Selva is the Nikkei-Mexican mash-up that Delhi didn’t know it needed

Aerocity has become very good at collecting familiar names. There’s Magnolia Bakery, Daryaganj, Olive Garden and a growing list of restaurants that make the neighbourhood a fairly dependable place for dinner, even if it hasn’t always been where Delhi goes looking for something exactly new. For that, many of us have been known to make the drive to Gurugram.

Selva, which launched last month at 4 Worldmark, is making a convincing case for staying on this side of the border. It also arrives at a point in Delhi’s current restaurant cycle, when Nikkei food seems to be having a committed moment. After Latoya and Hikki entered the conversation last year, Selva is the latest restaurant to borrow from the Japanese-Peruvian cuisine. But calling it a Nikkei restaurant alone would be doing it a bit of a disservice. The menu also moves through Mexican cooking, Peruvian ingredients and Japanese techniques, sometimes all on the same plate.

Sarthak Sidana, who co-owns Selva with his brother (the duo is also behind the sports bar and grill chain Underdoggs) says the idea came partly from his brother, who introduced him to Mexican and Nikkei food. “I fell in love with the freshness, the spice and the ingredients,” he says. The team spent time researching the cuisines and sourcing ingredients before bringing the concept to Delhi. For Sidana, Selva is also a step away from the easy familiarity of Underdoggs which offers universal favourites like kebabs, fries and dim sums among others. “With Underdoggs, we already had a casual version of the restaurant. I wanted to challenge myself and do a fine-dining version,” he says.

The restaurant’s name means jungle or forest in Latin, although Selva thankfully avoids the usual restaurant shorthand for tropical. There are no plants hanging from every available surface or leaves being used to disguise the fact that a wall is, in fact, just a wall. “We didn’t want to make the place very green,” Sidana explains. “I thought that [design] was abused and overdone. We wanted something more earthy, textural and elemental.”

Designed by Renesa Architecture Design Interiors Studio, which has worked on interiors for Hikki, Baang and AABBCC, the space relies on dark wood, olive-green upholstery, curved banquettes and textured walls that look a little like tree bark. The lighting is low, the palette is muted and the overall effect is earthy without becoming too determined to remind you that you are sitting inside a restaurant called Selva.

Then, as you move further in, the place changes its mind. Hidden away from the main area is Selva Maya, a darker cocktail den named after the great Mesoamerican rainforest. Sidana is quick to explain that this isn’t a speakeasy. At Selva Maya, the room gets moodier, the menu changes and the lights get dimmer. This shift draws on the Mesoamerican story of the Sun God transforming into a jaguar as day gives way to night.

The cocktails too are named after animals associated with the Selva Maya region, and the Fluffy Alpaca is perhaps the most literal of the lot. It is a playful take on a piña colada made with apricot-infused rum, miso and pineapple, topped with coconut foam that looks remarkably like an alpaca’s fluffy head. It arrives with a branded ice cube, and is perfect for an Instagram photo op.

I preferred the Gojira, a bright, crisp Japanese-style highball made with tequila, mezcal, five citrus fruits, goji berry and apple-chamomile soda. The chamomile comes through almost immediately, which makes it especially appealing to a tea lover like me. Tea is clearly a favourite of Sidana’s too. It turns up in unexpected places across the menu, from the salted Earl Grey in The Jaguar of Selva to the Thai tea in Nomad Monkey. “Our drink programme is a bit straightforward. It’s not like there’s some smoke coming out of something or there’s some clarification happening. We wanted to keep the cocktails uncomplicated and do our versions of classics and do those right,” he says. There are also plenty of mocktails for anyone skipping the booze, including a passionfruit hojicha soda, a Tokyo Colada and a green apple, wasabi and mint combination.

Food at Selva is similarly unwilling to settle into one category. The separate bar-bites menu is a good place to begin, especially if you’re the kind of person who wants a drink in one hand and something to pick at in the other. The Golden Prawn Toast is crisp and golden brown, with the familiar pleasure of the prawn toast that used to arrive in brown paper bags from Chinese takeaways. It is the sort of thing that disappears quietly while everyone is still pretending they are waiting for the rest of the food.

The Salmon Tartare Nori Taco was one of my favourites. Instead of a tortilla, the salmon comes tucked in fried seaweed, which gives it a delicate crunch and a salty edge without taking over the filling. The Lychee Ceviche was another standout, bringing together sweet, tangy and spicy notes almost at once. The lychee softens the sharpness of the leche de tigre, but there is still enough acidity and heat to keep you going back for another bite. If you prefer your tacos with a little more crunch, follow my lead and order the Pescada Soft Shell Taco, which comes with crispy fish, avocado cream, pickled shallots, smoky jalapeño and coriander. Or amp it further with the Crispy Camarón that features a more indulgent combination of crispy prawn, refried beans, sour cream, taqueria salsa and habanero sauce.

Their Salmon Avocado Tlayuda layers fresh salmon and avocado with furikake, togarashi, spicy mayo and a crisp tortilla base to present a cold pizza that sounds like something that should not work but works surprisingly well.

Dessert is a fairly broad affair: there are churros, Basque cheesecakes, matcha tiramisus, spiced chocolate cakes and tres leches on the menu. In other words, whether you want something crisp, creamy, chocolatey or soft and milky, there is a reasonable chance of finding something to finish with.

The restaurant itself keeps things fairly understated, but the jungle theme really lets loose in the restrooms. Jungle wallpapers, the sound of running water and birdsong make it feel like you’ve briefly wandered off for a bathroom break and somehow ended up in the rainforest. Of all the places in Selva to fully commit to the theme, the bathroom wins.

Address: Worldmark 4, Asset Area No. LP-1B-04, Aerocity, New Delhi

Phone: +91 9800600625

Timings: 12:00 PM – 1:00 AM (Daily)

Price for two (without alcohol): ₹4,500 for two people