-
Steve R
Jul 21, 2011 01:10 PM
Junoon and Dhaba are pretty significantly different price wise. If you're willing to spend more than Dhaba, I'd still recommend Devi or the newer place, Tulsi, that the ex-Devi chef/owner (Hemant) opened this year. Very creative but still genuinely Indian. In it's price range, Dhaba still gets my business although, like most places, its lunch buffet doesnt get you the real deal. But, I've gotten it and I think it was more than ok.
-----
Devi
8 East 18th Street, New York, NY 10003Tulsi
211 E 46th St, New York, NY 10017Junoon
27 W 24th St, New York, NY 10010 -
-
-
dhaba on lexington between 27th and 28th
-----
Dhaba
108 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016›11 Replies-
-
re: AubWah
Based entirely on this thread, I ordered lunch to be delivered from Dhaba today. So far it has been a very bad experience. My food is an hour late, and every time I call they give me the runaround.
Edited to add: I finally gave up. The food never arrived, notwithstanding three phone calls over the course of an hour in which they assured me it was on its way.
-
re: AubWah
What is everyone ordering @ Dhaba? I live 3 blocks from the place, and menu wise it doesn't stand out next to Cinnamon, Pongal, Madras Mahal?, Chennai Garden, Tiffin Wallah, Curry Leaf, Tamba, or Saravanna.
-----
Saravanaas
81 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016Tiffin Wallah
127 E 28th St, New York, NY 10016Chennai Garden
129 E 27th St, New York, NY 10016Pongal
110 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016Madras Mahal
104 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016Curry Leaf
99 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016Tamba
103 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016-
-
re: WestIndianArchie
Bob Martinez
Jul 23, 2011 09:43 AM
Among the starters, the chapli chicken kabob and the pahadi chicken kabob are just terrific. Beautifully spiced, juicy, and full of flavor. (Avoid the shami lamb kabobs - not good at all.)
Among the mains, the Dhaba chili chicken is spicy as hell but delicious. Tandoori chicken is mild and among the best versions I've had anywhere. The bhuna lamb mirchwalla is also excellent.
-
re: WestIndianArchie
That's an odd list of restaurants whose menus you say are similar to Dhaba's. Some are vegetarian with a South Indian slant (Madras Mahal, Chennai Garden, Saravanna, etc.) which Dhaba most certainly isn't. Having said that, I'll add that my one meal from Dhaba was pretty ordinary. Without going all "high end" (Devi, Junoon, Tulsi, Tamarind) there's better food at Nirvana and Chola, although as with all mid-level Indian restaurants in New York inconsistency at these paces is a consistent problem.
-----
Chennai Garden
129 E 27th St, New York, NY 10016Chola
232 East 58th Street, New York, NY 10022Nirvana
346 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10001Tulsi
211 E 46th St, New York, NY 10017Junoon
27 W 24th St, New York, NY 10010-
-
re: AubWah
Very hard to know for sure. There's a distinct inattention to detail, a distinctly cavalier attitude to standards, and a distinct tendency to start strong and continue weak, but I'm not sure what the reason is. Partly it's because restaurants get away with it. There's a certain group of people in places such as New York and Boston who like the standard fare at Indian restaurants (the neon red tandoori chicken, the tikka masala, the vindaloo that has wandered so far from its origins as to now be a completely different dish) and who keep them going through all their unevenness. I find that even on a site such as Chowhound people approach Indian restaurants with less exacting standards than they do Chinese, or certainly Italian or French. If a restaurant can get away with serving uneven food and letting its standards drop, in many cases it will. Take the decor at a place like Dhaba, for example. Obviously, some thought went into it originally. But look at how it's been maintained. When I was there a few months ago, every other table had a filthy folded paper napkin under at least one leg to keep it steady. Yet, the restaurant garners praise and this aspect of its upkeep garners no criticism. Why would they bother to change?
-
re: FoodDabbler
Somebody has asked, bizarrely, on another site (http://tinyurl.com/3qecvmp ) how I know about the napkins under the tables at Dhaba. It's simple: I looked. I was there before 6 p.m. and it was fairly empty. I noticed that our table rocked and I looked under it. I saw a napkin. I looked around (it's not a place with tablecloths to the floor, so it's easy to see what's under the tables). I saw many napkins.
Now, I cannot tell a lie. I did not count to confirm that it was exactly half the tables that had napkins. Perhaps it was 53%; perhaps 47%. But my estimate is that it was every other table.
-
-
-
-
-
