A sparkling glass walkway, massive crystal chandeliers, the best Italian marble and a décor in wood and glass help to make Spectra’s décor extra-special; Pic by Rupinder Sharma

Foodies can make a grand entry at Spectra, the glittering new restaurant at The Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon. They can walk the walk on a sparkling glass walkway — flanked by a display of some of the finest wines from across the world. Massive crystal chandeliers, black granite from Japan, the best Italian marble and a décor in wood and glass give the restaurant its fine looks — though at a whopping Rs 49 crore.

Spectra has gone multi-cuisine and you can pick and choose from five live stations that serve Japanese, Indian, Thai, Chinese and Continental cuisines.

(From top) Singapore chilli crab and leaf lotus steamed chicken are some of the delicacies rustled up here; Hiroyuki Hashimoto, the restaurant’s Japanese chef; Pix by Rupinder Sharma

An exclusive as exclusive can be experience here would mean booking yourself any of the three private dining rooms or planting yourself at the 16-cover Cristal Lounge that, as its name suggests, serves only Cristal champagne. Then again you could chill at the bar that serves cocktails made only with fresh fruits from Thailand. And yes, a meal for two comes at Rs 4,500. Opt for the buffet and you will pay Rs 1,575 (inclusive of taxes but minus alcohol).

As diners become more discerning, cutting-edge restaurants like Spectra are the trendsetters that are raising the bar for the fine dining excellence. Marut Sikka, restaurateur and food consultant, says: “People across the world pay top dollars for a good meal and New Age restaurants in India too are redefining the way people dine.”

Cut to The Lodhi Restaurant in Aman, New Delhi where diners can’t get enough of the tapas drummed up by chef Jonay Armas Armas from Spain. Tapas — a huge variety of all-Spanish appetisers or snacks that may be served in cold or warm — are finding new converts in the Capital.

The 85-cover restaurant is split over three levels with an open kitchen on all levels (each with its own wood-fired oven). The all-wood Tapas Lounge is accessed by stairs from the entry level of the restaurant which flaunts a leather ceiling. The leather look is replicated on the first floor that has plush leather flooring and a silver-leaf ceiling.

(From top) Chef Jonay Armas Armas dishes out exotic Spanish treats like gazpacho, a cold tomato-based raw vegetable soup at The Lodhi Restaurant; the first floor of the Lodhi Restaurant has a silver-leaf ceiling and luxurious leather flooring

Here a meal for two will set you back by Rs 6,500 to Rs 7,000. You begin with tapas (on weekends Armas whips up about 300 tapas or more per night) followed by some serious Spanish dishes: the main course could either be a roasted baby chicken with mango-ash salt crust, onions and potato purée or fish stew (Suquet in Spanish) with saffron potatoes, young spinach and fideos, the famous Spanish black noodles.

These cutting-edge restaurants are pulling out all the stops. The 225-cover, 16,000 sqft Spectra is open round-the-clock. The crockery has been handpicked from Germany, Italy and France. And when it comes to food, Vella Ramasawmy, the general manager of the hotel, is a perfectionist. “We believe luxury has no price and we have put the best of everything on the platter,” he says.

So, the breakfast menu has more than 25 cereals and a wide choice of milk in different flavours. The Sunday brunch spoils even vegetarians silly and serves up exotica like snow peas, Kenyan beans, Chinese cabbage.

The Japanese kitchen at Spectra flies in fresh ingredients thrice a week from Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market. “We don’t buy the ingredients in bulk but bring in small quantities and use them immediately,” says Hiroyuki Hashimoto, the Japanese chef. There’s more: the lamb and duck comes all the way from New Zealand, the seafood from Thailand and mud crabs from Singapore. Not surprisingly, the menu was six months in the making.

The same commitment — to the cuisine and dining experience — is reflected in The Lodhi Restaurant. Luxuriously done in steel, leather and wood, it’s completely in sync with the design scheme of the rest of the hotel.

A part of the gourmet experience here includes wine tasting sessions with the in-house cellar master, Kavita Devi Faiellai. Guests are taken through the Amanresorts’ Wine and Spirits Programme for which the chain has forged a partnership with producers of wine from different parts of the globe. These producers are developing brand extensions of their finest vintages exclusively for Amanresorts. The wine tasting happens every alternate Thursdays.

The restaurants are on a roll and over weekends usually register full houses. Says Sikka: “I see more such restaurants coming up in the near future.”