The Northern express

Their passion for food held them in good stead for Hemant Singh, Vikram and RD Yadav knew precisely what they wanted to do next when their business went down due to the recession in 2008. “The three of us ran a market research agency and whenever we were free in office, we would cook something interesting like ‘desi chicken’, ‘half fry omelette’ and ‘poha’. When the recession made things dull, we felt there was no better way of working together than venturing into the food business. That’s when we came up with ‘Chulha Chauki da Dhaba’ in JP Nagar in 2009,” says Yadav.

The place wears a ‘desi’ ambience, with a typical ‘dhaba’ style setting. There is a hut inside with cane furniture including ‘moodahs’ for diners to sit on and additionally, there are tables and chairs to accomodate more people. The hanging lanterns providing dim lighting during dinner and the staff dressed in ‘kurta pajama’ add to the rustic appeal.

The open kitchen dishes out an array of North Indian and tandoori delights with a few Chinese starters and the trio like to term the food as ‘hot, chatpata (spicy) and zaaykedaar (delicious)’. Vegetarians can dig into lipsmacking starters like ‘aloo chilli’ and ‘paneer chatpata’, though the latter could do with a little less oil. The ‘CCDD special tikka’ (paneer item) and ‘mushroom tikka’ are good choices in the tandoori section. For the main course, the ‘aloo mutter’ (dry) and ‘dum aloo’ (gravy) are worth trying, for the owners vouch by their unique taste. Then there is the quintessential ‘dal tadka (with desi ghee)’, yummy melt-in-the-mouth ‘malai kofta’ and flavourful paneer preparations like ‘paneer tikka masala’, ‘kadai paneer’ and ‘paneer kurchan’— all apt to be polished off with hot ‘fulkas’ (rotis).

“Our ‘fulkas’ are special since they are cooked on coal for a homely feel,” says Yadav. They also have an assortment of ‘naans’, ‘parathas’ and rice items. ‘Eggetarians’ can satiate their cravings with ‘egg chilli’, ‘egg punjabi masala’ and other exotic variations. Meanwhile, appetisers like ‘lemon chicken’, ‘kalmi kabab’, ‘tandoori chicken’ and main dishes including ‘chicken angara’ and ‘tawa chicken’ do well to provide solace to non-vegetarians. An added attraction is their thick and filling ‘kulhad lassi’, perfect to wash down your meal with.

Frequented by several families and youngsters, the eatery has two more branches in HRBR Layout and Brookfield. It is open from 12 pm to 3.30 pm and 7 pm to 10.30 pm. It is located at No 13, 7th cross, JP Nagar 2nd phase. For details, call 32327799.