21 Gun Salute

By Deepti Khanna

Photography: Courtesy the restaurant

 

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The interiors of this Gurgaon-based restaurant transports diners to the era of the Raj…

How do you share the joy of 200 vintage cars, 88 bikes and 4000 vintage photographs? Well, as Madan Mohan Yadav, connoisseur ad proud owner of ‘21 Gun Salute’ tells us, by treating the masses to a royal experience – food, ambience and service – laid out regal style!

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This fine dine restaurant in Gurgaon ensures that its patrons feel like kings and queens while enjoying their maharaja meal amidst memorable old-world sovereignty. With a collection of over 13 years to share, the cars and bikes – displayed in twos on each occasion and diligently changed every month – form the perfect foil to the menu that boasts dishes from the royal kitchens of India.

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Predictably, the ambience is totally in synch with the thematic with the palatial 6000 sq. ft divided into three dining halls – Lakshmi Niwas Palace, Vijaymandir Palace and Umed Bhavan Palace, where videos of the respective palaces are played on large drop-down screens. Despite the interiors being identical, the collection of photographs in each dining hall lends it a distinctive character.  

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Wooden floors, jaalis, archaic artefacts, and a plethora of arches with dim lights silently let the photographs, vintage cars and bikes take centre stage. The spots where the cars are parked have been placed under huge domes with patterned floors underneath, ceremoniously lit and decorated to ensure that these become the highlight of the dining experience. In fact, the main car display is designed to look as if the car is parked in the porch of a fort! 

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In tandem, the other areas in the restaurant are underplayed by their lighting and seating arrangement.  Incidentally, the privacy and open space offered to each diner constitutes a unique feature of this restaurant. With carpet area of 6,000 sq feet, the restaurant accommodates only 175 people. “Booth and regular seating create small zones that ensure privacy,” informs Jatinder Malhotra, the architect of the project. “In fact,” he concludes, “The biggest challenge faced on the project was to create the illusion of height.”