ITP Indian Travel Places: Food, Travel, Tourism Business Events and Trade Shows
Restaurant Name: Lamba Da Dhaba, Chembur, Mumbai
Phone: +912225222878
Address: 15/16, Chhadva Apartments, Sion Trombay Road, Near Diamond Garden, Chembur East, Chembur, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400052 India
Time: 12:30 PM – 4:30 PM, 6:30 PM – 11:30 PM
Meals for two: Rs.750
Cuisines: Seafood, Biryani, North Indian, Chinese, Mughlai, Kebab, Finger Food
Facilities: Home Delivery, Takeaway Available, Full Bar Available, Egg Preparations, Indoor Seating
It’s our addiction. It’s simple. It’s no frills. We go back again and again. We dine here when we’re celebrating. We go here when we’re golfing in Chembur. We stop here when we’re driving to Pune and also driving back from Pune. We love to love Lamba da Dhaba (LDD). It magnetizes us to Chembur. We celebrated my birthday earlier this year at the simple, functional, Lamba da Dhaba. Sadly, my foodie friend, the late Chimpu Rajeev Kapoor, (who used to love LDD, too) was to join us, but was in Pune and couldn’t do so.
Lamba Da Dhaba, Chembur, Mumbai: A Fishy Punjabi Love Affair
Zero in on the ‘Lamba Fish’ on the menu. It’s the stuff dreams are made of. Bite into the crunchy golden crispness (deep fried besan spiked with ajwani) into the snow white firm, flakey chunk of rawas. It’s the perfect balance of crunch and moist. Sprinkled with their secret chaat masala, accompanied with kothmir and pudina chutney, it makes for the perfect menage e trois. Quarter kilo of fish fry, ‘Lamba Fish’ is priced at Rs. 380.
The very same ‘Lamba Fish’ was priced at Rs. 8 in 1979, when Inderjit Singh Lamba opened his Lamba da Dhaba.
Grandmother Kuldeep Kaur would cook and send mutton and chicken to the dhaba, too. It was a boxed-in 350 sq feet (which is now the Bar section) and now the restaurant sprawls 2,000 sq feet into three rooms (a family room, too). Give us the ‘Lamba Fish‘ (rawas) any day, though they do offer the pomfret fry option, too. Prawn lovers go for the Lamba Prawns. Made to the spicy koliwada recipe.
The second generation, B.Com graduate owner Karan Lamba has added several dishes (including Chinese), but thankfully has retained not just the old favourites, but also the cooking style.
Terrific Tandoori Tales
The heart of Lamba’s kitchen is the double walled clay tandoor. It makes slow love to the 12 hour marinated chicken. The Mutton Seekh Kabab is half done in the tandoor and then fried. Even the famous Daal Makhani is cooked overnight over the tandoor. Of course, the pure wheat Tandoori Rotis, Pure Wheat Kulcha and Naan are all blessed by the tandoor. Vegetarians ask for the Paneer Reshmi marinated in cream, malai, butter and if it’s the winter season, it has to be the Sarson da Saag.
There’s the omnipresent Chinese menu (Babycorn Mushroom Chilly, Chicken Manchurian – fast moving items), the outsourced kulfi and Chocolate Mousse.
For it’s the fully stocked bar and the Lamba Fish, which works the magic. Balle balle.
