In a NUtshell

A small quirky restaurant by the park, serving some very good Jama Masjid delhi & other mughlai food.

Address & other details: hanglatherium

Meal for 2: ₹400 onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian & non vegetarian

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.

The bill was split paid by Indrajit & us.

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

It’s now become a ritual on every visit to kolkata , to eat out at some interesting place with food enthusiast, blogger ‘moha-mushkil.com’, author of a bengali book ‘food kahini’ & now co-host of a popular YouTube show foodka, Indrajit Lahiri. Since he is more in touch with the city, we always let him choose the place for our catch up & food.

One of the requests we had this time was that the outlet should have AC. So after pondering over it for some time, he suggested hanglatherium. We agreed blind.

The restaurant is run by a couple. Got chatty with the gentleman – works for a tech firm as head of Asia Pacific, alumni IIM calcutta. Down to earth, great sense of humour, insightful – great chat.

There is a big dose of red color in the restaurant decor – its the color of two contrasts that many Bengalis were in love with, at the same time – goddess kali & communist party.

Loved looking at the many quirky things in the restaurant, including the large cartoon wall that reminded me of cafe Mondegar , mumbai.

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The park view side is a big plain glass. That gets the restaurant good amount of natural light in the day. However, the way the furniture is laid out, half the members in a table of 4 actually have their back to the open are outside.

The seating area is L shaped. Even at 3 pm in the afternoon there was almost 60-70% occupancy.

While writing this post I realised that I did not see the menu card as I was relying on favourites of Indrajit, who has been here several times.

Loved the food in general.

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

Dilli 6 chicken is a very unusual dish sold in a shop in Jama Masjid area of delhi. Tandoori chicken sans the orangish masala, I guess curd to marinate , & a whole pond full of butter. I think I eat less amount of butter in a full month than the amount of butter in 1 portion of the dish!!! Sure recipe for fatty liver if someone falls in love with this dish but it’s of course unmissable once in a blue moon.

Since there is no masala on the face, meaty flavours of the chicken & the charred ends made up most of the flavour. The butter transformed the ordinary dish to extraordinary. Simple flavours, rich & juicy mouthfeel & lovely taste. Rate this dish 4.75/5

Kali Mirch kabab was super soft & juicy. The feeling after the first bite was that the kali Mirch was a bit too distracting in terms of both flavour & taste, yet that was the sole differentiator of this kabab from the rest. Started getting used to it in a few bites & started loving it. At the end of the the dish we had a mouthful of strong & hot flavour in the mouth. Rate it 4.5/5

Chicken pasinda was highly recommended by Indrajit. It looked like a pale paste, when it was served to us. The first bite made me remember Farex!!!! (Milk solids given to babies). It felt bland, directionless & a filler dish. Another bite made me feel slightly better. Had a few sips of aerated drinks to clean up the strong aftertaste of the previous dish. Got slightly better but could not really appreciate it. I think the restaurant should not serve this dish after the more robust flavoured / taste foods or at least warn the guests about this. In food, like the Bengalis & the French follow, sequence of flavours & richness of taste makes a huge difference to the overall experience of a meal. Rate the dish 3/5.

Mutton hanglabari, we were told, is a family recipe. It was similar to a slow cooked mutton dish called kosha mangsho. Loved the intensity of the dry gravy. The meat pieces were good but we’ve surely softer & better. Rate it 4/5

We heard that this restaurant is famous for its Mutton biryani from friends after they heard that we were going here. The biryani had long, soft, independent grains of rice. The aroma was good but the moisture in the biryani was less. It felt a bit dry ish as compared to most other good kolkata biryanis & way drier than the Awadhi biryani served at dum pukht. Was it due to lesser fat in the biryani? Maybe. Or a different kind of fat used, as compared to the others? I am not a chemist – so can’t say. Just in case that’s true, then maybe this is a relatively healthier (less fat) version of the Kolkata biryani – good for those who eat biryani regularly or those going thru a recovery from illness. For people like us who get to eat one or two good kolkata biryanis in a year, the more indulgent variety is better.

The meats of the biryani were soft but not the softest.

Rate the biryani 3.75/5

We were served Burhani – I personally do not like anything with biryani. I like it ‘on the rocks’ (pun intended). It was ordered a others in the table liked the idea. I stuck to my resolve & did not touch the Burhani till I finished my biryani. When the Burhani finally landed on my taste buds, the latter were thrilled. The Burhani got a standing ovation from my taste buds due to the perfect balance of seasoning, the lovely texture & the simple yet impactful taste. Rate it 4.5/5

Fire on ice was one of the best beverages I had in that trip to kolkata – finely chopped green chillies in an otherwise say a lemonade / fresh lime soda. The balance of sweet & sour was perfect. I have attempted to make this several times at home & generally my guests have liked it. This one was a notch better. Excellent. Rate it 4.75/5

Overall rating of hanglatherium averages out to 4.2/5

Will surely revisit to explore more