Ottimo at West View, ITC Maurya: The Italian Restaurant That Earns Its Name

Address: West View, ITC Maurya, Sardar Patel Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi

Phone: 011-30806291

Timings: 7:00 PM – 11:30 PM | Sunday Brunch: 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Meal for Two: approx. ₹6,600

Please call ahead to confirm current timings, menu and pricing before you visit.

Let's be honest — we South Delhi people know our food. We've eaten our way across this city and half the world. We can order a penne arrabbiata in our sleep, we have firm opinions about tiramisu, and we know instantly when something's the real thing and when it's just pretending. Our standards are high, and frankly, they've earned the right to be.

So with any new Italian restaurant, the real question for someone like us isn't whether it's nice. It's whether it can hold its own in front of a crowd that's genuinely seen it all. And Ottimo, sitting inside ITC Maurya in Chanakyapuri, clearly knows its job — it doesn't flinch, it doesn't try too hard, it just quietly gets on with being very good.

Start with the name. Ottimo means "excellent" in Italian. Naming your own restaurant "Excellent" is a bold move — the kind of confidence you only get away with if you can actually back it up. After one dinner here, I can confirm: it backs it up.

A Kitchen That Treats You Like a Guest, Not a Cover

From the moment you sit down, you feel looked after — the way you do at a good friend's home, except this friend happens to cook like a dream.

The centrepiece of the room is the Ottimo Square: a twelve-seater communal table under a dramatic blue wrought-iron chandelier, where solo diners are encouraged to sit together. It's a lovely, almost old-fashioned idea — and with the live music and the chefs working away in the open kitchen, it actually feels inviting rather than awkward. It's just as good for a big family lunch or a long dinner with friends.

      The things you'll notice first:

• Indoor seating for fifty — warm, unhurried, and refreshingly not loud.
• An al fresco area for another fifty, with a view of Delhi's green ridge so lush you'll forget the city outside.
• A stone pizza oven, a water body, and a vertical herb garden — and yes, the herbs on your plate were very likely growing on that wall an hour ago.

The Food: I Let the Chef Decide, and You Should Too

You've got two ways to go here. There's the à la carte Italian menu — antipasti, country soups, hand-tossed pizzas, risottos — or you can build your own four-course meal from West View's "offering of the day," cold buffet cart and grills included.

My advice? Do what I did and hand the entire evening over to the chef. No menu, no choices, no special instructions. Just let him cook. For someone who usually micromanages every order, letting go was the best decision I made all night.

• Lobster Salad — with vanilla pineapple, mustard coulis and avocado reduction. Pair the lobster with the pineapple in one bite, the cherry tomato in the next, the avocado reduction in the last. Three bites, three completely different dishes, each one leaving you wanting more.
• Parmigiano Reggiano Soup — creamy, cheesy, finished with olive dust and a parmesan crisp. The kind of soup you sip slowly because you don't want it to end. Easily one of the standouts on the table.
• Butter and Anchovies Ravioli — on a bed of cauliflower purée. The salty anchovy against the sweet purée just makes complete sense. It's the kind of pairing you don't expect to work, until it does, beautifully.
• Slow-Cooked Pork Belly — with red wine reduction and crackling powder. The detail is extraordinary; even the zucchini is cut into a roundel the size of a pea. A crispier skin and a slightly sweeter sauce would take it further, but it's a lovely plate as it stands.
• Panna Cotta with Fruit Carpaccio — don't skip this one. Served in a white dish, so at first all you see is the mango, kiwi and raspberry; the panna cotta is practically invisible. Dig in and there's a creamy little surprise waiting underneath. A perfect, happy ending to the meal.

And the bartender deserves a mention too — every cocktail is beautifully balanced. Not showy, just exactly right.

Final Verdict

This isn't a quick-bite kind of place. It's a sit-back, settle-in, let-the-evening-unfold kind of place — ideal for a celebration, a long family meal, or simply treating yourself to genuinely good Italian. By the end of my dinner, I wasn't thinking about the bill. I was already thinking about who I'd bring next time.

My ratings (out of 5) — Food: 4.0 | Ambience: 4.0 | Service: 4.5 | Overall: 4.0

That 4.5 for service says it all. The staff want you to have a good time, and that, more than any single dish, is what brings you back. Ottimo earns its bold little name. Go hungry, go curious, and let the kitchen surprise you the way it surprised me. South Delhi approved.