The new restaurant in town is GING at Royal Orchid Central. The restaurant that takes half its name from Beijing, spans further East to serve an entire Pan Asian menu. The restaurant has all things Bangalore loves. Pan Asian cuisine, alfresco seating on the 10th floor in Central Bangalore, interesting cocktails, ambient music that still allows for conversation and of course, excellent service. The restaurant that used to be Paparazzi opened its doors on 24 August, 2017 after having been closed for nearly eight months.

We left our orders in the hands of the very able Chef Akhilesh Pathak and Restaurant Manager extraordinaire, Percy Thomas. Percy ordered us a few cocktails like The Thistle and the Ging Negroni that he recommends.

The evening was a typical Bangalore cool that was the result of the light rains. The tree lined Cubbon Road was in full view on one side and a faint metro approaching the Swami Vivekananda station was on the other side. We sipped our cocktails while chatting with Chef Pathak. Having worked pretty much all over the world, Chef brings his experience to Bangalore. He learnt the art of European cooking in Paris, American fishing in Alaska, South American cuisine across most of South American and Asian cooking in Hong Kong.

Chef sent us the Rock Prawn Tempura with a Spicy Mayonnaise and Red Chilli Chicken, where the red chillies are actually Guntur Chilli. From the Dim Sum menu the Prawn Har Gau comes with a variety of sauces to suit your palette. There is also a Hawker Grill menu from which we tasted the Tender Lamb Chilli.

For main course, our trusted alliance Percy Thomas ordered the Massaman Curry and the Penang Curry. Staples with this were a Kahua Japanese Sticky Rice and a flavourful Hibachi Rice with enoki and shiitake mushrooms.

Chef came back to join us for dessert with his secret special, Mochi. Chef seemed to like watching the expression on peoples faces when they first bit into the Mochi. He seems proud of the frozen dessert of ice cream wrapped in rice paper roll. As he should be because it takes a little bit of engineering the dish to perfection that ensure a melt in the mouth texture.

Green Tea with jasmine infusions is always a nice close to a large and fulfilling meal.
Paparazzi has quickly become a faint memory of the past in the era of GING.

Other highlights include private dining area, happy hours with Dim Sum and Baozzi and a power lunch menu at Rs 599.