Some of the other eateries have shut down ever since multiplexes became the norm in Delhi and PVR lost its uniqueness. Azzurro, thankfully, continues to flourish and is a great place for a bite of good, wholesome Mediterranean (mainly Italian) food. The restaurant has a glass door on the ground floor, with a corridor leading to a flight of stairs that take you to the restaurant on the first floor. Azzurro is divided into two sections: the lower portion, on the first floor, is the restaurant; from it, a flight of brushed steel steps lead into the bar. We weren’t really interested in the drinks (and anyway, with two children in our group, wouldn’t have been able to legally sit in the bar area). So we got a table for six in the restaurant and sat down.

Azzurro has a fairly minimal, unfussy but pleasing look about it: creamy-white textured walls, a few lampshades with coloured glass, and huge windows that overlook the bustle of the community centre. There are chairs with prettily thatched backs; solid wooden tables, and cream-beige leather sofas. I end up sitting on the sofa (not by preference: most restaurant sofas in Delhi are too low and though I’m relatively tall by Indian standards, I usually have my chin barely topping the table). Azzurro’s sofas are the correct height and just right: not too soft, not too firm. The table has a largeish bottle each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar; there’s also a bowlful of red chilli flakes.

We’re handed the drinks menu and the food menu, and simultaneously, a plate of assorted breads is placed in the centre of our table—they’ve probably noticed the hungry looks on our faces! The bread is lovely: long thin slices of French bread, and flavourful cubes of a bread full of oregano and sundried tomato. It tastes delicious with a generous sprinkling of olive oil, so we have a quick bite while deciding our orders. We eventually settle for shared starters and individual main courses.

Swapna, Deb and I decide to have a green apple iced tea each; Neeti has an aerated drink; Tarun and Gourab order a glass of wine each—Gourab a Reisling, Tarun a Pinot Grigio. The Azzurro wine list is more or less what you see in Delhi’s mid-level restaurants: not sensational, but pleasant enough for anyone who’s not a wine snob.
Our drinks arrive soon enough, and shortly after, so do the starters. Azzurro is primarily an Italian restaurant, but they have a few dishes from other parts of the Mediterranean too. Their hummus with pita is lovely, deliciously garlicky and grainy-smooth. We’ve also ordered risotto croquettes, which resemble suppli: leftover risotto shaped into a ball around a centre of cheese and then crumbfried. The Azzurro twist is to add a little bit of tangy chopped jalapenos to the cheese, and to serve the croquettes with a thick salsa of tomatoes and basil. Our third starter is garlic bread with cheese, tasty enough but a trifle short on cheese—I like my garlic bread to drip with cheese!

The starters are good, and even better, we don’t have to sit around twiddling our thumbs waiting for the main course to arrive. The plates come, one after the other, with Neeti’s lasagne (layered with Bolognese, béchamel, mozzarella and parmesan) and Deb’s margherita pizza coming first, along with Gourab’s order of chicken Cordon Bleu. Tarun, Swapna and I get our plates right after: all three of us have ordered fish dishes. Swapna’s is a sea bass with rocket pesto, served on a (very substantial) bed of risotto. The rocket pesto is so-so; the fresh rocket leaves on the side are gorgeously peppery, but the pesto itself lacks the distinctive flavour of rocket. The fish, however, is top class: massive fillets, very fresh, panfried to a crisp on one side and absolutely delicious. Tarun has an equally good sole in lemon butter: grilled sole served on a bed of finely chopped cooked spinach, with a little broccoli, a generous portion of mashed potatoes, and lemon butter sauce. Excellent. My choice—red snapper in chives cream sauce—also has excellent fish, very fresh and cooked just right. The sauce, a combination of white wine, cream and chives, tastes good but is a little puzzling: I can’t taste any chives in it. Also, there’s too little sauce, in my opinion. There’s broccoli on the side, and a large helping of a slightly tart (pickled?) red and white cabbage—something like choucroute.

I like the fact that all our servings are large enough to be satisfying, yet manageable enough to allow space for afters. Swapna, having just discovered she’s allergic to dairy products, sticks with a chamomile tea, but the rest of us order desserts. Neeti has a semi-freddo, a vanilla ice cream (they have daily specials, which our waiter helpfully recites for Neeti: raspberry and fig are also available). It’s creamy and nice, though the vanilla flavour isn’t too pronounced. Deb settles for something a little more exotic: a chocolate fondant. This takes some time to arrive, and they’ve obviously been putting in quite a bit of effort in assembling it. There’s a cup made of a thin shortcut-like pastry, filled with gooey chocolate that (according to the menu) is freshly baked. On the side is a bowl of crème Anglais.

Tarun, Gourab and I can’t resist ordering the Bailey’s cheesecake—described on the menu as boozey. On a thin circle of cake soaked in syrup (chocolate? Coffee? Can’t tell) sits a very light cheesecake with a strong, utterly delectable flavour of Bailey’s Irish cream. It’s topped with a paperthin crust of chocolate and is superb.

Azzurro is one of my favourite restaurants simply because it’s so mid-level. It manages to combine the friendliness and informality of places like TGIF or Ruby Tuesday with the food and service of more upscale eateries like Diva. The food’s good and, in some instances, even sublime. The music is muted, the atmosphere’s comfortable, the staff helpful without being oppressively fawning or stiff upper-lipped. You won’t feel out of place if you’re in jeans or sneakers, or take your children along. And the menu has a wide range of soups, salads, pizzas, risottos, grills, pasta, and sandwiches to offer.

Expect to pay about Rs 800-Rs 1,000 per person (excluding alcohol) for a three-course meal at Azzurro. The restaurant, by the way, has a branch at Gurgaon too, in the mall on Arjun Marg.