These are happy times for those who don’t want to venture near their kitchens. I have been looking at all the home delivery outlets that provide us with food, and am awestruck by all that they offer. So, when friends come over, ostensibly to visit a patient, we order in. And since one of the delivery outlets is right in our neighbourhood, it is extremely convenient as well.
This place is called Roomali Garh, which is quite a nice name, too. They have their centres in many parts of the town, including Mayur Vihar. The menu has the usual suspects – chicken malai tikka, mutton burrah kabab, paneer tikkey, tandoori stuffed mushroom, dal makhni, shahi paneer, butter chicken, mutton rogan josh and so on – but what caught my eye was a small Rajasthani section. It included two of my favourite Rajasthani dishes – laal maas and gattey ki sabzi – neither of which I am allowed now. But since I am large-hearted, I thought I should order some for family and friends.
So we asked for the Nagori gatta curry (₹ 229 for a plate or ₹369 for a larger helping), Marwari aloo pyaz (₹ 229 or ₹ 359 for extra-large), dhundhari kadhi chicken (₹309 for a plate) and smoked yellow dal Udaipuri (₹ 199). The laal maas (₹ 379) is being reserved for a friend who likes to cook this at home. The service has a couple of Rajasthani sweets, too – churmey key laddoo (₹ 399) and Ameri badaam key laddoo (₹549) – but we are off sweets (officially).
Nicely flavoured
The food was excellent. One, it came beautifully packed in a yellow paper bag which had a rough map of Rajasthan on it. Two, the dishes were nicely flavoured. The friends loved the kadhi chicken, which the menu described as a “Rajwada style” curd-based curry with red chilli tadka. The curry was like the northern kadhi, nice and smooth, and with a mildly tangy taste. The chicken came in the form of meatballs. Each plate has three chicken balls, which are large, soft and smooth.
Superb dumplings
The gattey – steamed lentil dumplings cooked in a spicy curd-based curry – was again nicely spongy, and the dal had a smoked flavoured complemented by the fragrance of cumin seeds and red chillies. The potato dish was a big hit – it was superbly light, and tempered merely with cumin seeds and hing. They also have a hing-lehsun chutney (₹ 189) which I think came gratis. It was the way you would like your garlic-asafoetida chutney – strongly flavoured, and just the right side dish.
The food also arrived before I could say Ranthambore. I was so impressed that I repeated the order two days later, when some other friends dropped by. And they all enjoyed the meal, too, for the dishes were not oily nor too spicy, but had the distinctive taste of curd, cumin, hing and red chillies. I (rather, my friends and family) have had another happy experience with another take away. But more of that later. This week, I need to focus on Roomali Garh, which I am told was started by a group of food-loving people from Jodhpur. I have actually always been fond of Rajasthani food – both its delicious vegetarian Marwari fare and the rich meat dishes. I have had some great meals in parts of Rajasthan as well as in Rajasthan House in Delhi, and was very happy to know that one of Jaipur’s landmarks, LMB, had opened an outlet in Bikaner House.
Roomali Garh has centres in 15 parts of the city. Apart from Mayur Vihar Phase 2, they are also present in Lodhi Road, Vivek Vihar, Noida Sector 51, Nehru Place, Greater Kailash, Shahpur Jat, Vasant Vihar, Dwarka and Gurgaon. The telephone number is 9225112277. They have three base kitchens – two in Okhla, and one in Sonepat. Try it out. As the Rajasthani would say, padharo mharey des.