Jusht Gorge

With cuisines from around the world on its menu, the new eatery in Noida's corporate district leaves you food drunk.

The name Jusht Imagine for a restaurant may seem a bit incongruous — until you read the menu — but more on that later. Located in the corporate heartland of Noida's Sector 63, the restaurant has a typical retro cafe look — vintage Hollywood posters, crumbly white brick walls, pop art and old-style fans.

The menu is a collage of food items from around the world, with a blatant disregard for segregation. Correspondingly, in the starters section, Chicken Quiche sits cheek-by-jowl with Chicken Shish Touk and Keema Pao. Which explains the appellation 'Jusht Imagine', though we discover another reason for the slight slur at the end of the meal.

For starters, we go with Chicken 65 and the aforementioned Shish Touk. Having lived near the border of Andhra Pradesh for a few years, we are familiar with the ins and outs of the spicy Hyderabadi bar snack. The fiery red Chicken 65 served here is clearly from the same gene pool as its South Indian progenitor. The chicken is spicy and redolent with the aroma of curry leaves, with a crisp texture on the outside, giving way to tender, juicy victual. The Shish Touk, quite palatable in itself, is still sort of an anti-climax after the heady Chicken 65. However, its accompanying mutabal (eggplant dip) is fantastic, specially when spread liberally over the pita bread.

For our mains, we order a potion of Thai Prawn Curry and Rice, as well as a Mutton Rara Pasta. While we don't normally approve of such fusion shenanigans, this particular example literally makes us eat our words, along with prodigious amounts of Penne swimming, nay floating languorously, in a thick Rara gravy and shreds of tender mutton. Our fusion prejudices comprehensively thrashed, we look sheepish even as we wolf down the unholy, wholly delicious concoction. We flirt with the Thai curry and rice, even though in our hearts we remain committed to the pasta, with our attentions wandering due to the generous proportions of all the dishes. Not that the curry or rice are bad, but when compared to the pasta, it's somewhat akin to holding a candle to the sun.

... contd.

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