Khan Chacha, Delhi

Khan Chacha
Flat 50, Middle Lane
Khan Market
Delhi
+919810804114, +919811152722, +919810671103

Khan Chacha was an institution in Delhi until some legal, and rental problems forced him to shut shop about a year ago. Recently Al Bake (the New Friends Colony institution) opened a shawarma take away at the same location, which made many Khan Chacha loyalists apprehensive about the future.

Then Khan Chacha reopened about a month ago in a new location (opp Big Chill in the Middle Lane,opp Happily Unmarried). This is a first floor outlet with seating, but its still self service with a few "improvements". You order your kebabs/rolls at the counter, pay your money, you are given a number. You hang around, hoping and praying for a free table. Then your number flashes on the screen at the counter, so you go and collect your rolls. If you are lucky you sit or else you stand and finish your rolls. If you leave your tray on the table, you will be very politely requested to throw your trash in the designated dustbins and leave the trays on top (a la McDonalds)

The kitchen is spotlessly clean and soot free :)Prices are higher than what they were, when they closed, but then inflation has affected us all.

Some old timers of this joint, say that the taste isnt as good as it used to be. Since I have returned to Delhi after 7 years, I don't feel qualified to comment on that statement. But the taste is still good.

The chicken tikka simply dissolves in your mouth. I found the tikkas better as a plate of kebabs than inside the roll. I also expected the mutton sheekh kebab to be softer than it was. I'm hoping this is just initial teething problems for the staff and they will soon settle into a routine to give us the outstanding quality of kebabs that Khan Chacha is famous for.

Aap Ki Khatir, Delhi

Aap Ki Khatir
Middle Lane
Khan Market

Aap Ki Khatir, is a little kebab joint tucked away in the Middle Lane of Khan Market. Patrons who want to eat on the spot, stand around or lounge on 2 wheelers while relishing their kebabs and rolls. The rest pack take aways and carry them home to waiting families.

The reason, I keep going back to this particular kebab joint in the Khan Market, are its 'outstanding' Kakori Kebabs. At 90Rs a plate (2 long kebabs), they are a juicy, melt in your mouth experience, lightly wrapped in a wafer thin layer of crust from the grilling.

All kebabs are served with onions, a dollop of raita and a dollop of green chutney.

Most kebabs are in the 80-90rs range for a plate. The chicken malai tikka is good and not too spicy. The Mutton tikka is extremely soft and on the spicy side.

For 10-15rs more, you can have your kebabs wrapped in a rumali roti or a kathi roll (no egg though), for a quick one dish meal.

If you need a drink to wash your snack/meal down, they serve chilled soft drinks and water for 25rs.

Their kebabs are good and Actress Nandita Das, says this is one of her favorite restaurants in an interview in The Bollywood Cookbook


They do not Deliver food home unless you want them to cater to a party of 50 or more people. They do have takeaway service though and their rolls are a great option for those nights when you know your guests are going to be drinking and couldn't care much for complicated food, but are going to be ravenously hungry at the end of the evening.

Mini Punjab / Nirman Veg, Pune

On a quick trip to Pune, we stopped at Mini Punjab which was on our way (didn't have the time to get into the city and eat at any of our favorites) and hence randomly selected.

We were pleasantly surprised by the food.

Its a very down to earth restaurant. Clean and hygienic but not very fancy.

The food was quite good though, except for my biryani(95rs) being served cold.

The manager informed us that Mini Punjab has many locations across the city. We ate at the B J Road, Parmar chambers branch which was clubbed with Nirman Veg restaurants. They have a Tandoor and kebab grill outside the restaurant and the kitchen is supposed to be pure veg, so I think my biriyani came from a different location and turned cold before it could be served at our table.

The kebab menu is limited, but we truly enjoyed both the Chicken Sholay kebab(110rs) and the chicken malai kebab(10rs).

The alu(35rs) and methi(38rs) parathas were also excellent. They were served with complimentary dhal and raita.

The veg hakka noodles were typical roadside Indian Chinese noodles, but you could taste the flavors were fresher and cleaner than you would get on the road.

Interesting place to eat when you are on a budget. 4 of us had a filling meal for 460rs.

Prices include tax.
Phone number for this particular branch is 6603 8190.

Ataturk, Cairo

Ataturk Restaurant
20 El-Riyadh Street
Cairo
Egypt
+20 2 3347 5135

11am - 1am

This is a lovely little restaurant and I think its the only place serving Turkish Food in Cairo. (Please let me know if you know of any others)

From the outside, it may look like a small hole in the wall, but it has awesome interiors with stained glass and paintings and little blue and aqua touches that are reminiscent of Turkey.

Especially lovely is a painting near a side table which makes you feel that you are looking out on a mile long garden, even in the middle of dusty, smoggy, polluted, congested Mohandaseen :)
When you dine in, you are served a huge hunk of oven roasted Turkish bread. If you ask for a takeaway, you are served a softer, flat version of the bread similar to Indian Rumali rotis. They do deliver upto Zamalek and some locations in Giza.

This restaurant doesn't serve many of the dishes that I do associate with Turkey and had the pleasure of consuming on a visit to that country, but it does its best with ingredients and spices readily available in Egypt. The menu at Ataturk may look very similar to an Egyptian/Syrian/Lebanese restaurant. The difference is in the seasonings.

For starters, they have a variety of hot and cold mezze from 5LE to 12LE. The almonds salad 6LE (pictured above) is a tomato dip garnished with toasted almonds. I particularly ike their meat sambusak (10LE) as it is more like the Indian meat samosa than the Egyptian sambusak with a finer/thinner dough. The Hummus Shawarma (12LE), yoghurt with spinach (5LE) and stuffed vine leaves are the other mezze that I like at this place and which go excellently with the Turkish bread.
The ankara kofta sandwich (10.5LE) has to be my favourite main. It isnt spicy, but it has more spices and flavours than the traditional Egyptian version. It is rolled in pita bread with slivers of onions and cilantro. It brought back so many memories of the rolls at Fanoos in Bangalore.

The sandwiches at Ankara are rolled in Pita bread and not hot dog buns.

The chicken topkapi 34 LE (picture below) - half a chicken stuffed with pulao - was not very good when I had it in the restaurant. The rice seemed like it was newly unfrozen and wasn't hot, although the chicken was hot. It was tasty, but the mismatched temperatures killed the dish.

The Special Meat Shawerma Plate (Antakia) Doner (30LE) was very tasty with its onion and other flavorings. We have tried the hagi baba rice - veal liver + pine nuts (16LE) - The Ankara rice - minced meat + green peas + pine nuts (12.5LE) - and the rice with nuts (9LE) which have all been excellent. Never served too dry. The rice is an excellent accompaniment to the kebabs and shawarma plates.

As I have said before, I must admit I find Turkish and Syrian food more interesting than Egyptian food, because my Indian palate craves more complex flavors than just salt, tomato paste and the occasional pepper which most commerically available Egyptian food seems to be flavored with.

Using spices in the food does not mean being spicy. The food at Ataturk is just that. It uses spices without being spicy and the resulting flavours are exciting.

We haven't tried the deserts yet. Maybe someoen else would like to comment on them.

I have had better and faster service with home delivery (20 minutes today, even though we ordered at Iftaar time) than at the restaurant. But the decor and ambience at the restaurant is just so relaxing, that it is worth dining in too.

You can call them directly for delivery or order on otlob.com

Prithvi Theatre Cafe, Juhu, Mumbai

This Cafe was one of my favorites in Mumbai. Yes, you read it right, it "WAS". (check my previous review)

Close to my house, this was where me and my husband often sat discussing the play we were going to watch over a cup of coffee and light snacks like cheese balls or dissecting and analysing the play we had just watched over raan and Prithvi's famous irish coffee :)

I often visited the cafe when I was feeling low on inspiration and creativity and it was marvelous how just being there in that location with the presence of immensely talented individuals like Makarand Deshpande and Kay Kay (does he go as KK now?) among others could charge me up.

There were the occasional Ekta Kapur actresses who would show up for a play, but they were completely ignored by the serious acting crowd (theatre) and the people who went there to watch talented actors.

This adda was like a 2nd home to me in Mumbai. The husband and me averaged at least one play a week and sometimes more than that. I was at the cafe with him or on my own twice or even more in a week.

Service was sometimes slow, but you could see the waiters doing their best to manage it all and you didnt mind. What few people knew was that the cafe had a really awesome dinner menu and it was amazing to sit under those lights hanging from the trees and enjoy a meal.

Once we moved to Egypt we watched on the news that the cafe had introduced a new, more Mumbaiyya menu. On our trip to India in January we decided to go back to the cafe for old times sake and we were HORRIFIED!

There were a new bunch of waiters who did not even seem to know the menaing of the word "service" It took more than 20 minutes of sitting at a table (which we found ourselves after scrounging vacant chairs from nearby tables) before the waiter even acknowledged our presence. Another 20 minutes to get us a menu. The menu had thrice the number of items than before, but not even 10% of them were available. We found this out the painful way, by ordering some items and then being told none of them were available. This process repeated a couple of times, till we finally asked the waiter, "just tell us what IS available" He hardly mentioned 5 items.

Since we were a group and had already waited that long and gone through all the trouble of parking et al, we ordered one of each and told him to bring each item as it was ready in case some items took longer than others to prepare. 40 minutes after ordering, not a single item had reached our table. We asked the waiter about the status and he said "another 15 minutes" without even a trace of an apology in his voice.

So we told him to cancel the order and we walked out. He looked at us walk away with more relief than dismay on his face!

Doubt I will visit the cafe again, unless something changes drastically and they can match the standards of the previous avataar.

Please observe 2 minutes silence for the passing of a great cafe, that once was @ Prithvi!

Bade Miyan's, Mumbai

Bade Miya
Tulloch Road
Apollo Bunder
Behind Taj Mahal Hotel
Mumbai 400 039
2284 8038, 2285 1649

Went back to Bade Miya's after a span of 7 years & I don't know what it was, but it wasn't as great as I remembered it. Possible reasons being:
1. It wasn't after a round of drinking that I landed there.
2. I've been eating better food recently.
3. After eating kebabs in Delhi, Hyderabad & the Northern front, none of the guys in Bombay are comparable except probably copper Chimney.

Since we reached a little early, the place hadn't started crowding as yet. We parked a little distance away, not sure if we would be able to navigate the back lanes. We were prepared to stand up and eat hot kebabs off the coals, but they have now taken over a small area opposite which they have outfitted with plastic chairs & metal tables.

The ambience of the Bade Miya I remember is still there. Its the food that has gone down huge notches. Except for the khiri all the kebabs were bland. The flavoring in the kheema was more fat than masala. The prices are still reasonable ranging between 30 & 60 for the dry dishes (oh btw the menu is the size of a visiting card & doesn't have any rates written on it.) Rumali roti's are 6 each. The Baida Roti was 50 bucks but it was something different at least. A kind of chicken stuffed egg paratha if that makes any sense.

2 of us ate some 6 different types of kebabs hoping to have better luck with the next one. 3 rumalis and 2 bottles of water came upto about 300 bucks.

The food is definitely VFM, but I don't think I'm gonna be going back any time soon.

And if u r still interested, they have started another counter which offers purely veg food.

They open around 7 in the evening, if u r still planning to go.

Delhi Darbar, Mumbai

Delhi Darbar
Holland House
Shaheed Bhagath Singh Marg
Near Regal Cinema
Colaba
Mumbai 400 039
Tel : 2202 5656, 2202 0235, 2284 8231


I first heard about Delhi Darbar in December 2002. Upper Crust Magazine had done a review of Jafferbhai & the Delhi Darbar chain of restaurants. They called it the Ultimate Biryani experience in Mumbai. The article was so well written & the pictures so tantalising, that I knew I just HAD to eat at this place on my next trip to Mumbai.

Unfortunately, never had the time on all my short trips to eat at Delhi Darbar. Then when I moved to Mumbai, the brothers had already split & Jafferbhai had started his own Chain called "Jafferbhai's Delhi Darbar" this kind of split me in 2. Should I eat at the original or eat at Jafferbhai's version ? TO be truthful the article had raved about Jafferbhai's contribution to the quality and the taste. Jafferbhai had even quoted that "Any of my chefs who leave & try to replicate my recipes anywhere, have never been able to" A kind of a curse on the disgruntled employee.

Anyway after prevaricating quite a bit. I had the occassion to land up at Regal Circle for the Eternal Gandhi Interactive Exhibition at Sir Cowasji Jahangir Public Hall. So we decided to have lunch at Delhi Darbar.

The place was neat & clean with air conditioning. I later learnt that their grant road branch had less ambience & more atmosphere. Waiters were polite & helpful.

The Jal Jira at 17/- was good & allowed you to adjust the sourness by squeezing in as much lime as you liked. The fresh lime soda was 35/-/ We started out with some Shami Kabab's at 47/- for 3 pieces, it was extremely reasonable. For the first time, I saw a waiter who believed in equitable distribution. There were 2 of us at the table & 3 pieces of kebabs (like cutlets). He served us one kebab each & then without blinking an eyebrow, neatly sliced the third down the centre & served us half a piece each. Greater waiters at larger hotels sometimes serves the man the "extra" piece believing they have a greater appetite I suppose. At the posher eating joints, they diplomatically leave the uneven no. of pieces on the serving plate at the centre of the table, leaving you to fight with your dining partners "You have it" "No, you have it" A classic "Pehle Aap" situation. This was a novel & extremely pleasant experience. The taste was good too.

Sunday special was the Rogan Josh-110/- Mutton Biryani was 92/- and loaded with meat & fragrant flavorful rice. We have been eating a lot of Mutton & Fish when we dine out these days, just to be on the safer side. You have to order the raita (21/) seperately if you would like some. The roomalis were 17/- each and were the thinnest & lightest ones I have tried since over 3 years. I think Chandigarh was the only place where they were comparable.

We ended with a Falooda (53) and Phirni (35) which were just what we needed to forego all further physical activity & rush home for a good nap.

Please add a VAT of 12.5% to all prices quoted. But to put it in perspective this wonderful heavy Indian repast for 2, came to about 550/- bucks. Quite a steal for the quality & ambience.

The Mughlai food is good. They have daily specials. One in chicken & one in mutton. There is a special Arab menu at this location which tones down the chilli. Hence this place is supposedly a favorite where the Middle Eastern crowd is comfortable dining at and where they can bring their womenfolk along too.

Now I have to visit Jafferbhai's and compare the 2.

Y2K Tandoori, Hyderabad

Located at the crossroads of Ameerpet, Khairatabad opposite where the
new PVR mall is opening up, this isnt a place you would normally think
of eating from. But given the feedback we received regarding this place,
we decided to give it a try and have been hooked ever since.

The Tandoori items are available only post 7pm but the rest of the
delicacies are served through the day. Right now, haleem is being sold
too, in both Mutton and chicken variations. They are really yummy, one
of the better haleem offerrings in the city. Make sure to advise them to
add extra fried onions, it improves the taste and texture dramatically.

They have a free home delivery system for orders above 150/- Hence Ive
never really sat down at their restaurant which they say is air
conditioned, but all Ive seen on my way past is a sales counter.

Must try's here are the chicken biryani - delicately flavored. The
pepper chicken - chinese style but packs a punch. Rumali roti's- really
soft and stay soft even after a couple of hours. Now I know where to
pick up rumalis for my dinner parties. Haleem- available only during
ramzan.

Having come in from Delhi, the kebab offerrings werent really
impressive, but pretty decent for Hyderabad standards.

Haleem costs 40/- for a whole plate. Chicken biryani is 70/- and
rumali's are 6 each to give you an idea that this place's food is worth
it for the odd night when u donÂ’t feel like cooking and are too tired to
go out.