Surfing for food delivery outlets one day, I chanced upon a place called the Wild Wild West. Having grown up on a healthy diet of Westerns, the name appealed to me, instantly conjuring up an image of a swinging door and the sound of distant neighing. I looked at the menu, and it sounded good too. So I put on my Stetson, and placed an order.
Wild Wild West, I learnt, has three branches in Delhi. Now, of course, the restaurants are shut, but its food is being delivered through Swiggy and Zomato. The delivery menu includes pizzas, pastas, calzones, salads, and sandwiches. The main courses have dishes such as grilled vegetables with basil pesto sauce and smoked chicken fillets.
Grilled chicken Photo: Special Arrangement
We asked for a Meaty Submarine (₹350), with iceberg, onions, black olives and sundried tomatoes, chicken sausages, pork pepperoni and bacon bits, served with chipotle and mustard sauce; Grilled Chicken Breast in Cosmic Mushroom Sauce, with Grilled Vegetables (₹440), chicken peri peri with sautéed mushroom and herbed rice (₹400) and Spinach and Sundried Tomato Pasta (₹390).
My order was the submarine, for I have a long and happy relationship with this dish. I remember the juicy submarines I had at Cellars (which later turned into a place called The Parlour) in CP. This is essentially a bigger and thicker hotdog, with various kinds of fillings.
The chilli-lover at home enjoyed the peri peri chicken, which came submerged in a red sauce. I had a spoonful of the sauce, and found that while it was spicy, it was still not as hot as I would have liked it to be.
We had imagined something else when we ordered the grilled chicken, too. I’d thought the sauce would be on the side, but it came dunked in the mushroom gravy, which was just a bit too rich and creamy.
My submarine was excellent, though. It was well packed, and stuffed with enough meat to be called a meaty submarine. I enjoyed the crunchy iceberg and the tart sundried tomatoes, flavours and textures that went well with the meats. I liked the pasta, too (even though it was a bit too cheesy) and savoured the pine nuts that it had been garnished with.
Wild Wild West doffs its hat to the Indian palate. So in the pizza segment, while it has something called an Expatriate Pizza (with marinara sauce, mozzarella, baby corn, black olives, sundried tomatoes and jalapenos) and Sausage Fest Pizza, it also has Paneer Makhni Pizza and Butter Chicken Pizza. The menu includes a Butter Chicken Calzone and a Paneer Tikkalicious Salad.
I didn’t venture anywhere there, of course. We were in search of what is known (in some circles) as “Conti” food. Overall, I think we had quite a nice meal, which we ended with some desi home-made suji halwa (cooked in just a wee bit of oil and stevia).
And then, after my dinner, I pulled out an old, dog-eared Louise L’Amour. I fell asleep to the sound of distant gunshots and racing hooves.
The writer is a seasoned food critic
