Manré Maza & Manré Meze

OK, before I get into sharing my experience at the famous (and insanely expensive) F&B joint – Manré, let me just say that as much as I love trying out new cuisines and experience new places, this one particular joint really did not do too much to impress me!

Manré, has its origins from a small town in the Champagne region of France. Now, for a bit of education on this region, sparkling wine produced in this region is named Champagne, not only because of the name of the region. The development process of these wines use a particular methodology called Methodé Champagnoisé and is not necessarily dependent on which region it is developed in, in France, till it is made using this process. It is only then, that the sparkling wine can be termed as Champagne. So basically, all Champagnes are sparkling wines, but not all Sparkling wines are Champagnes!

So, coming back to our topic of discussion, Manré is named after this town in the Champagne region of France. It was the brainchild of Ms. Ramola Bachchan and her partner KD Singh and was set up with the thought of offering to Delhi, what it had been missing for a long-long time – a luxurious dining out experience of international standards (ACCORDING TO THEM, NOT ME).

Now, what I found really fascinating was that Manré is situated in the MGF Metropolitan Mall in the Saket area of New Delhi. Great location, one would wonder! But what got my attention was that, MGF is not a mall I would usually go to (I love City Walk, like a million others in the city {its next door neighbor}) and frequent it more often than any other shopping area in the city; but then that’s me!). The entrance to Manré has about 2 – 3 bouncers (welcoming staff!!!), or maybe it was a rare occasion to have been stopped a multitude number of times since I had visited this place with female company on Christmas eve!!!

Anyhow, coming back to more important things - the ambience, the food and the service of the place. The welcome experience, as elucidated above was not worth remembering. Once you manage to get through the ‘welcoming staff’, you are directed to the elevator which takes you to the 4th floor. Off at the floor, there are as many staff clueless of what needs to be done, as there are guest’s (atleast the 1st timers). Now, Manré has been developed as a great party place, but what I fail to understand is why would they mix fine dining with loud music (the Lounge Bar)? I’m guessing the obvious – a lot of place, too much money to invest and no clue how to utilize it and develop a great place!

After being seated at the ‘completely deserted’ restaurant (except for the staff present!), we waited for almost 10 minutes and then had to call for someone to server us the basic first – Water! Now, ideally, this is something I would not usually nit-pik, however, considering there was no other guest present or being served, one would not appreciate having to ask for water and that also after 10 minutes of being seated. That’s the first thing everyone offers guest’s when they come home, correct me if I am wrong!

Having decided what we would like to have for dinner, we waited, yet again, to gain someone’s attention to come and take the order. Anyhow, the place was so loud that we, amongst the three of us had to talk loudly to understand what the other was saying and the order taker had to personally come to each one of us to take our orders. Guess where the noise was coming from? The lounge bar adjacent to the fine dining restaurant!!!

Once the food finally showed up, it was the least appetizing as far as presentation is concerned and decently luke warm, nor was the flavor that great. Infact, I don’t even remember what I had (which is a rarity). By now I am aware that I completely sound like a whiner and a narcissist pig, but when you are paying the kind of money that Manré charges, these are the basics one would expect!

Alas! Having heard so much about this great place, its sufficient to say that it fell way beyond short on the expectations, service and the food meter, for sure.