In a nutshell:

One of the best Dahi Bhalla chaats in town & awesome aloo tikki chaat.

Address & other details: Natraj

YUMMRAJ’s advice – Take a metro ride to Chandni chowk. Once u r out, come to the main chandni chowk road & ask anyone. Avoid taking ur car.

Meal for 2: Rs. 60 onwards

Cuisine Type: Vegetarian

Description:

For a hardcore carnivore like me, praising a dahi bhalla is unusual unless it is unusually good. This one is.

I have obviously had Dahi Bhallas in many places before & had classified them as the good, the bad & the ugly. The one at Natraj was Super good.

The shop is slightly bigger than the proverbial ‘hole in the wall’. Customers have to stand outside , pay money, take delivery of the foo dfrom the counter & stand on the footpath & eat……………….. & in case u have not been here, there is a chance that there can b queues to eat dahi bhallas.

As we went to pay, we noticed that a guy was flattening the dahi bhallas, adding a black powder & putting them on paper plates & stacking the plates up. As soon as payment is done, a man adds dahi atop the bhallas & red chutney. If customer wants green chutney, he is directed to a bowl of green chutney kept in the corner – help urself with it. The look is exactly same as any other Dahi Bhalla.

The first bite goes into the mouth & u realize a sea of difference. The bhalla has almost very little ‘water’, is daanedar but soft. The black powder is magical & makes almost all the difference to the taste. The red chutney is very good but nothing very different than the other good ones. Same for the green chutney. I wud give this dahi bhalla 4.5/5.

Post this we had a plate of aloo tikki chaat. In Gurgaon aloo tikki chaats have a paneer filling, are slightly thick & uniform in looks & have pomegranate garnishing. The one at Natraj was thin at the corner & slightly fat at the center, fully hand-shaped (unlike a mould used in Gurgaon) & has a daal filling in the center. The outer layer was super crispy & the daal gave a new dimension to the chaat. The red & green chutney added to the taste. Awesome once again & hence a 4.5/5.

Incidentally these r the only two items sold at this shop & they r so good that I do not mind a ride on metro from Gurgaon to eat these. Try them out in case u haven’t so far.