The Emperor's New Clothes

Since it first opened its sparkling front doors in 1965, The Oberoi, New Delhi, has been the beacon of sashay and swank for the capital’s great and good, a torchbearer for gastronomic expression and excess. After a two-year time-out and full refurb, it’s back and looking to push the accommodation and fine-dining envelope to dizzy new heights . SIMON CLAYS, checks in to find out what all the fuss is about.

- Simon Clays

Peacocks. A year from now all you’ll see is bougainvillea and peacocks,’ It’s an emphatic statement, considering all I can see if I follow the wagging finger out beyond a sun streaked Sunday haze is the line of a yellow wall and the first grasps of an arboreal invasion.

But then, I’ve been a guest of The Oberoi, New Delhi for under a day. Jay Rathore, Vice President and General Manager of the property, has been squirreling away at the project for at least two years and heading up the place for a decade. I guess, if anyone can see the future for Delhi’s oldest luxury property, it’s him.

He’s a bit of a peacock himself. As sartorially immaculate as the hotel corridors he haunts; he’s waxed moustache and cravat like he just stepped off the set of a British black and white classic. An amalgam of a rasping Terry

Thomas coupled with the cotton bud tones of Ian Carmichael.

We take lazy coffee and chat with idle deflection about the challenges of revisiting threesixty0, one of the city’s most popular venues.

‘Threesixty0 started out as a new concept. A brand within a brand within a brand. When it opened it was the most stylish restaurant in the city, it was fresh, the type of food it served, ahead of the curve.’

There is an element of ‘If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ where threesixty0 is concerned. I knew about it long before it knew me. It’s an institution. A legend in its own lunch time. A place for the bright and the beautiful to graze. When I enquire about a reservation, at first glance I see that hasn’t changed too much.