IKI & GAI

Vijay Saini

5 months ago

5.0

Mr. manager is there to guide you through the whole menu , also they have popcorn 🍿 when you order any cocktail 🍸, go and ask for bhavin I am sure you experience is good over here , try their standless glass when you order any wine , menu is full of many things .

Abhishek Sankritik

3 months ago

5.0

If you don’t come here to have the drinks you’re missing out. Sameed and Abdul let us play around with the music and were awesome servers.

Abhinav Saroha

4 months ago

5.0

Their service is really good especially sambit, he was so warm and welcoming

Rahul Prabhakar

3 months ago

3.0

The Classics, Reimagined There's a certain smugness that pervades the cocktail scene these days. Everyone, it seems, is obsessed with provenance, with small-batch this and artisanal that, with smoke and foam and elaborate garnishes that require tweezers to place. It's all very impressive, of course, but somewhere along the way, we seem to have forgotten that a great cocktail doesn't need to announce itself with theatrics. It just needs to taste bloody good. Which brings me to Iki & Gai, a bar that has decided to do something rather clever. Instead of chasing the latest trend or inventing ever-more-baroque combinations, they've gone back to basics. Well, sort of. The concept is deceptively simple. The bar world generally acknowledges six essential cocktails as foundational to understanding mixology: the Old Fashioned, Martini, Daiquiri, Sidecar, Manhattan, and Whiskey Highball. While the International Bartenders Association now recognizes 102 official cocktails (though the actual number in existence is anyone's guess), Iki & Gai has chosen to play with thirteen classics, categorizing them rather cleverly into Pre-War, The 90's, and Post-Covid eras. It's a timeline of drinking culture, really, and it tells you something about how our palates and our priorities have evolved. What I particularly appreciated was their lack of pretension about the whole thing. Yes, they have their creative riffs on classics, but they'll also happily serve you your favorite spirit straight up or with a mixer of your choice. And if you have something specific in mind, the bar team will make it for you without the sort of theatrical sighing that some mixologists employ when you dare to order off-menu. Now, to the drinks. The Dadi Issues caught my attention immediately, and not just because of the name. This was a riff on a margarita, made with Las Maracas Reposado, green chili, jalapeño, amchoor, jaggery, lime, and pickled onion. On paper, it sounds like it might be trying too hard. In practice, it was a revelation. The green chili and jalapeño provided a slow-building heat that the jaggery tempered beautifully, while the amchoor added that distinctly Indian tang. The pickled onion garnish seemed odd until you tasted it with the drink – it cut through everything with a sharp, vinegary punch. This is the sort of drink that understands fusion without becoming confused. The Berry Secretive was an altogether different beast – a sparkling wine cocktail with blackberry, raspberry, black currant, and caviar pearls. Yes, caviar pearls. It could have been gimmicky, but the caviar added these little bursts of umami that played surprisingly well against the fruit's sweetness. It's the kind of drink you order when you want something celebratory but not cloyingly sweet. And then there was Bubba Ciao, which brought Cajun spice to 1800 Blanco tequila, Aperol, tepache, and Mikiano limoncello, with an option to upgrade to Patron Reposado. The tepache – that fermented pineapple drink – gave it a funky depth, while the Cajun spice added warmth without overwhelming the citrus notes. It was balanced in the way good cocktails should be but rarely are. The food, when it arrived, held its own. The Death Chicken Wings lived up to their dramatic name – bhut jolokia will do that – and while I'm generally skeptical of the arms race toward ever-hotter food, these had actual flavor beneath the heat. The Mustard Chicken Breast was more refined: tender chicken with cream cheese, paired with vegetable fritters and a malta sauce that added a gentle sweetness. And the Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart, served with chocolate ice cream, was exactly what you want after all that heat and spice – rich, indulgent, unapologetic. But no place is perfect, and Iki & Gai has its missteps. The Piggyback, a cocktail made with white Penja pepper, pork lard (yes, really), Creyente mezcal, orange chocolate, Campari, and herbal liqueur, sounded intriguing but ultimately didn't work. The pork lard added richness but also a slightly greasy mouthfeel that fought with the Campari's bitterness. It was the sort of drink that valued novelty over drinkability – always a mistake. The Fish & Chips disappointed in a different way. Sole fish with raw banana chips and curry sauce should have been a brilliant fusion play, but the banana chips turned soggy too quickly, and the curry sauce, while flavorful, was too heavy for the delicate fish. It's the kind of dish that probably looked great in concept but didn't quite translate to the plate. Still, these are quibbles. What Iki & Gai gets right is more important than what it gets wrong. It understands that you can respect tradition while still playing with it, that creativity doesn't require abandoning drinkability, and that a good bar should be as comfortable making you a simple gin and tonic as it is crafting something more adventurous. In a city full of bars trying desperately to be the next big thing, there's something refreshing about a place that's content to do the classics well, with just enough of a twist to keep things interesting. That, ultimately, is what good drinking is all about.