Perhaps for the 57th time in the last two hours, Jeet Rana has called Chirag Pal, co-founder at Cavity and Barbet & Pals, his “second wife.” Chirag, in turn, wears that classic “not again!” expression – the one usually reserved for older siblings who think their jokes are comedic gold, even when they’re really just mildly irritating (tell me about it, I have one at home).
Meanwhile, Jeet is in full giddy storyteller mode, recounting the time Chirag was scolded by locals, or maybe the police (I forget, blame the cocktails) for plucking apricots from a roadside tree in Himachal or Ladakh. He’s laughing so hard he can barely get a word out, and honestly, we’re all laughing too. Mostly because his laughter is absolutely contagious.
The Cavity At Barbet & Pals: Chaos You’ll Love
A night at Cavity is a little like that story. Chaotic, a bit crazy, but impossible not to love and to forget. There are knock-knock jokes, terrible puns, riddles, cocktails that taste like nothing you’ve had before, and food that feels local yet somehow global in ways that are hard to explain.
Tucked inside the basement of Barbet & Pals in Delhi’s GK II M-Block market, Cavity is a micro-bar within a bar, complete with a stylish lounge called the Living Room, ideal for long conversations, private jokes, and a bit of art appreciation. The walls are adorned with paintings, memorabilia, book shelves filled with books old and new, and crafts from local artisans. Jeet, Chirag, and chef Amninder Sandhu run it like their own secret playground. You might come for a drink, but you’ll leave with laughter, great memories, and half a dozen stories you’ll find yourself retelling for weeks.
9-Course Cocktail Tasting: Intimate And Exclusive
Cavity offers a nine-course cocktail and food tasting experience with just nine seats, open exclusively on weekends (Friday–Sunday) from 8 PM onwards. There’s only one slot available every evening, and it can run anywhere between three and three and a half hours. I walked in around 8 and stepped out close to 11:30 PM, I think. The day I went, Chef Sandhu unfortunately wasn’t around, but I did get to spend a lot of time with Jeet and Chirag and experience their dynamic up close. I do wish I’d met Chef Sandhu though – I’ve seen their reels together, and if you think the duo is a lot of fun, the trio is absolute chaos (in the best way). The whole experience at Cavity is intimate, unique and honestly, one of Delhi’s best-kept secrets (well, maybe not for long).
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Almost everything here is bird-themed. Once you enter Barbet & Pals, you’ll see a blue door. From there, you have to follow the bird track marks on the floor, which then leads you straight to Cavity, a space filled with Barbet references and playful avian touches. The name itself, as Jeet explains, comes quite literally from the bird. ‘Barbets, as birds, create cavities and live inside them. So we thought of using the name. It reflects the idea of a hidden pocket within Barbet & Pals—small, personal, and meant for conversations, storytelling, and a deeper connection with drinks and food.’
What’s In A Name?
The bird motif isn’t just aesthetic. Barbet represents Jeet, who’s from the Himalayas, while Pals comes from Chirag’s surname. ‘Since the bar (Barbet & Pals / Cavity) represents the two of us, we use the barbet bird as our mascot to tell our story. It represents curiosity, travel, and exploration. Just like birds move across landscapes, our menu journeys through flavours from different regions of India,’ the duo explain.
A Grand Celebration Of India’s Flavours
Walking into Cavity feels a little like stepping into a friend’s house in the mountains where stories flow as freely as the drinks. That friend, in this context? Could very well be Jeet Rana, a riot and a goofball whose energy sets the tone for the evening. ‘Our intention was simple,’ say Jeet and Chirag. ‘We wanted to recreate the feeling of sitting in a cosy living room in the mountains, sharing stories over drinks and food.’
The nine-course tasting experience takes guests on a journey of hyperlocal ingredients, inventive cocktails, and bites – all in an intimate, storytelling-filled setting.
At the heart of Cavity’s philosophy are GI-tagged ingredients from across India, which form the foundation of both the drinks and the food. ‘India’s GI ingredients carry the identity of the regions they come from, and we wanted to celebrate those stories,’ the duo re-iterate. Sundarban honey, Guntur chilli, Bhimkol banana, and Coorg coffee become the heroes of each course, telling the story of their regions through taste and aroma.
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The Story Of Cavity
The idea behind Cavity grew from the founders’ shared curiosity about regional flavours and the memories tied to them. ‘Growing up around strong regional food cultures made us appreciate how deeply ingredients are tied to place and memory,’ they say. The collaboration between the bar team and chef Sandhu means the food and cocktails are created side by side rather than paired at the end.
Some cocktails, like the Hot & Cold rasam drink and the Guntur Chilli creation went through multiple trials before finding the right balance between spice, savouriness, and drinkability. The menu is seasonal and fluid, evolving with the availability of ingredients. Each cocktail and dish is conceptualised together so that the flavours enhance each other rather than simply coexist.
A Collaboration Of A Lifetime
When I ask chef Amninder Sandhu how it feels to plate small portions, especially coming from a Punjabi family where generosity on the plate is almost a cultural rule, she tells me, ‘The tasting format is a beautiful challenge because it focuses on precision and storytelling in small bites. Each dish becomes more about flavour, texture, and balance rather than portion size.’
For Sandhu, the philosophy goes beyond portion control. It’s also about spotlighting ingredients that carry the history of the regions they come from. ‘Highlighting regional ingredients keeps Indian culinary traditions alive while presenting them in a contemporary format. It also allows guests to discover flavours they may not have experienced before.’
Cocktails & Food That You’ll Remember Fondly: The Local Experience
That idea becomes clear the moment the first course arrives.
The evening opens with the Sundarban Honey Mead. Floral, with a lightly wild sweetness and a bright citrus lift, the drink is built around honey sourced from the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans. It’s paired with hazelnut-crusted liver pâté topped with cherry vapour floss, served on a stick. The pairing balances the sweetness of the drink surprisingly well. I never imagined liver pâté and something resembling cotton candy could belong in the same bite, yet here we are. It works. So well that it might just enter my list of unexpected favourites.
The second course moves to Assam with an amazake made from Joha rice and pearl millet. The drink is softly fermented with a creamy grain texture and gentle tropical brightness. It’s paired with a crispy fried pumpkin blossom stuffed with coastal prawn balchao. Delicate yet rich with the prawn filling, the blossom easily becomes one of the standout bites of the evening.
Before the next course appears, the bar briefly turns into a comedy stage. While Chirag prepares the next drink, Jeet leans across the counter and asks me a riddle.
‘When someone is born in a car and dies outside, what do we call it?’
I tell him I know the answer so I’ll back out and let the other eight guests at the table guess the answer. My nine-year-old niece had asked me the exact same question the day before. The group offers impressively complex guesses. The answer, however, is something only a child could come up with.
“Car-born-die-outside,” Jeet declares, stretching the syllables.
Carbon dioxide. Get it?
Unfortunately, before another riddle can follow (I must say I was enjoying Jeet’s comedic timing) the next drink arrives.
Hot & Cold: Tooyamalli Rice Cocktail
The Hot & Cold cocktail is inspired by Tooyamalli rice from Tamil Nadu and attempts to translate the comfort of rasam into a drink. A warm spiced broth laced with whisky sits beneath chilled rice foam scented with curry leaf. I’ll admit I was sceptical when I heard “rasam cocktail.” It sounded like one of those ideas that might remain more interesting on paper than in a glass. But the result is unexpectedly good. The contrast in temperature and the familiar peppery tang make it work beautifully. Alongside it comes a punchy bite of gunpowder idli with pepper crab reduction, coconut snow, and caviar.
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Ramos: Queen Pineapple Cocktail
The Ramos cocktail that follows shifts the mood again. Built around Queen pineapple from Tripura, it arrives silky and airy with creamy foam and bright tropical acidity. It’s paired with a brain custard tart with sour cherry jam and black truffle – rich, strange, and intriguing all at once. Whether you fall in love with it or remain politely unsure might depend on how adventurous your palate feels that evening.
A brief pause in the journey comes in the form of the hydration course. Coconut water is transformed into a delicate blue jelly and served on a bed of shredded ice inside a coconut shell. The challenge is to eat it whole without breaking it. Around the table, our attempts at pulling this off lead to a fair bit of laughter.
The Guntur Chilli Chicken Cocktail
Then comes the Guntur Chilli Chicken cocktail. It leans into savoury territory, carrying warm spice, bright acidity, and a clean umami note.
It’s paired with a zarai cheese gougère, bone marrow velvet, balsamic gravity, and charred leek ash – a combination that mirrors the drink’s bold character.
Next comes the Ladakhi Apricot cocktail.
Alongside it arrives a bhutwa sheekh served with burnt tomato ice cream and the prettiest little Amritsari kulcha. This pairing plays with contrasts of smoke, tang, hot, cold and richness – and in this round, the food slightly edges out the cocktail.
I was particularly excited about the Gola cocktail built around Bhimkol banana from Assam. Smooth and fragrant with a hint of citrus, it taps into the nostalgia of childhood gola flavours while presenting them in a far more stylish form. While serving it, Jeet shares an amusing titbit about how in Assam, people refuse to call banana “kela” and instead say “kol” (if you know, you know!).
After the Sundarban Honey Mead, my second favourite has to be Smoked & Sweet Spice: Black Cardamom. The smoky Sikkim black cardamom carries layered sweetness and spice, paired with slow-braised kareli and saffron-cardamom buttery bread served inside the cutest corn husk.
Then comes Baba Budan, a final drink built around Coorg coffee and Bengal’s nolen gur. The pairing is a nolen gur cloud rosogulla with meringue shards, rum-soaked raisins, and a touch of sea salt. Sweet, but balanced enough to feel like a proper finale rather than a sugar rush.
The last sip is a gentle one. Meant for goodbyes, so you walk up the stairs rather than drag yourself. It’s the standing pinkies moment. Maltas from Uttarakhand and chrysanthemum bring soft citrus and floral calm to settle the palate. Jeet tells us to drink it like royalty, pinky out – and we all happily comply.
A brown butter softie then wraps up the unforgettable experience.
Taste Testimony
To sum it up, this is the kind of experience you should try at least once. You can honestly walk in with your eyes closed. There’s no menu anxiety, no wondering if you ordered the right thing – the food and cocktails are already curated for you. The team checks in about allergies and preferences even before you take your seat at the table, and from that point on, the evening just flows.
Factbox:
Launch Date: 20th February 2026
Address: Ground Floor, M Block Market, M-51, Block M, Greater Kailash II, New Delhi – 110048
Timings: Friday, Saturday & Sunday at 8 PM Sharp
Experience Price: ₹4,500++ per person (Nine-course cocktail experience paired with food)
Reservations: +91 9205645151
