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
