kitchen.

Veg Tom Yum

Toffee Pudding

Red Monkey displays interesting pictures of the owners and reflects their personal likes and dislikes in artifacts, paintings, drinks and foods. Each drink has an explanation with a name of one of their friend, creating curiosity amongst the first timers to know more. Just like ambiance wish they had paid a little more attention to other aspects of food business.