It is impossible to resist the seamless uniformity. The soft, creamy hues of vintage floral wallpapers next to the mezzanine floor aptly complement the white-and-pink splendour of Tutti Frutti icecream and Special Pudding at the iconic Kwality restaurant in central Delhi. The wallpapers are brand new, sparsely patterned by fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, while the icecream and pudding are since-inception fixtures on the menu. Both recall a time when Delhi first learnt to fine dine in the fun fifties, with authentic, Anglo-Indian "conti" food like Veg Au Gratin and Chicken a la Kiev, formal dress codes, high-teas, foreign brass bands and rollicking midnight dances.
Kwality, one of New Delhi's oldest restaurants, has been standing tall in Connaught Place (CP) for more than 75 years. Recently shut for extensive renovations, it reopened this month—complete with green retro awnings and red velvet curtains to revive old-fashioned glamour in a brand new lustre.
Says Divij Lamba, 31-year-old director of the Kwality group, while pointing to the mosaic tiles shipped in from Italy: "After independence, we weren't really an affluent society. There was no middle class. Dining out was an expensive and rare thing. There were just a few restaurants like Kwality, Gaylord, Embassy, United Coffee House." While famous standalone restaurants like Gaylord, Standard and Volga have shut in Delhi, some CP favourties like Kwality have defied the march of time and are fervently banking on their antiquity and historical significance to stay relevant in a colonnaded, Georgian-style commercial district now studded with flashy, fly-by-night cafes. "We undertook renovations to hearken back to that era and it is here on the walls everywhere. You cannot escape it anymore. Look around you, there is nothing really modern. Those tiny one-inch mosaic tiles we got from Italy, they are 80 years old. Behind the velvet curtain, it is a different world."
Behind velvet curtains at the entrance, the gleaming interiors unveil wooden period furniture, piano lounge and a typical maharajah style polo bar littered with original antiques of cups and trophies. An infantry soldier's uniform from the Napoleonic era hangs next to the stage where live music plays. A pianist comes in every day during high tea and jazz bands enliven the night with classic standards. While their most well-known dish chhole bhature continues to be made by the same cook for the last 40 years, Kwality has hidden gems no one really talks about. The mulligatawny soup and the fluffy cheese balls are a must try. Chefs from Mumbai's Gaylord were flown in to perfect the mash potatoes recipe which is generously offered with grilled fish. Patrons can now relish chicken ala Gaylord, avadhi nalli, masala lamb chops, high tea kebabs and finger sandwiches, Irish stew and fish mausallam—dishes newly introduced in the revamped menu.
There are close to 70 original photographs of CP by the famous photographer Madan Mahatta on the walls encapsulating over 40 years of Capital history and post-Independence lifestyles with strong colonial influences. These black-and white pictures include the flamboyant Pishori Lal Lamba, co-founder of Kwality and Divij's grandfather, smiling radiantly in London's Gaylord with George Harrison, Peter Sellers and Pandit Ravi Shankar on New Year's eve in 1972. There is another where spectators comprise Indira, Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi who sit back and enjoy a Pierre Cardin fashion show at New Delhi's Ashoka Hotel. Not to miss is the iconic picture of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi stopping by for Kwality ice cream at India Gate.
In fact P.L. Lamba, when he migrated from Lahore to Delhi in 1940, started off Kwality as an icecream parlour in Regal building with his business partner Iqbal Ghai. They offered handmade icecream under the `Kwality' brand and went on to open fine dining chains like Gaylord and Kwality in India and overseas—the ice cream brand Kwality was sold off to Hindustan Unilever in 1994. Divij still remembers the accounts of his grandfather's initial struggles to launch and popularise the famous Indian ice-cream brand. "He used to handcrank the icecream in what is now the garage of this restaurant. He would wrap it up in butter paper and put it on his bicycle and literally go door to door selling it. And his biggest complaint was how it would sometimes melt, much to the chagrin of customers," says Divij. Today, the no-fuss Tutti- Frutti on our table is made with Kwality Walls ice-cream for the sake of nostalgia.
P.L. Lamba passed away at 97 last year. Looking around, Divij is certain his grandfather would approve of Kwality restaurant's new innings.
