United Coffee House - Connaught Place - New Delhi

I have had a great experience at the UCH Rewind Gurgaon and so obviously visited this place with high hopes. An iconic restaurant this is one of the old school fine dining restaurants in Central Delhi. But the service is plain pathetic. The managers and staff are so smug and haughty that they serve you as a favor. Even the artificial smiles they may put up show scorn and contempt. They have ruined a perfectly good place with decent food. I say decent because there is nothing very special about the food if I compare the costs.

 The Mathur Chicken Chaat has a good dressing but it was after 3 bites of capsicum and onions that I actually found a piece of chicken. The Ajwaini Mahi Tikka is a recommended dish. I found it be perfect. Well cooked and well presented. Next, we ordered Almond Crusted Chicken Strips but the manager overruled the decision. Yes, it was available but the manager strongly recommended the Stroganoff and canceled the fried chicken order. I don't like Stroganoff much because of my bias towards wheat bread than rice but the good news was that it came with some bread I could butter and eat. Didn't like the rice but chicken seemed good. The bad service continued downhill and I had to wait like 30 minutes before pleading someone to take my dessert order. UCH Rewind has a similar menu and in Gurgaon, they serve desserts to die for. Here you may die waiting to place your order. But we thought the dessert could save the day somehow. All we got was a tutti-frutti sundae which was more vanilla ice cream than anything else. The Moong Dal halwa was good and came placed on a tart but had vanilla ice cream for the company I couldn't understand why.

In drinks, they have cocktails which are way too sugary to be called cocktails. More of Sherbets. The manager recommended a Margarita which tasted like Blue Curacao Syrup on Ice. Rose Wine Sangria too lacked in buzz. What is recommended here, however, is the coffee. This is a Coffee House and the coffee is great. The Mexican Cold Coffee with chocolate is a great try. 

I have been to several fine dining and old-school coffee houses this place is bad service only because the managers feel that footfall will remain robust come what may. They don't need to walk the extra mile or mentor their staff to do the same. It's a sad part of an otherwise good story of what UCH is and also an integral one at that.