CHENNAI: As clichéd as it may seem, I need my average ‘north Indian’ restaurant to please me with butter chicken. Contrary to popular belief, many places don’t get it right. The balance of flavours is, after all, as difficult to nail as the perfect ‘half-boil’ murukku — it has to be cooked enough for it to not taste raw but also uncooked enough to be soft and chewy.
After a few years and a significant number of restaurants, Bhangra managed to hit that sweet spot between taste and price point. After years of delighting the people of ECR and foodies from other side of the city, Bhangra Punjabi Dhaba has made its way to this side of civilisation with a take-away counter in Anna Nagar. In the earnest effort to make life easier for you, we subjected ourselves to the test and sampled the food. And so, one mildly sunny Thursday afternoon, we had half the conference room table filled with the most picture-worthy north Indian fare we could expect.
Yellow paneer tikka, a green palak paneer, a range of chicken kebabs (from hariyali to reshmi), fiery red mutton rara and, of course, the orangy (interrupted by swirls of white) butter chicken masala. After an hour of picture-taking, when we finally sat down to eat, the food was less warmer than ideal — of course. But despite this set-back, the hariyali kebab was as good as it could get; we had the kebab version of Gone in 60 Seconds with four of us quietly aiming for the greater share.
Part of a substantial non-veg platter, it was accompanied by the very able reshmi kebab, decent tandoori chicken and the rather dismal sheek kebab (a little too dry for the liking). On the other side of the meat divide, the malai broccoli — perhaps the most nonnorth Indian food of them all — was an instant success.
As much as it got the butter chicken balance right, it did well with the vegetarian staple of dal makhani too. Surprisingly, it was the paneer that didn’t live up to expectations — be it as a starter or in the palak paneer and pulao. The vegetarian fare proved tricky to judge for another reason; of all things Punjabi, we had to base our decision on food that’s now become household regulars.
While the kebabs and butter chicken worked well, the mutton rara turned out to be the black sheep. How good is mutton anything if the meat isn’t falling off the bone? And the gravy seemed to reside in the undecided place between spicy and tangy. So, would not really recommend. The chicken pulao brought in a save, thanks to its Goldilocks spice quotient.
The desserts — kheer and gulab jamun — could have used a little more sweetness. The rose essence in the lassi overpowered all else. The accompaniments, from boondi raita to onion-filled mint chutney, exceeded expectations. After all this, the question remains: should you order from here when you crave comfort food? We’d say yes. While it can go wrong with some easy options too, it gets quite a few staples right and for the right price. And isn’t that worth it? Order on Swiggy or Zomato