The Dhaba, Besant Nagar

The Dhaba and Karaikudi restaurants are situated right next to each other, just before the Velankanni Church in Besant Nagar.

This looked like just another "dhaba" in Chennai, with white-washed walls, hindi songs, posters of hindi movies, and waiters dressed like Punjabis. They didn't even try to bring in the 

"authentic" dhaba experience that other places try to do. Moreover, none of the food seems to be like what I ate in other Punjabi restaurants here.

We started with Chicken Shorba - water chicken soup with a cut palak leaf, and masala papad. While the soup was bland, the masala papad was at the other extreme - too spicy. The 

complimentary marinated onion was good, pickled enough to tingle your tongue.

Starters: The waiter didn't recommend any fish or mutton dish from the menu. Fish, I could understand, being the 45 day ban on deep sea fishing. Mutton? So, we went ahead and 

ordered Patiala Kabab (good), Tandoori Chicken (not so good), and spicy prawns (good).

Main Course: We ordered Keema Roti, Aloo Paratha, Romali roti, Butter Naan, and Chicken Briyani. We burnt our tongues with the spicy starters, so we asked the cook to reduce the 

spices just a little bit.

Keema Roti was a new item we noticed here, so we ordered that. The keema stuffing was little, but it was good. Aloo paratha was just OK - with too much oil and potato stuffing, it was 

soggy. Naan and Romali Roti was as good as any other dhaba-type restaurant here. The chicken briyani was made Punjabi style - very spicy, again.

Side dish/gravy: We ordered just two side dishes, Mutton Rogan Ghosth, and Butter Chicken. It proved inadequate for the handful of roties we ordered earlier, and not enough 

mutton/chicken pieces to go around. I had to make do with the sour raitha that came with the chicken briyani for my aloo paratha.

Dessert: We tried to soothe our burnt palate with matka kulfi, carrot halwa, and lassi. The matka kulfi has become a standard in all such dhabas -- 60 rupees for a 100ml mudpot of 

frozen milk is way beyond my reach. The gajar halwa was passed on from person to person, success has many fathers but a failed gajar halwa is an orphan.

Ambience: 7/10. It was silent enough for us, and not too crowded. No Wash room here -- I had to go out, walk into Karaikudi next door, to use the restroom.

Service: 7.5/10.  No incidents, neutral.

Food: 6/10. Too spicy dishes, soggy rotis

Cost: 3.5/5

Total bill for 12: 3600