Ed: We were recently invited to a sneak preview of the new menu at MingSingh. Briefly, it was spicy, interesting, satisfying and much better than before. MingSingh is undergoing renovation and their new menu is being transitioned to production. We’ll come up with another review and rating once we’ve tasted the production version of the good stuff we ate yesterday.
MingSingh is a 32 cover Indian Chinese roof-top restaurant at the Peppermint Hotel in Gurgaon. The plunge bath/mini pool and bar cabana alleviates the atmosphere and gives the place a bit of a carefree, holiday feel.
Pawan and I waded our way through a plethora of items on the menu including Thai Kai (295, under flavoured chicken pressed into crisp deep fried wonton wrapper cups), Prawn Crackers (195, Crisp deep fried Thai prawn wafers), Chicken Dimsum (425 for 8 pieces of badly wrapped steamed chicken dumplings), Prawn Salt and Pepper (275 – one of the better dishes, large prawns dusted with seasoned flour and deep fried, too much so), Pataka Chicken (295 – good, spicy, vinegary, very tender batter fried chicken in a thick spicy sauce), Vegetarian Khao Suey Soup (forgettable, vegetarian version included chopped boiled eggs!)… this isn’t going anywhere is it? We were hard-pressed to find anything we liked unconditionally, despite trying out numerous dishes.
Most dishes were quite juvenile in recipe and in name. For example, the Khao Suey Soup tasted exactly like the ubiquitous Lemon Coriander soup plus all the usual accompaniments of a Khao Suey tossed in. Similarly the Jungle Curry was a Thai Green Curry minus any chili heat. Similarly, the Chicken Schezwan was quite mild, despite MingSingh setting the tone with their spicy Pataka Chicken. Going on, the Sliced Fish and Broccoli Stir Fry didn’t have any stir fried fish; more likely steamed fish, heated with a raw tasting sauce, poured into a platter and topped with steamed broccoli. The names of dishes must be accurate, else one of these days we’ll be served boiled eggs and charged for Chicken Caviar.
The food at MingSingh is avoidable unless you’re going there to enjoy the great view.
