La Dolce Eater

It's a lovely restaurant, long, with tables laid out with almost geometric precision, high glass walls on one side that look out on to the main concourse of the (Crossroads) mall and the four-storeyed high Mario Miranda drawing.

A little canal runs along the length of the room, the waters changing colours continuously, a coffee bar is in one corner, the scent of rich Italian coffee, one of the great aromas of the world. More than anything else, it is a place designed to eat, as Italian restaurants normally are. The motto of the place is: Slow food, please, we're Italian!

It has the best pizzas in town (country?). They are baked in wood fire ovens, the bottoms are a little dark, and there is a smokey flavour to them, part smokey, part burnt. The secret is the dough they use and Chef Walter Zanetti's not revealing the secret. But this I know, they don't roll the dough with rolling pins, they press it down with their hands, and then they pull the dough around to make it round, hence, if you see their pizzas they are not an exact round as they would be in a machine cut. Also, before putting in the oven, olive oil is sprinkled on them. They are of a standard size, about 10 inches.

In Italy, they don't have small, medium and large pizzas, they are all made for individuals. There is a large range of toppings though, with anchovies and capers; with tomato and ham, artichokes, mushrooms, clams and mussels; with smoked salmon and mozerella. Difficult to choose, so I asked the chef for his recommendation. The simplest is the best, and the first pizza ever made was Margherita, born in Napoli, fresh ripe tomatoes and good mozerella cheese, with a touch of oregano.

There are some outstanding desserts and a sorbet of fresh fruits. I like the one where they put fresh fruits at the bottom of the glass and a warm egg yolk mousse with marsala wine on the top of the fruits. The mousse warm, the fruits cool. I had that, and after that my espresso and biscotti. The coffee is specially grown for the restaurant in Coorg, Munnar and Kodaikanal (the organic vegetanles incidentally come from the Mariwallas's farm in Mahableshwar), and the biscotti is made the Italian way. It is a biscuit and it is very traditional Italian, you dip it in your coffee and eat it, or you dip it in chocolate sauce, in tiny cups made of chocolate, and eat it. Better still, you dip the biscuit in Vino Biscotti, a dessert wine specially made for the restaurant by Indage India. Then you let the chef kiss you on both your cheeks in Italian style, and go home. Bon nuit, or is that French!