In a nutshell:

A takeaway joint (opened by a famous restaurant of the same name in Jaipur) with some hardcore, authentic dishes & some compromised but YUMM dishes.

Address & other details:  Spice Court Jaipur (original restaurant)

Spice court jaipur (google map of the Gurgaon take away joint)

If u enter the market from the tunday kababi side (like we did), u will feel that u r in Lucknow!!!!! I mean inside bhulbhulaiya!!!! The architect of this pathetically designed market must have been fond of mazes & wud have been playing a prank on the developer while submitting the design & the design got accepted !!!! ………….. my imagination.

A better way to reach the restaurant is to enter from the service lane that runs parallel to the Gurgaon Faridabad highway. The Takeaway joint is just below the huge gym Snapfit.

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:

After travelling thru the maze (described above) we finally found the shop. It was a takeaway counter with a see thru kitchen.

The kitchen looked spic & span. One guy was taking the orders & packing stuff. Rest were the chef & his crew who were finishing the gravies b4 serving.

I have not had food at the Jaipur one but have heard great things about it.Look forward to try out the Jaipur restaurant some day.

The staff member I interacted with was very polite, helpful And added value to our decision making process.

The menu card was a simple one pager. I always like it when people focus on few & do a good job with those.

The feeling I got after eating 4 different dishes at this place is as follows –

There is a line between what hardcore crazy foodies like us wud expect – ‘theth’/ hardcore/ original. But with an extreme cuisine like Rajasthani (super hot & super spicy at times) , most ‘normal’ (no foodie) customers of Gurgaon wud not b able to accept that.  For the chef then the choice remains to balance both and that leads to ‘ NA idhar ka, NA udhar ka’.

In some dishes at spice court , I got the same feeling – a feeling similar to eating out at bikanervala / haldirams where food is always good, has a basic standard but it’s not outstanding.

In other dishes where the food was quite close to original, we loved it but am not sure hw many people wud b able to have that.

Here is what the owners might consider – For at least few signature dishes they might give option to customers to choose between ‘hardcore original recipe’ & ‘popular recipe’.

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

We started our dinner with Keema baati – To b honest, we had no prior experience about the existence of this dish. Never had it b4. We have always had Daal baati.

The Keema baati was Massive in size, American size I Wud say. Bigger than a cricket ball.

The outer side was crisp, layery, tasted very good on its own and excellent. While packing the guy poured generous amount of ghee atop the baati. By the time we reached home half of it had been soaked in and that made a huge difference to the flavour and taste of the outer layer. Rate the outer layer 4.5/5

The filling had minced meat cooked in spices, green peas. The masalas were overwhelming in the filling and at most times the masalas overshadowed the flavours of the meat. We cud catch a whiff of the meat flavour at times.

The mince was machine made and that I guess stopped the filling from being great. It was good though. The mince was dry and uniform – lack of texture. Just as it is the mince tasted good. Rate the filling 3/5

The keema baati came with gravy. The Gravy was spicy and hot but not excessive hot. It was thick and tasty. There was a sour tinge as well. The gravy was good as well. Rate it 3/5.

The baati was fun to eat. At times I ate it as it it, at times by pouring extra ghee, at times pouring the gravy on top of it and at times dunking the baati in the gravy.

Overall rating of this dish averages to 3.5/5.

Next dish we had was Gatte curry.

For the uninitiated gatte ( plural of gatta) is a fried lump (on a cylindrical shape usually) made from lentils and spices. The gatte r  made into a curry.

The gatte in the dish were outstanding. They were daanedaar, uneven, soft and full of flavours of daal and spices. The tinge of sweet made it perfect. Excellent gatte. However there was way too much soda in it (to make it soft). That is surely not the traditional way to make it soft. Rate them 4/5.

The gravy of gatte curry was thick, masaledaar, spicy ( but not that hot). The gravy was without any particular direction – quite generalised gravy, cud have been anything North Indian. It was like a guy doing a role in the movie about which u wud have forgotten about, by the time u r getting out of the movie hall.

The gravy was good but nothing great. Rate it 3/5.

Overall rating of gatte curry averages out to 3.5/5.

The third dish we ordered was laal maas, with a lot of hope.

The gravy of Lal Maas was nowhere near the ‘a** kicking’ original super duper hot and rustic Rajasthan laal Maas. I remember meeting someone who referred to the original one as ‘devil’s revenge’.

This gravy of laal Maas at spice court was more red than most other mutton dishes in town ( except the Kashmiri ones). It was much mellowed down than the original version and hence much more acceptable to more number of people.

Even then it was quite hot, rustic and robust to taste. The salt balance was mildly sub optimal – I guess this miss happened during finishing.

I quite liked the gravy, keeping aside the ‘I want original recipe’ baggage. Rate the gravy 3.5/5

The meat was from a huge goat (probably old & athletic), with thick bones. Hence the meat was naturally fibrous but due to efforts by the chef, it had become soft , chewy, fibrous and enjoyable at the same time.

Rate the meat 4/5.

Overall rating of the dish averages out to 3.75/5.

The last dish we had was Junglee Maas. It was the deadliest of the 4. It was dry mutton curry with just 3 things visible – huge chunks of garlic, thick slices of onion and unlimited red chillies. In certain mouthfuls the taste wud have a mild tinge of bitter, due to overdose of over roasted chillies.

I cud imagine, in earlier days, people making this dish out of deer, wild boar etc after a long hunting session. The curry needed minimum things to carry with. Simple process – Kill animal, skin it, cut it and cook it with 3 ingredients + ghee and spices.

The dry gravy was very robust, on the face, quite rustic and overall a brave dish to offer to the masses who r not from Rajasthan. Great. Loved the gravy and rate it 4.25/5

The meat was again soft enough to b enjoyed but not falling off the bones. The goat was big and hence the meat was fibrous and a bit chewy. Loved the taste of the meat and its flavours. Rate the meat 4.5/5.

Overall rating of the dish averages out to 4.375/5

Overall rating of food at Spice Court Jaipur, Gurgaon averages out to 3.8/5

Wud like to revisit to try out other dishes. What’s going on in ur mind? Pls write bk.