Restaurant Review: Guppy by ai

How do you feel, when you visit an unknown place, for a cuisine you haven't tasted before, and you are completely unaware of whats in store..?? You either come home disappointed or you come home pleasantly surprised.

This Sunday, went by for me in a similar manner. We went for Guppy by ai, and I have to admit that I was completely unprepared in terms of what was I expecting. I had just no expectations, I had never tasted Japanese Cuisine before and didn't know what it would be really like, would be spicy, would it be mild, what kind of appetisers, what soups, what main course.. I just had no idea.

But yes, I was very pleasantly surprised indeed. The moment I stepped in, I was in awe of the place, the ambience itself is so overpowering, that one automatically starts to get curious on how the food would be.

Guppy has introduced this special Sunday Brunch Menu, so you don't have to toggle your head on what to order, you just sit back, relax and let the surprises come in. I didn't even bother to look at the menu, and surrendered myself completely and waited patiently for the course of meal to start.
My mother accompanied me for this surprise brunch, and unlike me, she did have a pre conceived notion, and wasn't really happy at my choice of coming for a Japanese Food Brunch.

As we sat down, the first thing that we were served was a variety of two soups, MISO SOUP and MUSHROOM SOUP, and it was a great start indeed. The soups tasted very different from the regular soups, but they tasted awesome. My mother too had her inhibitions dropping down and seemed pretty glad now.

The next in line was a set of cold appetisers, which included TENDERLOIN TATAKI, SALMON TATAKI, TOFU SASHIMI, POTATO SALADA, TAMAGO YAKI and SPINACH GOMA, barring the SALMOM TATAKI, which was a raw salmon, I tried everything and liked them all. TOFU SASHIMI was the best out of the lot, and its sauce was simply amazing.

Next was CHICKEN SHUMAI STEAMED BUN, and this cute little thing, tasted as good as it looked. They had options in PORK and MUSHROOM fillings as well in the steam bun, but I was content with my chicken bun and also by the time I finished it, I had already started to feel full.

And now it was SUSHI time, and to be honest, this word doesn't excite me enough as raw fish is something I am allergic too, but after a lot of convincing from the staff, I settled for a VEGETARIAN SUSHI and I have to admit, it was a delight. I did tempt me to try the non- vegetarian versions, but I somehow refrained.

But I can surely say, for those who like SUSHI, this is the place. As and how I was tasting these dishes, my curiosity for what next was increasing. The next thing to be served was the TEMPURA FISH, a perfectly golden fried fish, very mild in taste, but fried to perfection. The spicy mayo that accompanied it, made up for the mildness of the fish. I also tried the TEMPURA ROCK CORN, which was basically baby corns fried in the same way as fish and they were delicious too.

My tummy was really full by now, but the curiosity was in tact and I eagerly waited for the next surprise. The next section was for the grilled menu, and it included MUSHROOMS, SWEET POTATO, TOFU, CHICKEN and FISH. I settled for CHICKEN AND FISH, I did try the SWEET POTATO too, but it was way too sweet for my liking, as it wasn't dessert time yet. The grilled fish was just about ok, but the grilled chicken was definitely a hit. It was so tempting to even look at, that it made my son, who till now was only patiently watching me and my mom stuffing ourselves, get up and take a look at the chicken and expressed his will to now try it out.( He isn't much fond of international cuisines and hence was just toying with a coke in his hand watching me and my mom eat). He liked it instantly and asked for more and this kind of gave him some confidence in the overall cuisine and now he went on to try other things as well, and enjoyed two steamed buns after this.

The next was JAPANESE PIZZA PANCAKE CHICKEN, and it was simply awesome to taste, tender chicken on bed of fried potato, made it a unique combo but amazing to savour.

Now was the time for main course, I didn't have much space left to accommodate it, but I surely wanted to give it a try and hence asked for very small portions of the same.

The main course included CHICKEN CASSEROLE, NOODLES and GARLIC RICE, and all three of them were great to taste. Even my son liked them and by now was pretty excited with the JAPANESE CUISINE.

I was so delighted with the entire course of food, that I now desperately waited for the dessert. Desserts are the last part of any cuisine and it feels so great, when they end up being the best. The dessert platter was just amazing and each and everything was simply delicious. It included VANILLA ICE CREAM, CHOCOLATE CAKE, CHOCOLATE FONDANT and FRUITS. The ice-cream was surely not the regular vanilla ice cream that we eat, it had a very distinct taste, the texture and creaminess was just perfect. The cake was a mouth melting experience and chocolate lovers would surely fall for it. The fruits were OK, but the clear winner was the Chocolate fondant, I can't really explain, what it was, but it was amazing to taste.

This brought us to the end of this HAPPY SUNDAY BRUNCH and I am so glad that I went for it, and even more glad that I didn't set any expectations.

I have a special mention for the staff of Guppy's, they were more than friendly and accommodating. The service was great too.

On the beverages front, tried VIRGIN MOITO, VIRGIN MARY and JUST LIKE THAT( a guava drink), all of them were upto the mark and perfectly blended.

Overall I had a great fooding experience and I am definitely going there again.