First Look: Farzi Cafe Returns, Marks a New Era of Indian Dining

At Cyber Hub, Gurgaon—where restaurants arrive loud and fade fast—Farzi Café has chosen evolution over nostalgia. When it first opened here in 2014, Farzi didn’t just launch a restaurant; it reshaped how a generation consumed Indian food. Under the vision of Zorawar Kalra, Farzi made Indian cuisine playful, provocative, and aspirational—an idea that resonated deeply with young, urban India.

Now, after an eleven-and-a-half-year run, a four-month shutdown, and a complete rethink, Farzi returns to its original address not as a revival act, but as a more self-assured, finely tuned version of itself.

Ambience: Grown-Up, Grounded, Still Cool

The new Farzi Café feels warmer and far more intentional. An upscale, inviting space with bespoke tiles, sculptural lighting, tactile surfaces, and vibrant artworks displayed on the wall. The colour palette of rust orange, maroon red, dark green, and beige in the interiors and the custom-designed uniforms of the staff in a dark green shade with the new Farzi logo come together to create an intimate environment, where you can let your guard down and have a hearty meal with your friends and family.

This is not a room that tries to impress at first glance. Instead, it rewards attention. It reflects Farzi’s own journey—from disruptor to cultural mainstay—while retaining the youthful energy that has always been its calling card.

Food: Nostalgia, Rewritten with Precision

Farzi’s culinary philosophy has matured without losing its sense of fun. The classics remain untouched—Dal Chawal Arancini, Parle-G Cheesecake, Prawn Tempura—anchors for loyalists who helped build the brand. Around them, newer dishes explore India’s regional vocabulary with a global lens: ghewar, a traditional desert transformed into chaat, a typical tomato chaat flirting with caprese, Jalebi, that most indulgent of Indian sweets, gets a savoury rewrite—dusty with nachos, cheese, and peri-peri spice, crackling with texture, and paired with a chilli cheese dip that makes the combination strangely irresistible.

Even the familiar is re-engineered with care. The dahi kebab is upgraded with cream cheese folded into hung curd for added richness, resting on a bed of ker sangri pickle softened with mayonnaise—a small but clever shift that elevates both texture and depth. The chicken waffle is a standout: Japanese karaage-style fried chicken perched on a crisp waffle, finished with a fermented honey-chilli glaze.

The main courses lean into regional storytelling with clarity. A kosha mangsho arrives with fragrant basanti pulao, evoking Kolkata without nostalgia overload. The Madras Railway Chicken Curry, rooted in British-era culinary history, carries gentle coconut notes and is served with Manipuri black rice—an inspired pairing that bridges eras and geographies.

What emerges is a menu that respects memory without being trapped by it. Indian food here feels contemporary without trying too hard to prove it.

Beverages: Technique Over Theatre

The bar is where Farzi’s evolution is most pronounced—and most assured. The smoke, bubbles, and overt drama that once defined its cocktail programme have receded, replaced by a quieter kind of confidence. What arrives at the table looks deceptively simple; what unfolds on the palate is anything but. Spirits are coconut-infused, fat-washed, and layered with spice in ways that privilege technique over spectacle. The theatre hasn’t disappeared—it has merely gone backstage.

The space reflects this shift. There are two distinct bars: a long, commanding bar dedicated to cocktails, and a more intimate one for coffee and matcha, designed with Gen Z’s caffeine-forward rituals firmly in mind. Zoarawar Kalra refers to this forward-thinking programme as Quantum Coffee, explaining that it mirrors “the current tastes and preferences of our target demographic—which is technically everybody.” Coffee and matcha, he believes, are no longer supporting acts but central to how the next generation socialises, lingers, and returns.

The cocktail list is intentionally tight: eight signature drinks inspired by eight Indian cities, each chosen for its cultural and culinary impact. The result is a menu that reads like a liquid travelogue. There’s a Hyderabad Biryani—a surprisingly elegant tequila-based cocktail infused with plum, tonka bean, and biryani spice, served with a raita sphere for context and contrast. Gurugram arrives clean and contemporary, built on white-chocolate fat-washed vodka with jalapeño heat and jasmine-scented soda. Kolkata Sweet and Sour balances JW Blonde with gondhoraj lemon and Angostura bitters, equal parts nostalgia and polish.

Even the non-alcoholic programme refuses to be an afterthought. Coffee and matcha—sourced directly from farms near Fukuoka in Japan—are treated with the same reverence as the cocktails, becoming canvases for Farzi’s now-familiar idea of farzification: a playful intersection of memory, science, and craft.

RR Verdict

Farzi Café’s return to Cyber Hub is less about reclaiming glory and more about owning growth. It’s a restaurant that understands its legacy but isn’t burdened by it—comfortable enough to edit itself, question its past excesses, and move forward with clarity.

In a dining landscape obsessed with the new, Farzi’s evolution proves something far rarer: staying power. And in doing so, it reminds us why it mattered in the first place—and why it still does.