Amid the designer boutiques and antique furniture stores sprinkled across Hauz Khas Village, a café has opened doors. The Living Room: Café & Kitchen, situated close to the popular south Indian restaurant Naivedyam, embraces all the quaint characteristics of the urban village it is tucked in. The stairway to its two-level setup is lined with flickering candles. A narrow path pecked with marble pebbles then leads you to a dimly lit diner that for one moment makes you wonder if you have mistakenly walked into someone’s living room, presumably a Bob Marley fan’s, with old reggae playing in the background.

Each table has its own idiosyncrasies, and the lamps hovering over each comes in varied shapes and sizes. The walls are plastered with autographed Polaroid shots of John Travolta, Robbie Williams, Kate Moss and Cher — if you really like ’em, they can be yours for Rs 8,000 each.

The café, set up by 30-something Gautam Aurora, opens early and rolls out a breakfast of smoked bacon, ciabatta and baked beans. For the other meals of the day too, the menu is mostly Continental, with bits of Moroccan, Italian and Spanish thrown in— a mishmash of pasta and lamb burgers, the Spanish prawn pil pil and salmon. The drinks menu lists hot coffees, chilled shakes and iced lattes.

We begin with a portion of lemon chicken soup (Rs 150) that brings in a porcelain handi of steaming broth with slivers of spinach and spaghetti. Splitting a portion is not such a great idea here, since the soups just come up to a quarter of the serving bowl. We then dig into a serving of garlic chicken (Rs 250), accompanied by hummus and several triangles of pita bread. Hummus is tasty but the four portions of chicken turn out to be quite bland. Either the kitchen plans to strictly cater to the spice-wary tourist’s palate or the chef simply forgot to season it. Spanish Potato (Rs 200) is a bright, colourful platter with tuber rings simmered with red peppers. Pastas can be made to order, if you don’t like any of the six selections they list. We try spaghetti with minced meat, which turns out to be just right.

The restaurant is good with their brews and the coffee is a must-sip. We try Irish Cream Coffee (Rs 90), a frothy, caffeinated full stop to our meal, while the ol’ Jamaican whips up One Love.