In a nutshell:

Someone invested lot of money in making this beautiful restaurant. Alas, only if he had given such importance to hiring a great chef (a non vegetarian kababs & curries specialist) & a strong Manager to run this restaurant efficiently.

Address & other details: Indus Grill

Meal for 2: Rs. 500 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 everyWe & thing & 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:

We got to know of this restaurant from an email message in my inbox inviting us to dine at ths restaurant & review it. In case u find that strange, that is a very common practice nowadays by new restaurants. Sadly a section of bloggers go to such invites, eat the food, chat with the chef, do not pay for the food & come back & rate it. While some bloggers truthfully mention that they went on invite, others do not even bother to mention, thus leaving readers to wrong / biased info.

As u know, YUMMRAJ goes in anonymity & pays for the food, the invite was not accepted. Visited the restaurant on a Sunday afternoon & here is what happened.

Loud English music was playing in the restaurant, I guess sharing the same music from Prego, Italian restaurant downstairs. Is is passe to expect Indian music , if not vocal, at least instrumental – to set the mood.

We were at the restaurant from 1.15 to 2.50 in the noon. There was no other guest. I was surprised. Is it coz the restaurant is new or is it coz people do not like this place? I don’t know.

Menu card was very nicely designed. It was colorful & had detailed description of food items.

The staff members were nice guys but not up to the mark expected in an upscale restaurant.

The Loo was not maintained. No tissue / toilet paper in both men’s and women’s loo. Flush broken in women’s loo. Pot and seat werwe dirty due to previous usage. Reminded me of the saying of famous chef & food writer, Anthony bourdain – ‘If the loo of a restaurant is not on order, u can b sure the kitchen is in super mess coz the loo is very easy to maintain as compared to kitchen’. I guess the place needs a good manager.

The food was just normal – U get this standard of food with many small to medium eateries – Kababs no match to the ones near Jama masjid / even other ‘famous food destinations’ of delhi.

The prices for such ordinary food was ‘restaurant pricing’. On other occassions I have walked out of restaurants much happier even after paying 5 times more. Examples – Indian Accent, Kainoosh, Dum Pukth, Havemore, Earthen Oven, Punjab Grill, Made in Punjab & many more. Even lower priced places like Karims , Al Karam etc all serve food that is way better.

Detailed description – in case u have the time to njoy reading:

As we waited for our food post ordering, we were served complimentary mini Stuffed kulcha. Very good to see. Nice filling that was Suboptimally salted. Hence the food cud not reach its potential. Sprinkling of salt did not help either. Directionally nice but not outstanding.

We ordered for a non veg platter that was served on a grill on the table.

Started munching on Chicken malai tikka . It was Soft, not at all juicy, it had a mildly creamy external surface, good to taste. Mildly over salted. Rate it 3/5.

Murg reshmi kabab was somewhat juicy, had a strong taste & balanced seasoning. It was Soft meat and Good to taste. Rate it 3.5/5.

Fish tikka ajwaini was not dry, not too juicy. Soft, somewhat flaky fish was used for this dish. Fish had no special character of its own. Marination was strong and good. Flavor of ajwain was prominent and was enjoyable. Rate it 4/5.

Mutton seekh kabab had too much packing in it. It had Less salt. Flavor and taste of mutton got killed by excess packing. The kabab was dry, far from being soft and juicy. Infact it was hard (by kabab standards). U wud probably hear a thud if this kabab were to fall on ground. This kabab failed miserably in all grounds – taste, texture, seasoning. Was a torture. I gulped it with green chutney and onion. Rate it 1/5.

Bharwa karela was not very bitter & enjoyable. It had a filling of paneer and masalas. The filling was nice and tasty. Robust flavours and taste. Very ‘fat rich’ food. It was overall very good. Rate it ‘4/5.

Darbari gosth had good soft pieces of mutton. They were tasty too. Rate them 3/5.

Gravy was extremely tomatoeeeee – not cooked optimally till the tomato smell goes off. I don’t know which durbar had this kind of gosth coz tomatoes came to india from South America in late 1800s by which time all nawabs with durbars were in their graves (for those of u who’ve not ventured into history books since school, 1857 British crown started ruling INDIA).

I felt giving such ‘interesting fancy names that do not mean anything’ was nothing short of making a fool of customers who wud expect some exotic traditional preparation that has stood the test of time. Rate the gravy 1/5. Overall rate the dish 2/5.

We ordered a cucumber drink –  strong drink with obvious flavor of cucumber, a tinge of sour and salt and an ocean full of sweet liquid. The drink was overwhelmingly sweet , so much that I felt like having fallen into a tub of rasgulla Ras!!!!!! With great effort managed to finish ¼ glass. Rate it 1/5.

For dessert, phirni came in 3 kinds – plain kesar and chocolate . None of these were set , unlike the traditional Phirni that is set in & served set in earthen bowls.

The Plain one was over sweet. Rate it 2/5. The Kesar one was balanced and nice. Rate it 3/5. Chocolate one was unexpectedly good. Bitterness of chocolate balanced the extreme sweetness. Rate it 4/5. Rate it overall 3/5.

Overall rating of food and beverages at Indus Grill averages out to 2.7/5.

I wud shiver at the thought of going back to eat non vegetarian food. I hv heard they make good veggie food – maybe will try that some day.