TLR Cafe, Delhi

TLR (The Living Room) Cafe
Main Market
31 Hauz Khas Village
www.tlrcafe.com
4608 0533 / 44

TLR Cafe is a comfortable hidey hole in the middle of Hauz Khas Village. You have to negotiate some tricky stairs to arrive here, but its worth the climb. It operates as a cafe during the day with board games on offer and post sundown it morphs into a lounge/bar.

TLR is split across 3 levels. The lowest has darker lighting, well suited for the night with space for the live band. The next level feels brighter and airier as it has more natural sunlight coming in. The highest level is open air which is mostly used as a smoking zone in the current weather conditions.

They sometimes have live bands playing. The events section on their website is temporarily silent, but they promise to start updating this section sometime soon.

We revisited TLR a few days ago, as we had loved our first visit to this place in January. The prices have shot up in the last few months, but the taste remains as wonderful as before.. The pollo cilantro was 395rs a few months back, now its 450Rs. Its half a chicken marinated in a corriander and chilli sauce, served with roast herbed potatoes and some grilled veggies on the side.

The last time we were there, we had a Lemon Chicken Soup for 180rs, that was a comforting and filling broth with delicate well balanced flavours. This time, we ordered a T-Total and T-ease  (black and green ice teas with lemon grass and basil and ginger and mint) for 100rs each. Very refreshing.

As starters we ordered the Sea Biscuits (370Rs) - Thai inspired fish cakes, again very delicately flavoured with a bit of garlic mayo to round up the flavours. We also tried the Spicy Porn Cuffs (twist on corn puffs) for 265Rs - a vegetarian dish of roasted corn kernels served in little spring roll pastry bases. Very tasty, but a little difficult to pop into the mouth in one go. It was fun watching the kernels drop and roll as we attempted to manouver the bite right into these spicy and tricky buggers.

For dessert we had the Creme Brulee (195rs) and Hot Chocolate Souffle (was 160rs, now 235rs) which sufferred a bit from the fluctuating electricity problem.

The last time I had the chocolate souffle it burst open with some gooey chocolate pouring out from the inside. But this time, since the power went off, when my souffle was in the oven, it came out cooked through and through. While the taste was still great, I do love the molten chocolate goo more.

Service Charge of 10% and VAT at 12.5% and (20% for alcohol) will be tagged on to your bill.

The menu has a lot of hot and cold coffees, teas, fruit juices and smoothies on offer if all you want is to cool down with a nice drink after trudging around the Hauz Khas village and ruins. There are a large variety of cocktails and beers on offer too.

Pastas, sandwiches, risottos, burgers are some of the other items on the menu, which is inspired by world cuisine. So be ready to try out something new.

The food is awesome, TLR offers something different in a city where Kebabs and Indian-Chinese restaurants rule the roost. The only thing that could make this place better was if it had a view of the ruins or the deer park next door.