I am basically an andhraite who has lived in Delhi for a better part of my life (almost 30 years) before coming to Chennai to work in a company over here. Hence I was literally brought up on authentic punjabi / dhaba style food besides the usual andhra style food made at home.

Recently I happened to visit the nungambakkam branch of Dhaba Express as I was missing authentic punjabi food after having left Delhi and I must say that I was thoroughly dissappointed at the punjabi / dhaba staple that was served to me.

I ordered tandoori roti, paneer tikka and yellow dal (expecting it to be chane ki dal which is usually served in many a good restaurants and dhabas in and around Delhi) and sat salivating at the expectation of sinking my teeth into some succulent pieces of paneer tikka and devouring it with hot rotis and dal.......well!.....I sat and sat, I do not know how many minutes, maybe 45 minutes or so .....and I finally the food arrived!!! (strange!!!....no crowd in the reastaurant at that time but still so much time was taken to serve the food!!). As I hungrily dug my teeth into the tikkas, I realised that I was digging my teeth into some ’’rubbery’’ material, which appeared to be anything but paneer. With this about aquarter of my hunger died down. Then I expectantly took a piece of tandoori roti (thank god!..at least the roti was well done...) and scooped up some dal from the dish and put it in my mouth.....was my mind playing some tricks with me or my tongue had lost the taste of punjaabi food!!!......what I was tasting was some kind of fusion of north and south!!!......the yellow dal was chane ki dal alright but hey!!!......someone did a ’’double take’’ and instead appeared to have added sambar masala to this chane ki dal!!!....The dal was tasting more like sambar than punjabi chane ki dal!!!!.......this was the ultimate and the rest of my hunger got killed by this ’’harakiri’’ performed by this restaurant on the humble punjabi chane ki dal!!!!.......

Added to that the time taken for the simple vegetarian fare I ordered was too much. The staff / waiters are simply ill informed about the nuances of punjabi food and anything punjabi (their restaurant is named ’’dhabba’’ i.e. box, instead of ’’dhaba’’).

I always had this impression that down south, they simply do not understand the nuances and intricacies of authentic punjabi food and I think I was vindicated in my impressions.....that is not to say that there may not be authentic punjabi restuarant in the city but DHABBA EXPRESS IS DEFINITELY NOT THE ONE!!!!......

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