Date: 18 Oct
Venue: MGF metropolitan mall, Gurgaon

Khaaja Chowk is not a new name in Indian food and restaurants scene. They are known for their sumptuous Indian cuisine, street food and Indian desserts among the foodies. Recently they have renovated/reinvented another branch in Gurgaon’s MGF metropolitan mall. They have transformed themselves into a young cafe like restaurant where they essentially serve Indian snacks and cuisines (along with a full fledged bar) but in a much contemporary way. The restaurant looks fabulous with bright, colorful decor and the overall energy of this place is very positive.

We went for an early dinner with a bunch of foodie friends. We had a few cocktails and beer along with some finger licking chakhna. Sabudana vada and Jaadavpoor puchka chaat were mouth watering starters. But what stood out was the Palak patta chaat – Made for Instagram, this was loved by by our tastebuds as much as our camera lens.

From main course we had their famous daal makhani, Katthal dum masala and gobhi mussalam.

We were pleasantly surprised to see an Indian restaurant going beyond paneer and experimenting with things like Cauliflower and Jack-fruit. We are blessed to be in a country where there is no dearth of vegetables. We love our arbis, zimikand, kathal and things from Ghia family. It’s just that restaurants shy away from making great dishes out of these vegetables. Brownie points to Khaaja Chowk for this Kathal dish.

Taste wise Gobhi mussulam was the dish of the day for us. We have yet to come across a better version of this humble vegetarian dish. Tasted awesome with our plain naan.

From desserts we had beetroot halwa with a dollop of ice cream and a gol matol shahi tukda. We liked the halwa much better. The sweetness of this Indian dessert was appropriately balanced with vanilla ice cream. This might have been an end to a delicious dinner but a start of looking at Indian food in a very contemporary way.

Big thumbs up.