An old favorite, Ploof came onto the scene of Delhi's Belly when there was a need for a good sea food restaurant and it did well, quite well for a neighborhood sort of a joint. Reasonably priced, reasonable ambience but terrific food. Where else could you get Singapore Chilli Crab outside of Jumbos at Clark Quay or the Riverside cafes in Singapore? Where could you get a nicely done river sole in a lovely wine sauce or prawns in butter pepper sauce. Ploof answered all these questions and answered them it did - not so much by it's recipe but because of it's quality of ingredients. The sea food was flown in fresh into Delhi (a land locked city) regularly (and this was new outside of a 5 star hotel in 2002). The restaurant remained my favourite since then and I went there often until today. Today was my last meal at ploof and it was sad, not because it was a terrible experience but because it felt like a pet had just breathed it's last. Like they say all good things come to an end and so does ploof.
To elaborate on my experience from earlier today, I reached ploof fairly early - 7.30 to be precise and ordered the favourite chilli crab. Their first floor was closed for renovations (my guess given up to cut overheads and save on rental) and the server informed me that there was no sala pao with the crab - no sala pao with chilli crab is like now bathure with cholle. So that went out of the window and I had to change my main course order to plain old chicken mince basil sauce with sticky rice and a portion of prawns and chicken satay to begin with. The Satays arrived after 40 minutes (I sensed some turmoil in the kitchen - missing chef? run out of cooking gas? or missing management?). The dish seemed half cooked, so I left it just like that - half eaten. I waited patiantly for my main course and the worst chicken presentation I have seen arrived on the table with steamed rice (the server got my order wrong and got steamed rice). 2 bites is what took me to realise that the guard at the door was doubling as the chef in the kitchen or the cooking was being done on the bonnet of a car to cut costs - either way the chicken was half cooked (again) and a terrible foul flavour.
To mitigate my losses I left the dish, decided to call for the bill and head to Khan Chacha at Khan Market for a chicken tikka roll. The server came to ask me on the reason for leaving the food, which I explained to him in detail. He came back with a bill with all items on it, not even the steam rice which he got wrong was taken off. Bad food, poor service and worst of all terrible service recovery. In management school they teach you - if you mess up you must recover and the customer becomes yours forever cause they realise that you care about their needs and value how their experience was - at ploof this obviously was not the case - no service, no quality and no recovery.
May it Rest in Peace.
Food: 1.5/10
Ambience: 3.5/10
Service: 4/10
Overall: 2/10
Value for Money: 0/10
Repeatability: No
Cost: INR 750 / head without hard drinks inclusive of tips.
