How many times have you walked into fancy restaurants longing for a taste of familiarity – a Chicken Tikka Kebab or a plate of Golgappa instead of ordering unknown dishes with foreign names and even more foreign ingredients?
Hotel Taurus Sarovar Portico’s standalone restaurant Delhi Barbeque brought back that familiarity for us.
Walk into the spacious fine dining establishment and you can spot an exclusive chaat corner, a buffet, singers crooning soulful melodies and a bar section that is waiting for its liquor license.
But the unavailability of liquor did not deter our experience that the restaurant had to offer.
Chaats, kebabs and food items from the main courses available here were good enough to fill our tables. It’s the perfect place to take one’s family or friends.
For starters, we opted for the Paneer Malai Tikka, Corn Salt and Pepper, Soya Chaap, Chicken Tikka, Chilli Chicken, Seekh Kebab, and Amritsari Fish.
Our palates were bursting with flavour with the texture that hit our mouth. One can say, the paneer was soft as cotton while the fish was pillowy.
We moved onto the much-anticipated chaat section – our Golgappas, Dahi Bhalles and Papri Chaats swiftly arrived.
The section has been given a modern twist by being carved into a thela (a cart used by local chaat vendors).
The Golgappas melted in our mouth and the rest of the items just hit the right spicy notes without swelling our tummy.
The main course can be best described as a king’s spread. There was Dal Makhani, Paneer Makhani, Butter Chicken, Breads, Pulao, and Biryani. Our plate was loaded when we returned back to our seat.
Interestingly, there was a Chinese section as well. But we stuck to the Indian fare for this review. The Butter Chicken really stood out amidst the plethora.
An open interactive kitchen faces the buffet giving us a view of who exactly was behind the elaborate gastronomical ordeal.
As we slowly dug into our Kulchas and Laccha Parathas, soft ghazals and old Bollywood songs were sung by two enthusiastic performers.
Like a child enwrapped in a storytelling session, we polished off everything on our plate as we looked up occasionally to the singers belting out sweet familiar melodies.
A dessert section awaited us but after the entrées and the mains, we were a little disappointed at the spread of cakes, pannacottas and tiramisu.
There were gulab jamuns and kheers to entice us but we were expecting a little more variety in terms of Indian desserts.
After all, it’s not often that one walks into a restaurant and eats a Balusahi after their meal.
Nevertheless, we left Delhi Barbeque with feeling quite satisfied and making a mental note to return again when the liquor license is acquired.