Kake Da Hotel, Connaught Place, New Delhi

By
Chef at Large Contributor
– November 24, 2009Posted in: Central Delhi, Reviews

Contributed by Amit Uppal

[Rating:3.5/5]

What comes to mind when you say ‘Punjab’? A sardarji, sitting on a manjhi (cot made of wood and jute), outside a dhaba (a roadside eatery), sipping lassi (a blend of yogurt, water, , or sugar and ice) from a huge steel tumbler, and a plate of piping hot parathas with dollops of . Dhabas have always been an inseparable part of Punjabi culture. Sadly, they are all but gone now. Those in the Punjab and elsewhere have either become restaurants or have disappeared. The ones that are left can only be found on highways for most part. I’m not counting the restaurants that call themselves ‘dhabas’ and serve food on bone-china crockery and drinks in crystal glasses.

When we talk of dhabas in ‘saadi dilli’ (a Punjabi’s nickname for Delhi, literally meaning ‘our Delhi’), Kake Da Hotel tops the list. It’s not literally a ‘dhaba’, but a more restaurant-ish place. People from all walks of life, clerks to top corporate honchos have been satisfying their hunger for Punjabi dhaba food here for countless years. The place is a treasure trove for us carnivores. Ask any Delhiite, young or old, and he would have definitely visited Kake Da Hotel at least once.

Kake Da Hotel was set up somewhere in the 1930’s in Lahore by a man called Amolak Ram. He had to leave Pakistan after India got divided and landed in Delhi, to begin the same operation again, this time in Connaught Place. In its early days, Kake Da Hotel used to be a shack, with the food served on the pavement and people sitting on benches outside. Great food at throwaway prices used to draw the rich and poor alike to Kake da Hotel where Amolak Ram used to cook everything himself. With the passing of time, he hired a few cooks, whom he personally trained to do the job. Amolak Ram is no more now, and Kake da Hotel is run by his grandsons. The cooks that he hired are still with Kake Da Hotel, serving the same taste and flavor that it started with. This was the first authentic Punjabi dhaba in Delhi, and still boasts of having maintained the same taste all these years.

Finding Kake da Hotel isn’t difficult. If you’re at Odeon Cinema in Connaught Place, move towards the outer circle, and you cannot miss Kake’s large red signboard across the road, slightly to your right. Crossing the road is in itself an achievement, and the reward is Kake’s lip-smacking food. If you’re there at lunch or dinner time, you can find almost every make and model of cars parked outside, for the place caters to everyone. The outer façade might not seem impressive, and you might like to leave your concerns on hygiene at home. Once there, you invariably would find people gathered outside the delivery counter, waiting for their turn. The guy at the entrance, the “maitre d’hotel”, would let you know when to get in. The interior decor is not very encouraging. The floor is, or used to be, marble, but now has so many stains that it’s difficult to make out. It’s your luck, whether you get plastic or metal chairs, with torn and -spotted cushions to sit on. Broken corners, holes and stains adorn the tables. Kake da Hotel is a small place, spread across two levels, with a seating for about 40-50 people at a time. There is no ‘your own table’ policy there. If you are two, and the table is for four, you might have company of two others, unknown to you. Too depressed to picture this, eh?

Kake da Hotel is always buzzing with the constant chatter and movement of customers and waiters. You might even bump into a few by the time you reach your table. The staff work with clockwork precision, with the orders taking about 10-12 minutes to arrive, depending on the size. Do not expect courtesies as people here are too busy to extend or expect any. The rule ‘eat, pay and move’ applies. We were three of us, and had to wait a full fifteen minutes for our turn to get in. We were finally given a table in a corner on the first floor, one of whose chair was occupied by a sardarji, wolfing down his food, like there was no tomorrow. There’s no menu card to speak of, you can refer to the wall opposite you that has a stained metal board spelling out the fare, to pick your food. The list isn’t too big, and consists of mainly Chicken, Mutton and Fish, and a few vegetarian ones. 80% of the people coming to Kake da Hotel know what they want. The guy who came to take our order was wearing a dirty T-shirt and oil-smeared pants. We ordered…

… Mutton Seekh Kebab (Ground lamb with , wrapped around skewers and roasted on hot charcoal embers); one portion each of (Rs 90), Chicken Curry (Rs 90), Brain Curry (Rs 90), Mutton Saagwala (Goat Meat cooked with Spinach and Spices, Rs 100), Shahi Paneer (a thick, creamy and tomato based curry with cubes of cottage cheese and cream, Rs 65) and Rotis (unleavened oven baked bread, Rs 5 each). Kake prides itself for cooking everything in Desi Ghee (clarified butter), which might become a bit too much. So leave your worries of taking in excess calories and fat, because you can’t do without it at Kake’s.

Butter Chicken (also called ‘Murgh Makhani’ and other similar names), is said to have originated at the Moti Mahal Restaurant in Delhi, somewhere in the 1950s. Moti Mahal used to be famed for its Chicken (chicken marinated in yogurt and seasoned with spices, cooked over hot embers in a bell-shaped clay oven). To recycle the leftovers, the cooks took butter and tomato, added spices, made it into a , added the Tandoori Chicken pieces, and Butter Chicken was born. Today, it is considered an inseparable part of Delhi’s history and culture.

The food took the standard 10-12 minutes to arrive. Kake’s serves its fare with onion rings topped with salt, masala and lemon juice, with green chutney on the side. The Seekh Kababs were nothing special to talk of, almost the same as you would find anywhere else. The Butter Chicken is something I would take time to describe. Undoubtedly, one of the better Butter Chickens I have had in recent times – a quarter chicken in butter-rich, thick tomato gravy. One spoonful of the gravy in your mouth, and you know you have embarked on a new and different culinary adventure. The first bite would feel as if it’s only butter and nothing else and after a while you realize there’s something else, which is tangy, slightly sweet and spicy. I finished half of it, just devouring the chicken and the gravy, and ordered one more. The Chicken Curry was good, with lots of ghee and spices, but not chili hot. Brain Curry, my all-time favorite, was comprised of tender goat’s brain, soaked in a ghee-rich yellow-brown onion-tomato gravy. It was divine and I wouldn’t mind ordering it every time. Mutton Saagwala was good too, with tender pieces of goat meat in a thick gravy made of pureed spinach, spices and of course, ghee. Kake’s might be one of the best for non-, but are certainly not that good with their vegetarian fare. The Shahi Paneer was bland except for a hint of tomato with no flavor of cream or spices.

The décor might definitely depress a first-timer, but the food definitely makes up for it. By the way, for those living in South Delhi, Kake Da Hotel is also at DDA Market, Panchsheel Enclave. Highly recommended for authentic non-vegetarian dhaba food, and a near dhaba ambiance.

Meal for Two: Rs 300| Credit Cards: NO | Alcohol: NO | Takeaway: YES | Home Delivery: NO

- Amit



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