India, Jan. 10 -- The entire experience is sensory - where you eat not just with tongue but as a wholesome experience with your eyes, skin and nose. But the journey at Ophelia, the Mediterranean-European tapas bar, at The Ashok does not begin with the food but the ambience. The restaurant has two segments - an outdoor one and another indoors. The night that we visited was particularly chilly. So we decided to sit inside even though the outdoors looked welcoming.

Stepping in, our senses were aflush. It was The Great Gatsby meets Renaissance meets kitsch. In short, decadent and wonderfully so. The reds, browns, blues on the walls and the furnishings enhanced the description further. Tracing the lights of a massive chandelier that hung abov...