Masala House Sunder Nagar, New Delhi North Indian Restaurant

Indian Travel Places February 5, 2021 Food Review 1,329 Views

Restaurant Name: Masala House Sunder Nagar, New Delhi
Phone: 9999121097 / 9999121098
Address: Market 4, New Khanna Market, Sundar Nagar, New Delhi, India
Time: 12:30 PM to 03:00 PM – 07:00 PM to 11:30 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 1,800
Cuisines: North Indian
Facilities: Home Delivery, Full Bar Available, Live Music, Wifi, Indoor Seating, Smoking Area, Table booking recommended

Masala House Sunder Nagar, New Delhi: Decor

Here’s a small rant — visit a market or mall, and you’ll see people without masks, lurching crowds, jostling each other and no social distancing. Now go to a restaurant and see the difference — COVID has virtually sounded the death-knell for the industry as a whole. Rules — targeted at this one segment of business — are strictly enforced. But you can see the pall that hangs in the air with reduced staff (elderly cooks have been sent on long leave because they are in the high-risk bracket, junior staff who fled to their villages at the start of the lockdown and have not returned) and fewer customers who have discovered the joys of home delivery, leaving restaurants to pay rents and salaries with little income. To review a restaurant, I visit as close to opening time as I can and in Masala House, I was brought to grips with the rigorous cleaning and disinfecting that goes on behind the scenes, minutes before opening time.

Masala House Sunder Nagar, New Delhi: Food

The food is traditional Indian (mainly north with a few preparations from other regions). It is the plate presentations that are eye-catching and modern, though the flavors remain resolutely traditional. Silbatte ki shami (Rs. 745) features four plump shamis that have been grilled on a pan, rather than fried — exactly the way they are supposed to be cooked. Also, the fibres of the meat have been kept intact by grinding the mutton on a grinding stone rather than in a food processor that would reduce it to a pulp without texture. It is just one example of the degree of care the restaurant takes in its offerings. Dora kebabs (Rs. 695) is served on the seekh, tied up with string. The server drops the kebab onto your plate with a deft flick of the string. Usually, flora kebabs are imbued with the faint scent of sandalwood oil, which this version lacked. It would have been a travesty to eat it with a chutney (three were served at the table) though a tiny squeeze of lime would have been perfect. Murg khichdi (Rs. 695) intrigued me enough to order it. There was far more chicken, off the bone, chopped into generous pieces, than rice. Nothing, however, compares with Dum biryani (Rs. 895) that manages to be light, rich and flavorful at once.