Venue: Rajouri Garden
Date: May, 2016

Our visit to The Junkyard Cafe was like going for a film that you don’t have high hopes from but surprisingly end up being thoroughly entertained. One reason why we were sceptical was probably the lack of uniqueness. These days a lot of theme based restaurants are opening everywhere in Delhi and more or less all are the same. The other reason was the location probably. Apart from Naturals  we hardly visit any eatery in this area frequently. This whole area is cluttered with one restaurant on top of the other and apparently most of them are doing decent business. We have dined earlier at  The High Street Cafe, The Common Room, and even The Dunkin Donuts here and have always had to face parking issues mostly on weekends. But once again we braved the heat and parking woes and went for lunch at The Junkyard Cafe in this market. This one comes from the house of restaurants like Garam Dharam and Oh My God.

The decor and the menu

The decor is made of junk objects – no prize for guessing. Some bottles, iron spares, fuel tank of a bike, used rims and drums are used to make the cafe look like Junkyard. The menu comprised of cocktails, mocktails Indian appetizers and the main course items were a melange of Indian curries and breads, Italian Pizza/Pasta along with some Asian dishes.

What all we tried at The Junkyard Cafe

Steam Rice and Thai Red Curry

Smoked Chicken Salad

Metal Bender

Chicken Malai Tikka

Tandoori Prawns

Edison Bulb

From cocktails we tried their Metal Bender and Edison Bulb. The first one was served in a bamboo mug and the second one in a bulb with some nitrogen smoke. Cocktails, as in most of the cafes these days, were too sweet for us. After this we just stuck to our good old Kingfisher pints. We had smoked Chicken salad, Tandoori prawns and Chicken malai tikka with our drinks. Clearly their food was much better than the drinks. Salad was well made with fresh chicken and veggies. We would highly recommend their tandoori prawns. Low fat and simple, these prawns were charred slightly in tandoor and as a result they retained their seafood flavor despite the tandoori masala coating on top. For main course we ordered Thai Red Curry with steamed rice. This was piping hot, subtle and flavorful at the same time. The portion size also deserves a mention. For the price, most of the dishes were substantial in size. For dessert we had brownie with ice cream and this too was good like rest of their stuff.

Why are we Happy

1. Gimmicky cocktails apart, everything we had at The Junkyard Cafe was fresh and tasty.
2. There was no mirchi at all in any of the things served to us. The chef clearly knows how to make stuff delicious without relying on chilli and overdose of hot Indian spices.
3. The service was superb here. The waiting staff was on their toes throughout the afternoon to serve the guests. Special mention to Mr. Ramesh – he attended to us so well, we can’t help mentioning his name. Staff like him can be great assets in the hospitality industry.
4. We were surprised to see the calories mentioned in every section of the menu. How cool is that. A big thumbs up from us 🙂

What would have made us even happier

1. If the beers could be chilled, not just cold.
2. If the cocktails had more kick and less gimmick.

Overall this lunch at The Junkyard cafe turned out to be quite pleasant – food and service both were very impressive. We see ourselves going again to the The Junkyard Café – the restaurant that’s not serving junk.