It is so difficult to do a North Indian (read Punjabi) restaurant, that most entrepreneurs give up before they start and instead do world food (which used to be called multi-cuisine) or ersatz Italian. For real Punjabi food, there are some insurmountable problems. No matter how good your dal makhni is, you are reduced to weakly comparing it to its famous country cousin, Dal Bukhara . Then, you have to determine the levels of spicing in your restaurant. Too high and all you’ll get is the local crowd. Too mild and no Indian will enter your doors.
Punjab Grill has managed to overcome all these problems. There’s no three-gravy trick here - each dish has its own, clearly identifiable flavour profile that owes itself to the spicing and the base of the gravy. And the tandoori items are the stars of the show. They have optimal spicing that doesn’t drown the flavour of the main ingredient, yet is subtle enough for you to discern individual masalas.
Take Bhatti da Murgh Pindi Wala (Rs 390) for example. The pieces of chicken on the bone are succulent, the marinade is fresh and the spicing includes a tiny trace of powdered mustard seed for a rather unusual touch. Man does not live by kookar alone, and Punjab Grill has been quick off the mark to put in some un-Punjabi choices on the menu. One of these is Salmon Tikka (Rs 725). Napped with an infinitesimal amount of cream, the spicing in this tikka was light enough so that the flavour of the fish dominated. I have visited both branches of Punjab Grill and I must say that there is a marked difference in the cooking, though whether that is intentional or not, I don’t know. The Salmon Tikka in Select Citywalk was a regular tikka, with lots of haldi, presumably to negate the smell of the fish!
The priciest item on the entire menu has to be the duck. Called simply Tandoori Duck (Rs 1050), it’s the restaurant’s signature dish, and the single reason why they have catapulted into the limelight. The portions are extremely generous and the flavour has a mild fruitiness, in addition to all the spice that is very attractive indeed. Miraculously, the duck is never dry and stringy after its stint in the tandoor; neither is its flavour overpoweringly strong and gamey.
You can have all the Malerkotla da Kormas in the world on your menu, but all people want to know is how good your Butter Chicken is. But there’s a catch. Everybody and his uncle (in Delhi, at any rate) has a firm favourite, and no matter how good the version of a new restaurant is, it is always liable to be compared with a favourite in another part of the city: that is one of the most trying aspects of starting a North Indian restaurant in our city.
Punjab Grill’s Murgh Makhani (half costs Rs 295) is a sophisticated version. It’s creamy, tart and flavourful all at once. What it lacks is a touch of sweetness, but it makes up for that by having depth of flavour, which cannot be said of many other versions.
You can tell when a restaurant cares for its patrons by the freebies it offers. Punjab Grill has worked out a
Paan Shot that you’re supposed to drink in one go. It’s a funky concept, it sums up the Punjab Grill experience, and it’s free!
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