Healthy, flavoursome, freshly grilled food is possibly the ideal way to spend a Sunday. If you prefer to spare yourself the hassle of attempting it at home, a new restaurant at Gurgaon offers home-styled barbeques, with great service in a relaxed, easy setting. Barbeque Nation, a 170-cover diner, is panelled with firewood bricks and offers soft lighting and intimate table arrangements that are warm and inviting. Spread across two levels, it is a far cry from the prevalent Mediterranean theme or the snazzy, 21st century look that many restaurants sport these days. And it allows you to grill the food the way you want to.

The two-year-old chain opened its fourth outlet last week, after setting up diners at Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. “When we opened the first outlet in Mumbai, people enjoyed the concept of doing their own grills,” says Prosenjit Roy Choudhary, CEO and master chef. However, it might be a tad difficult to locate it at Sushant Plaza in Phase I and so taking directions is recommended.

A set of three marinades and dips arrives on the table as soon as you take a seat and the centre hollow of the table gets fitted with a metallic grill which has glittering red wooden pellets. “Unlimited kebabs” will be grilled to perfection right on your table, followed by a buffet, so that diners get enough variety. You may brush your lemon chicken with a soy-olive base or add a lemon-butter marinade to prawns — either way, the final garnishing is entirely left to the diner.

The table assistant is handy but he encourages you to create a unique sauce and nobody enforces recipe rules. So no one was surprised when I painted the chicken red with sesame paste and the Chinese greens golden with the honey-chilly dip. The mushrooms and peppers tasted mildly of caramel and the chicken was delectable and spicy.

A few other eateries are also exploring the concept of interactive dining where there are no fixed rules when it comes to food. At K2, the Korean restaurant in Gurgaon, table grills are a common sight. “It is very popular with Korean diners. People love watching the grills done right on the table with their choice of marinades and garnishing,” says Choi Byung Jun, owner of K2. At Wildfire at Crowne Plaza that offers churrasco grills and skewers, the service is Rodizio-style — servers stop at each table, carve a portion of meat, grilled to perfection, and serve it to you. The newly opened The China Kitchen at Hyatt Regency has its own concept of interactive dining. If you happen to order Beggar’s Chicken or a Classic Beijing Duck, look out for some ceremonial carvings at your table. Beggar’s Chicken demands a hammering of the clay covering before you unwrap the bird from layers of butter paper.

As Byung says, interactive dining, unlike a stuffy sit-down dinner, can be fun. Well, skewer the rules and have your personalised prawn grill.

For reservations at Barbeque Nation, call 95124-4044574. Lunch buffet costs Rs 275 and dinner Rs 500, plus taxes