The joint cafe (first floor, galleria market, above cafe coffee day, DLF phase 4, gurugram)

In a nutshell:

A food-focussed, chef driven, unusual & interesting decor cafe that has a separate burger menu card, excellent & mammoth burgers – no indianization. Loads of other meaty dishes & some vegetarian ones. Passionate about meats that are sourced from Europe & artisinal producers in india.

Better burgers than AKU’s I wrote about last week.

Note – We are not burger freaks but these ones were just outstanding

Address & other details: the joint cafe

Facebook : the joint cafe

Instagram: the joint cafe

Meal for 2: ₹1000 onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian also, predominantly 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.

YUMMRAJ rates all the food items & then gives 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

Few weeks back when we posted about our burgers at AKU’s, one of our regular readers, chef Anirban, recommended us this place.

So we decided to drop in on a weekend.

Day 1 – our first impression was that the Staff member on the floor was selectively interactive. He seemed to have an inhibition of speaking to guests. He was Often missing from floor – going up to the kitchen. Our plates were not removed almost 20 minutes past we had our first dish.

Towards the end of our evening, he warmed up a bit – after I complimented about our excellent burger experience. We chatted for a while.

I was amazed to know that this cafe is around for 9 years now. We were wondering ‘how is it possible that we missed such a good place’.

Mostly expats used to come here till COVID 2020.

Earlier they had a long menu & post covid they have come up with a shorter menu.

Buns are made in-house, Frozen Meat blocks are imported & other meats are sourced from artisinal farms in india. We heard this & it seemed totally believable coz the quality of meats was notches above what is usually served in most cages in delhi NCR.

The gentleman who was serving us, gave two menu cards – a Separate menu for burgers only & a regular menu. The regular

Day 2 when we reached this place, we interacted with another person. Towards the end of our meal, we saw the gentleman from the previous day.

This time he was a bit more open to chat. So we got to know some more stories about this place:

They had a cafe in Phuket, Thailand, which shut due to COVID. Will be revived again next year.

He himself is the head chef of this place & he had created the menu & he runs the show everyday. Chef said he is ex olive & has worked for chef Saby in Fabrica. Chef currently works for the investor of this business, the joint cafe, whose main business is to setup microbrewery , restaurants and pubs.

We cud not chat more as we had to rush (guest).

Even later I got to know that he himself is chef Anirban, who recommended joint cafe to us in the first place!!! OMG!!! What an anonymous way to get an anonymous blogger to try the food.

I loved it when I received this message –

ALERT: You’ve spent Rs.2466 on CREDIT Card xx7161 at FRIAR TUCK HOSPITALITY PV on 2021-10-17:20:57:31.

FRIAR TUCK – what a sense of humour.

Location of the cafe is first floor, galleria market, DLF phase 4. Finding it might be a challenge. Easy way to find is – above cafe coffee day.

The interiors of the cafe were unusual & very interesting. Someone has been really super creative.

The ceiling had a kind of painted wire mesh.

Walls had framed photographs & quotes regarding ROCK & ROLL.

The table tops (beneath the glass) had things written & drawn by customers (assuming) on tissue paper. Unique. Cool. Was fun reading them.

There was a small library in the cafe, with some intersecting books.

They also sell meats – ‘charcuterie’ that customers can order a day in Advance & get it picked up / home delivered in gurugram.

Thankfully for us, good Food was the utmost priority at this place, not sho sha (unfortunately most cafés in delhi NCR spend a lot of money & effort on sho sha, but little on getting good chefs & buying good ingredients). No short cuts. No fancy ingredients. No unnecessary tweaks to indianize the classics. Only Traditional good food making, with huge attention to detail.

Portions are huge. There was Hardly a small snack. I wud say that the menu planning is ‘Gluttony inspiring’.

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

Day 1

Rib eye steak. I have been trying to find good steak for quite some time now. Most 5 stars in delhi NCR have stopped serving steak. We were Waiting for our next visit to kolkata / Kochi to have some good steak.

So the moment we saw steak on the menu, we ordered it.

We asked for medium rare.

The steak was juicy & very good to taste. But it was fibrous than a very good enjoyable steak. The knife Cud not make a dent on the meat as much as it should have – with every sawing action. The knife moved with the meat at times. I guess buff steak can’t get much better than this.

The potato mash that came with the steak was very good.

Veggies were crunchy.

Sauce was good.

Rate the steak 3/5

Tres amigos – this burger had a Spiced lamb patty, English cheddar & French provolone cheese, Spanish bacon, Fried eggs & Caramelised onions. The bun was baked in-house.

The balance of the burger was too good. No extra cheese, extra sauce dripping from everywhere.

The patty was a gem. Immensely juicy, robust flavors & taste of very good meat, just the right amount of frying. The buns were not brittle, neither was it too stretchy. Balanced.

Caramelised onions did magic. The proportions of cheese & the right amount of cooking gave them the right texture & accentuated their flavors & mouth feel. Outstanding.

The fries with burgers were outstanding here. Consistently. Choice of potatoes. Non sweet variety. Crisp from outside, soft from within. perfectly fried. Perfectly salted. Usually we don’t eat fries. Here we finished every centimeter of the fries!!!

Fries came with a creamy dip – just too good.

Cud not stop munching on those beetroots

Rate it 4.75/5

The difference between this lamb burger & the one at Burger King is like the difference of Land Rover defender (joint café) vs. Renault duster (BK).

Day 2

Fat tony – this burger had a Portuguese chorizo & tenderloin patty , English cheddar cheese & Monterey Jack, Spanish steamy bacon & Home made cucumber chilli relish.

We were blown away. This was the best tenderloin burger that I have had in this city, in my memory, outside of a handful of 5 stars.

Very very Juicy, full of flavors, robust flavors of meat complimented with flavors of cheese. The bacon has been cooked to such perfection that it wud cut easily with a knife & also taste perfect.

Rate this 4.95/5

Grilled German sausages – bratwurst, bockwurst & Nuremberg. Once again, these were best in class among most such memories of German sausages in delhi NCR that we had.

Unlike the home made ones, German sausages are smooth & pasty, yet juicy. Instinctively as a category, we like the fat, juicy, lumpy home made sausages & yet we liked these ones.

The sausages were lightly pan grilled & sautéed in a simple sauce that let the sausage flavors be on top.

Personal choice – Nuremberg.

Rate this platter 4.5/5

In-house made Mustard sauce that came with sausages, was outstanding. Just too good.

Irish coffee was excellent. Perfect balance of alcohol, good coffee, right temperature, creaminess in the mouth, great balance of tastes. Rate it 4.75/5