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NOVY: Where Novelty Meets Nostalgia A new Gurugram restaurant refuses to be pigeonholed—and that's precisely its charm. I've always been suspicious of restaurants that try too hard to be everything to everyone. You know the type: the menu reads like a culinary world tour gone wrong, with pad thai sitting uncomfortably next to pasta carbonara and butter chicken. So when I heard about NOVY—a new restaurant that promised to draw from French precision, Japanese creativity, and Indian village cooking—I'll admit I approached it with more than a little skepticism. How wrong I was. The Philosophy The name itself offers the first clue to what makes this place different. NOVY comes from two sources: the English word "novelty" and the Scandinavian term for "new." But as Rahul Yadav and Shantanu Yadav, the brothers behind this venture, explained to me, it's not about novelty for its own sake. It's about movement, evolution, a restlessness that refuses to be confined by the boundaries of any single cuisine. "We're not tied to one cuisine," they told me, "but to a spirit of constant exploration." It's an ambitious manifesto, and one that could easily collapse into confusion. But in the hands of Chef Ashay Dhopatkar, who has designed the food menu, and mixologist Chitra, who oversees the bar, this philosophy translates into something far more coherent than you might expect. The Food What struck me most about the menu at NOVY was not its eclecticism but its clarity of purpose. Each dish seemed to have a story, a reason for being—not just a random collision of ingredients from different continents. Take the Wai Wasabi Wai, for instance. On paper, it sounds almost gimmicky: Wai Wai sadeko (the beloved Nepali instant noodle snack) with Granny Smith apple and wasabi mayo. But in execution, it's a clever play on textures and temperatures—the familiar comfort of street food elevated by the sharpness of wasabi and the crisp acidity of apple. It's the kind of bar nibble that makes you reach for another before you've finished the first. NOVY is the kind of restaurant that rewards repeat visits. I suspect the menu will change, evolve, surprise.

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This post was published on 07th November, 2025 by Rahul on his Instagram handle "@rahulprabhakar (Rahul Prabhakar)". Rahul has total 64.6K followers on Instagram and has a total of 2.4K post. Rahul receives an average engagement rate of % per post on Instagram. This post has received 53 comments which are greater than the average comments that Rahul gets. Overall the engagement rate for this post was than the average for the profile.