Murg Makhni

Everyone has a family physician, may be a family lawyer or a family barber, but ever heard of a family restaurant. Thats how we treat "The Dhaba" at the Claridges hotel, in Delhi. Any ocassion, right from birthdays to anniversary to any reason to celebrate, we are in this place atleast once a year. For the past few years, this has been an annual ritual, as going to delhi itself has become a reason to celebrate.

This place has one of the best butter chicken dishes (Murg Makhni)one can feast on. The ambience is of a actual dhaba. There is an open kitchen, in the form of the front portion of truck. All cutlery is a mixture of steel and copper, the waiters are in pathani suits, you can see old copper vessels adding to the authentic ambience and the food is just amazingly amazing.

They have the usual veggie fair of vegetables, dal and the rotis, naan and the muttons and chickens and the beers, vodkas, rum etc etc. Lets keep all that aside. The highlight is the murg makhni or butter chicken, which will be as heavenly as a Picasso painting to an artist or Beethoven music to a musician. The butter chicken is made in a tomato based gravy, which in itself just sooo soo soo tasty. God knows what they do it, but it tastes the same everytime in the last 14-15 years that I have been going here. The murg makhni chef must be operating at 10 or 11 sigma to dish out the same quality, consistently for years and years. The dish has 4-5 medium sized pieces of chicken, which are cooked to perfection and the aroma of the gravy and the spices can be felt deep inside those pieces. Just like the Sri Krishna sweets Mysore pak (burfi) really melts with the ghee as you put it into your mouth, the same way the soft, tender, juicy pieces of chicken and the spices and the gravy just melt in your mouth, making the whole experience a heavenly, culinary delight.

The portions are decent and one order of murg makhni will serve 2 people very comfortably. The veggie fare is also equally delicious and the service is excellent. The only word of caution are the damages. Few drinks and a good meal for 4, will push you back by around 3500-4000. Thats why I said called this an annual ritual.

Next time you are in Delhi, just rush to this place - saddi dilli ke murge ka jawab nahi !!!