Pal Dhaba, Chandigarh

Pal Dhaba, Chandigarh

What Paris is to fashion, Amritsar is to Punj food. But if you are not in Amritsar enjoying Paneer Kulches with Lassi, Pal dhaba is the closest you can get to that heaven. There are actually two hotels operating very close to each other by the same name and both of them are equally good. The staff of either of them is so unprofessional that if one is running out of stock of some delicious curry they will very innocently ask you to go to the other shop.

The place is really very crowded during evenings so it's advisable to visit the place only after 9 pm. Unlike normal Mumbai shacks, Pal Dhaba is equally admired by both students as well as families. They are super fast when it comes to service (the turnaround time is less than a minute and they actually take less time than what Tambi would take to give you the already prepared thalis). 

The menu had many awesome things in it but we played  safe and asked for the much coveted tandoori chicken. One full tandoori plate is enough to satisfy a group of 4. As expected it was very spicy. Degi Mirch was exploited very diligently and it actually gave it a very different taste. For the first time I realized that even the non-leg pieces taste good. Tandoori was served on the layer of grated gingers and coriander which was very presentable. The main course had lamb (my favorite) and kadhai chicken. While the chicken was giving a feeling more of the hariyali chicken than the kadhai, lamb was just fabulous. It had all the necessary ingredients (garam masala but cloves was the dominating stuff that I noticed along with the star anise flowers that are majorly found in Kerala) although it also had a milder sweet taste of its own probably because of the cardamom seeds. Overall it was a treat. Naan was though very disappointing and I would prefer rumali roti over it anytime. These curries looked very high in calorie but an extra 10 minutes run on the treadmill the other day will easily nullify the effect so do not fall prey to your diet rules.

My ratings:

Ambiance: 2.5/5

Connectivity: 3.5/5

Food: 3.5/5

Service: 4/5

Cafe MochaMojo, Bandra

Guys if you seriously wanna have big juicy burgers then this is the place. Initially I thought Gostana would have been a better option at Bandra but unfortunately the place has been shut down. Seeing no option I went to check out this place. My mind was pre-occupied with the thoughts of smoke all around but to my surprise the ambience was excellent. The place has an ac chamber inside but I would recommend to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful February sun while sitting at the porch. The couch is not so comfortable but then who cares when you have big mugs of beer in hands and friends all around. You can smoke as well. Coming onto the interesting fact:- they have all at all a different menu than other outlets. I tried Keema which was much greener than what any of its ingridient could have been. Taste was ok.Chicken Panino is their USP. It's an italian sandwich cum bread roll...very tasty indeed. Then I asked for the grilled burger as I crave for those big meat bites.

The burger was very much different as to what normal chicken would taste like. Even the coloring gave me an impression of the sliced roasted beef. It had the tenderness and taste of a stewed dish. They served it with lettuce and long slices of jalapeno. It was a perfectly served dish. People say they also serve some good desserts but I did not have desire to mix the tastes. Although it  looks bad but I will have to post a half eaten burger's pic just to show how good it was(My apologies).

Overall I would rate this joint very highly. Do not go with the notion of the regular Mocha in your mind.
Ambience: 3/5
Food: 3/5
Service:3/5
accessibility: 4/5