In a nutshell:

A ‘home delivery/takeaway’ only place that serves authentic & super YUMM Kashmiri food in Delhi – it’s a pity they do not have a sit-in restaurant .

Address & other details: Ahad Sons

Address: 3 A, August Kranti Marg, Masjid Moth, Uday Park, New Delhi, DL 110049

Phone: 011 2625 8036 , 011 625 3642, 625 6017 (In case u do not get thru, pls chk google for updated phone numbers)

E-mail: enquiries@ahadsons.com

Meal for 2: Rs. 600 onwards

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

I heard about this place from our Kashmiri foodie friend Shambhavi who said this was the best & most authentic Kashmiri food in town. So we decided to take a trip to this place. We took along with us a friend who was quite good with the roads in the area – that helped. Coz Google maps does not describe the way too well.

As we parked our car at Mother Dairy booth in Uday Park Market & walked into the lane, we realized that the look & feel of the place was fast changing. Yes, we were in the Urban Village of Delhi, Masjid Moth. Huge , Ugly, unplanned buildings & thousands of wires between us & the sky.

The building in which this eatery is located is huge but nondescript – There is no shop sign board outside the building. As we entered the building, there was a long flight to stairs to the first floor – a huge neat & clean modern kitchen to the right & a small but very well maintained office to the left. An elderly gentleman was managing the orders sitting in Office & we had a good chat with him.

Ahad Sons came to Delhi more than 2 decades back to spread the magic off Wazwan beyond the valley. For the uninitiated, Wazwan is a multi-course meal in Kashmiri cuisine, the preparation of which is considered an art. Of its thirty-six courses, between fifteen and thirty can be preparations of meat, cooked overnight by a master chef who is called Waza.

Ever since then, they have been into catering, cooking Kashmiri food for 3 to 5 star Hotels, selling canned food & of course the home-delivery / take-away model that I mentioned above. We got to know that they are in the process of setting up a huge factory in Kashmir to manufacture canned food so that they can start selling them all across the world.

Canned food? Yes, u heard it right. I was also surprised to see canned Gushtaba , roganjosh & Rishta. I was told that they taste almost as good, when heated & eaten. Food in these cans have a shelf life of 6 months!!!

The Office had press clippings pasted all over the wall & also letters praising the food. Photographs of the Wazas also adorned the wall.

Food cooked & served on the spot vs. food packed & carried back home has some difference for sure. Food at Ahad Sons was excellent but some items like the tabak maaz suffered a bit due to that time lag.

Detailed Description – In case u have the Time to NJOY reading:

We started our meal with Tabakh Maaz. It is ‘Tender ribs cooked in kashmiri condiments gravy shallow fried and served dry’. So far we used to like the tabak maaz at ‘Kashmiri food stall ‘wazwan’ in Dilli Haat & also at Chor Bizarre. Tabak Maaz at Ahadsons, as I mentioned, suffered due to the time lag. Inspite of that it was as good as the Chor Bizarre one. I cud imagine how much better it wud be if we were to eat in the spot. It was soft lamb ribs with meat layers & fat layers in between – delicious. Spicing was perfect as well. Tasty, good in texture , perfect flavors & I give it a 4.25/5.

For main course we ordered Haaq – A Kashmiri spinach dish. We were always a fan of the over simple no turmeric watery gravy version of haaq at Wazwan, Dilli Haat. The Haaq at Ahad Sons was very different & very good as well. It obviously had turmeric, the gravy was thicker, the saag was excellent & so were the interplay of spices. I loved this new version & give this a 4.25/5.

Post Haaq we had Rista. It is ‘Pounded mutton balls cooked in saffron flavoured gravy’. The gravy was good but surprisingly not great. Flavors of fennel seeds that usually characterizes this dish was also not there. It was however tasty on its own but pretty unidirectional. I give the gravy a 3.25/5.

The meatball was awesome. It was hand-pounded with layers of fat. That was evident in the taste, the intensity of the meat, the flavours & the dense colorless drops of juice that oozed out when I tried to cut the meatball with a spoon!!!! Awesome – A 4.75/5 for the meatball.
Rating for the dish averages out to 4/5.

The next dish in main course was Mutton Rogan Josh. It was described by Ahadsons as ‘selected mutton pieces cooked in kashmiri onion gravy with cocks comb flower water’. The Hindus of Kashmir do not use any onion or garlic in this dish, but use yogurt or curd, fennel powder and asafoetida to impart richness. For making the same curry, the Kashmiri Muslims, however, use onions and a special ingredient called mawal / “rattan jyot, which is actually dried cockscomb flower.

The meat was tender & very tasty. Loved the thick red gravy & kept having it till the end. Once again, the gravy lacked brilliance but was surely better than ‘good’. I wud give the gravy a 3.5/5 but the meat a 4.5/5. Overall the dish wud get 4/5.

The last dish we had was Gushtaba – It is hand pounded mutton cooked with spices, shaped into balls and cooked in a flavorful yogurt gravy. The mutton ball was as awesome as the rishta. It gets a straight 4.75/5. The gravy of gushtaba was excellent as well – light, very tasty & full of flavors. Loved it & wud rate it 4.25/5. Overall rating for the dish wud b 4.5/5.

We also had akhrot chutney – curd based chutney with ground walnuts (akhrot). Loved the intensity of taste & the creamy dense texture. I wud rate this 4.25/5.

Overall rating of food at Ahad Sons averages out to 4.2/5. A must try I wud say…………………

U just need to figure out where to eat it, in case u do not stay in the neighbourhood. Else u might not enjoy it as well if eaten micro waved.