Dzukou – The tribal Cafe (13A, Rooftop, Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi)

In a nutshell:

Surely not for the faint hearted, this is a still undiluted, almost authentic & YUMM Naga food Restaurant with a magnificent view of Hauz Khas.

Address & other details: Too complicated to explain. Just call them, book a table & ask for directions. They respond well. Phone numbers that we called : +91 8447703774, +91 9873306174

A huge painting depicting Tribal people of Nagaland

Meal for 2: Rs. 500 onwards

Cuisine type: vegetarian & predominantly nonvegetarian

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

The restaurant had something unique to it – It did not have professional service, had no tap water in the otherwise clean loo & we had to climb the stairs for I guess 4 floors (coz like all buildings in the vicinity, it did not have a lift). What the restaurant had instead was a very warm & efficient service – they were not very fluent at English but good enough to have a decent communication. The guy serving us had a smile on his face almost all the while & treated us as if we were a guest to his house. Most importantly, the Naga food was as ‘non Delhi-ized’ as possible. Super liked it & wud surely get back. Someone had the guts to serve super hot Naga food in Delhi – I guess almost same standard as that in Nagaland.

The entrance to the building is thru a narrow ‘gully’ that had a carved wooden door. Before we reached the staircase, we saw a Latin Restaurant, a Japanese snack counter, a Frankie shop & more unimaginable variety of shops coexisting with each other. No one attempted to beautify the staircase. There were no signboards or arrows of the restaurant either, on the way up.

A huge painting of Naga women standing in traditional attire marked the entrance of the restaurant. As we walked in, we realized there were two sections – a closed Dining Hall with seating area & two additional seats in the balcony.

Painting of Naga women on the staircase landing area

On the floor above there was a marvellous open air seating (with a roof). Both the floors had abundant view of the Lake (For the uninitiated, Hauz Khas means Royal Lake. The word ‘Hauz’ means lake & ‘Khas’ means Royal. This lake came into existence at the time of Allauddin Khilji in early 1300s. Beside the lake, there r many 700 year old Historical monuments in this campus, including Feroz Shah Tughlaq’s tomb)