Taste of Chandni Chowk

Manjoor Hotel has many delights on offer ranging from kadai gosht to kaleji

Chandni Chowk, popular for its food for years, offers a range of mouthwatering vegetarian and non-vegetarian treats. This week, we trawl Qasim Jaan lane in Lal Kuan to give you a taste of Old Delhi.

And what better place than the 50-year-old Manjoor Hotel to start our gastronomic adventure?! 

The hotel has two food stalls: one that serves only bade ka meat– usually buffalo meat dishes – such as chane ki daal gosht, urad gosht, kadai gosht and kaleji, while the other offers chicken keema, chicken kofta and fish curry. The fish was fresh and the chicken was cooked to tender perfection, but both dishes came floating in oil!

Vegetarians, do not despair. You can choose from shahi paneer (Rs 35), aloo badi ki sabzi (Rs 25) and dahi bade (Rs 25 for a plate of two). The shahi paneer is mild but oily.
Our vote goes to the dahi bade which had a zingy tadka of jeera and chilli flakes in mustard oil. The badas were soft and spongy.

Manjoor Ahmed, who owns the hotel, sets great store by his secret spices. “We use a special mix of spices for each of our dishes. The spice mix for the chicken kheema is very different from the one used in daal gosht,” he explains.

Describing the beginnings of the hotel, he says: “We hail from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh but after the India-Pakistan partition my grandfather shifted to Karachi. My father Zaheer Ahmed stayed on here. He started this hotel in 1967. When I took over the business I decided to introduce chicken, fish and vegetarian dishes. In my father’s time we only served bade ka meat.”

The succulent non-veg curries are the USP of the hotel, and so are the roti’s cooked in a tandoor, not fried on a tawa. No, they are not ‘tandoori roti’s as you know them.

This version is soft, sweet and wafer thin. “The usual tandoori roti dough is prepared by adding milk to the dough but for these roti’s we use only water. However, we ferment the dough overnight,” says Manjoor.

Tasty food — that’s what you will get at Manjoor Hotel. If you are the kind that worries about ambience and hygiene, then this place may give you ulcers. If not, go ahead and indulge!