A Mystical Culinary Journey of Punjab at Punjab Grill Saket, Delhi

Amongst all outlets of Punjab Grill, the one at Select City Walk Saket is one of the oldest. With a spacious seating in the main restaurant and a small enclosed dining area outside, you can choose where you want to sit subject to your mood. In case, you want a quiet meal or a party place, there are seating options for every occasion. Currently, Punjab Grill Saket is running a Punjabi Food Festival – Rangla Punjab where the menu and presentation take you to the by-lanes of Punjab, created exclusively for diners and connoisseurs.

As you enter the restaurant, you will be enveloped between the people and culture of Punjab owing to the staff uniform, cutlery, décor and service. For a North Indian food freak, Punjab Grill has always been on the bucket list. The menu of the event is placed on every table, and those who ask for it are served items from it. In the preparation, they have tried to incorporate the authentic Punjabi food with dishes such as chicken, mutton, paneer and lallobiya. Lassi, undoubtedly is a staple ceremonial or every household drink in Punjab.

For us, as we sat, and with the temperature in Delhi rising day by day, called for the beverage menu to order a refreshing, thirst-quenching mocktail. We ordered a Rola-Cola which was a refreshing twist of mint, sweet-n-sour, cola and black salt, topped with ice. Post this, we were ready to begin our food trail of the Rangla Punjab menu. The first thing we tried from the menu was the frothy decadent Makhan Wali Lassi that came served in a tall metal glass. It was enough to make someone feel drowsy, and moreover, the lassi was sweet, as savoured in Punjab.Along with the lassi, we were served a basket of hot and crispy Papad.

While we were enjoying this, the server got us the starters that began with Chargha Murgh— deliciously crispy fried chicken served in four pieces with mint sauce on the side along with fresh green salad. Among vegetarian starters, we tried the Tikki Choley— crunchy potato tikki with choley on top further topped with mint and tamarind sauces and crushed potatocrispies for that extra punch. Each plate had two pieces of tikki, which for a normal palette could be sufficient. What followed after was the Mutton Champa— succulent fried minced mutton filets served again with mint sauce.

After all this, we were to order the main course, so we asked for Makhani Chooze ‘1965’, Kacchi Mirch Ka Paneer, Lal Lobiya and Aata Chicken along with an assorted bread basket. The Makhani Chooze was traditional butter chicken with bones — a Punjabi favourite, and after very long we enjoyed flavourful butter chicken which was not too sweet. The Lal Lobiya was something unusual — red eyed beans made with a lot of spices and flavours, and as we all know, Punjabi food is full of spices. The Kacchi Mirch Ka Paneer was also a lovely preparation of cottage cheese and thick curry of finely chopped onion and tomato. The breads served on the side were crisp and hot. The last item of the main course was Aata Chicken. This was something completely new to us. The chicken came to us in a ball of flour which hard to cut. The server slit open the ball and what we saw was whole chicken wrapped in a cloth which was further opened. Then the whole chicken was cut into four pieces and served to us. Although the presentation and preparation was interesting, the chicken have been cooked slightly more as meat tasted a tad bit raw.

Since a meal is incomplete without desserts, we decided to try two of them —Fruit Cream and Gurh Ka Halwa. The Fruit Cream seemed like it was made in whipped cream rather than freshly beaten cream. The cream was still at room temperature, and it felt as if they forgot to chill it in the refrigerator. The Gurh Ka Halwa was overly sweet and in my opinion, the sweetness can be been reduced.

I feel, the staff needs to work a bit more on the desserts and the Aata Chicken for me could have been avoided. However, every taste bud differs. Besides, these two points, the Punjabi Food Festival menu should be given a try by foodies and especially, the starters, lassi and the butter chicken.

Ratings (Out of 5)

Food: 3.0 | Ambience: 3.5 | Service: 4.0 | Overall: 3.5

Meal for Two: Rs2000 ++ | Wheel Chair Friendly: Yes | Credit Card: Yes | Alcohol: Yes

Address: 2nd Floor, Food Court, Select Citywalk Mall, Saket, New Delhi, 110017 | Phone: 011 3958 9144

Disclaimer: This review was done on an invitation from the restaurant. Due judgement and care has been applied by the author to remain objective and unbiased in the review, but readers need to consider this review keeping this fact in mind.