The city of Bangalore has seen a growing number of casual dining restaurant that serve North Indian cuisine.  But there are very few serve the authentic taste of the dishes, which I feel comes from the ingredients and cooking process.  Both the aspects need to be taken care much before opening the restaurant.  I recently visited Baba Da Dhaba at Koramangala and felt that the owner has gone an extra mile, to get everything right.  The fruit of effort has paid dividends and they now have 4-5 outlets across Bangalore, serving quality North Indian food.

Ambiance

• It’s a casual dining restaurant which allows one to walk in and feel very relaxed.  There are no fancy lighting, chilling system or exquisite seating.  Yet its got everything in place to give a great experience to customers.
• There are sitting options both indoor and outdoor.  I specially loved outdoor section as one can enjoy the natural breeze below the canopy of trees.  One of the table outside has a coconut tree cutting through it which looks great.
• Instead of using lampshades, they have re-designed the kerosene lamps to have bulbs inside them.
• Interiors of the restaurant have asbestos sheets on one side of the wall and stone work on the opposite side.  Wooden flooring gives the getup to restaurant.
• There is no A/C inside the restaurant, but they do have fans.  Guests can also see chefs working inside the Open Kitchen.
• Evert table have the basic cutleries (spoons, knives & forks), plates, glasses and water.  This approach was initially started by few pubs and now its has become common across restaurants.
• There are some nice paintings with messages across the restaurant.

Churning out – Lassi at Billion RPM

Yummy Shummy – Butter Chicken A Lubricant for Soul

Baba Is a Happy-Go-Lucky Butter Spewing Truck

Fresh, Healthy, Hygienic – No added flavours and preservatives

• I specially loved the last sentence, which reflects owners desire to serve healthy food to guests.

Food

There are plenty of options in the menu and unique names have been given to each section.  I recently visited the restaurant with a group of friends with an intention of try Vegetarian food options.

Full Throttle Starters

Paneer Tikka Mulani and Kastoori Paneer Tikka were the Paneer based starters I tasted.  The Paneer was very soft, and I loved the flavour of the spices added on top of paneer.  Along with it sautéed Capsicum, Onion, thin shreds of beetroot, carrot and lemon slice were served.  I felt that there was slight tanginess in the starter which I shared as feedback to the staff & owner.

Assorted Tikki (Beetroot Tikki, Green Peas) was the next starter that I tried.  One can make out the color variation in each of the TIkki pieces.  I specially loved the dry-fruit added on top of one of the Tikki.  Along with this starter, the same add-ons were given like the previous starter.

Blazing Rolls

We all love to eat rolls, which relieves us of hunger quicker than anything else.  I tried the Paneer Kathi Roll here which came with a tasty Paneer subzi that had loads of spices, onion, coriander that was rolled on wheat chapati.  The taste was good, and it was hard to resist after eating one bite.

Breakfast

Though I went to eat food during lunch, my eyes lit up when I saw my favourites under breakfast section.  I tasted Punjabi Aloo Parantha combo and Punjabi Paneer Parantha combo.

Both Parantha had consistent stuffing of Aloo & Paneer in them that tasted good.  They were served with Raita, Pickle and Onion.  The restaurant serves food on wooden plate which makes the food more appealing to eyes.

Power-up Main Course

We went to dine in as a a large group and wanted to taste multiple dishes.  Some of the main course dishes that we took included – Paneer Makhanwala, Pindi Chole, Daal Makhani and Baingan Bartha.

My top pick was the Paneer Makhanwala which had soft Paneer and freshly prepared tomato-based gravy.  It was finger-licking stuff which I relished with Butter Naan.  Another dish that I loved was the Pindi Chole that had very tasty gravy and the well-cooked Chole.

I also enjoyed the Daal Makhani as the Daal was well cooked and gravy tasted good.  There are many items in the menu like Subz Meloni, Paneer Lababdhaar, Saagwala Paneer and many more that I will it the next time I dine in.

Desserts

The main course was very heavy but still wanted to try some of the desserts like – Kheer, Phirni & Chocolate cake.  Chocolate cake was definite was one of my top favourite followed by the Phirni.

Drinks

When one has heavy North Indian meals, Lassi and Chach goes along well, as it acts as cooler.  I loved the Chaach as it was churned well, and salt flavour was perfect.

Lassi was not upto the mark, as I thought it was a too thick.  Instead, I would have wanted the Lassi to be churned well so the sugar blends well with thick buttermilk.

Shikanji was another drink that I thought was a little too sweet and needs to be improved.

Overall Experience

It was a good dining experience at Baba Da Dhaba.  I enjoyed the ambiance as its very comfortable and cosy.  It’s a perfect place to have authentic North Indian food at a very reasonable price.  There are many items in the Starters and Main course that I loved.  I did give feedback for some of the dishes & drinks to the management, they accepted it very gracefully.  This restaurant chain has the potential to open many more outlets, if they can keep-up the consistency.  Hoping to visit the outlet many more times when I am at Koramangala.

My current for the restaurant would be 4.0/5.
Rating in other departments.
Food – 4.0/5
Drinks – 3.75/5
Ambiance – 4.0/5
Service – 4.0/5
Food for 2 at the restaurant will come to anywhere between INR 500-800.

Address
65,1st Main, Koramangala 7th Block, Bangalore

Phone number
+91 8880805555