It has been a while since we had a family outing for lunch. In fact, first for this month. Since it was an auspicious day, we decided to keep this strictly vegetarian 🙂
A few names were in my mind, Bombay Brasserie, Delhi Highway and so on. We decided to check out Delhi Highway in Egmore. I haven’t been to that side of the city in recent times. In fact, while driving to the restaurant, for the first time I saw Fisherman’s Fare. The whole of Ramadan, I’ve been thinking to taste some chicken Haleem from them, but it did not happen though. Delhi highway is just a little ahead on the same road, on the right-hand side.
The parking seemed limited, but we were lucky, there was an empty slot. There were two people in uniform, whom I assumed were in charge of valet parking, but they seemed uninterested 🙂 In fact, one of them signalled to me to park in that empty slot. Probably he had instructions to help only when the parking was full, whatever!
As we entered, the restaurant looked a bit small, and it was almost full. There was a six-seater table available right near the entrance and we were immediately seated. We already decided that we were going for the buffet. It was a sit-in buffet and looked impressive for the price – a soup, four starters, four gravies for the main course, 3 Indian breads, Dum Biryani and a dessert.
The usual accompaniments in Punjabi/North-Indian restaurants came before the food – papad, cut-onions with mint chutney and achaar. The soup was served and it was a tomato dhaniya shorba. It was a bit light and diluted, at least not how I expected a tomato soup to be. Quite nervous that the first dish was not very catchy, the starters followed. Makai Kebab and Hara Bhara Kebab came one after another and were very tasty. Sev puri came from the Live Chat counter outside the restaurant. It was a bit hot for kids, but was good. Achari Paneer Tikka was good, but again hot(read as hot because of mirchi). The capsicum could have been grilled a but more, and it was raw. Kids struggled a bit with the starters, but overall, tasty. We were asked if we wanted anything repeated. I ordered a few pieces of hara bhara kebab and sev puri.
When we proceeded to the main course, I was wondering how the main course gravies would be served. I was assuming that they would be common for all in the table, and would be refilled on request. I was in for a surprise. The main course came more like a Thali with the four gravies, raita and biryani. This was a nice idea, I am assuming it would result in less wastage. The bread basket contained Roti, Lachcha Paratha and Butter Naan, and all of them were tasty. Loved the gravies too – Malai Kofta was tasty and rich with cream and probably that made it a bit heavy, Dal Makhni was done well with a nice flavor, Veg Kolhapuri was yummy and Paneer lahori had two decent pieces of paneer and I should mention that Paneer in this restaurant is probably one of the best I’ve had. All the while I’ve been of the opinion that paneer at Pind is the best, but this is easily at par with that, both in the starters and gravy. The Dum Biryani was absolutely yummy, loved the flavor. The curd in raita was definitely sour and I did not eat that. Otherwise, main course was brilliant. We were too stuffed at this point and were wondering how we would finish the desserts.
Luckily, the desserts were not as large in portions that would go waste. We could choose between Gulab Jamun and Kheer. Since were were three of us having buffet, we asked for two Gulab Jamuns and one Kheer. Gulab Jamun was just one piece in a bowl, kids had one each, and I managed to steal a bite and it tasted very good. Myself and my wife shared the Kheer. It was yummy, but a little too sweet to my liking.
Overall, a fabulous lunch. Enjoyed everything that we ate and this lunch set us back by about 1.5K and it was absolutely worth it in my opinion. My nine-year-old son was billed ‘normal adult charge’ and for my four-year-old daughter, it was free. So we paid for three Buffets, plus water bottles which were priced at Rs 32 each. A service charge of 7% was included, hence did not tip in addition to it. It’s worth mentioning the polite and fast service. I would definitely recommend this place for good North-Indian food!
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