This Restaurant Is All About Ambience, Music and Drinks

Kylin has opened its doors at Aerocity Worldmark 2 as its window to the world. The restaurant certainly boasts of a wide range of sushis and dimsums with signature cocktails, making it a rather complete dining experience for one. 

Kylin is a story of passion and that shows in the kind of detail at each of the Kylin restaurants. SaurabhKhanijo, a serial entrepreneur, started his career with poultry farming, which is his family business, and then he diversified into several different areas, including a travel agency that he started in 1995. From here on, as an avid traveller and a person who enjoyed his dining experiences everywhere, he went on to open his first restaurant by the name of The Kylin Experience as Delhi's very first oriental lounge bar in 2005, and the rest is history. There are 17 outlets in all with both company-owned and franchise outlets. There are two formats that are scalable - a KylinExperience and the Wanchai format, which is a QSR format with easy Asian food.

Excerpts from the interview:

Why Aerocity? 

Purely because it is a window to the world. With a cluster of 4 and 5-star hotels around, Aerocity's Worldmark is an experience of an organised market. A brand gets a chance to showcase itself to global travellers and this is a learning experience as well as a pleasurable one for all of us.

Is the menu any different from other Kylins? 

We keep evolving and bringing out new and more experimental dishes on the menu, depending upon the location. DNA is the same but more modernised as we move to different places.

What kind of clientele do you have here? 

We have a good blend of both people coming from West Delhi, South Delhi, Dwarka and Gurgaon, along with people who are staying in the hotels there. When it comes to the kind of clientele, we get a steady mix of corporate executives during the week and families over the weekends but we definitely see a lot of corporates and young professionals who come in for that great Kylin experience.

Tell us a little about the décor at Kylin, Aerocity. 

We have kept the design vibrant with bold use of colours like blues and browns. A lot of emphasis has been given to the bar here as well so that it gives you more than just the food. Since it is a complete experience that people generally expect from a place today, the place has to go beyond food. It has to be about the ambience, the music and the drinks that can be served so as to make each visit memorable for each of our customers.

The competition at Aerocity is growing in a big way. How do you look at it for Kylin? 

There's no competition for a product like Kylin, which we feel is pan-Asian at its best with fresh ingredients and great cooking style by our chefs. We are almost always full during the afternoon as well as evenings. The reason mainly is to be able to ensure that there is a good overall experience at a reasonable price.