Roti shoti haye rabba!

Savour Ambarsariyan da mashoor khana at Ambarsari that serves food straight from the heart of Punjab

Savour Ambarsariyan da mashoor khana at Ambarsari that serves food straight from the heart of Punjab

For tourists, Amritsar is synonymous to the Golden Temple. Barring the food connoisseur, very few of us would know that in the narrow bylanes of this holy city some lip-smacking preparations like tandoori kulchas, multilayered paranthas and kebabs are served since decades. We recently got a hint of this little-known cuisine at Ambarsari, the latest addition to the Kailash Colony market.


Multicoloured cushion, catchy chandeliers bought from Chandni Chowk,
masks and number plates are the highlights of the ambiance

Bhai wah!

At times, I curse roadside dhabas and eateries that fake the authenticity of a particular cuisine. Their loud hoardings are so persuasive that they make you believe thatu00a0 synthetic taste, is the only thing one should savour. Which is why when I visited this eatery, I wasn't quite sure that the food will be anyway different that the ones I'm used to. I was in for a surprise.

Small wonder
Off lately, I've been to lounges and restaurants that focus extensively on ambiance development and floor size. Ambarsari (Punjabis pronounce Amritsari as Ambar-sari) is a sweet contradiction. It's small because not more than 20 people can dine together, at one time.

Yet, it has a charm that even big eateries lack. The promoters have tried their best to set up a d ufffdcor that gives you an idea of how a Punjabi dine-in should look like. Multicoloured cushion, catchy chandeliers bought from Chandni Chowk, masks and number plates are the highlights of the ambiance.

Food for funjabis
When you eat know your ingredients so I sat for a brief conversation with the co-owner of this joint, Abhi Karan Singh Garewal, to get a hang of the Amritsari food. "Amritsari food is very spicy and is made using ghee only. However, the major difference is that of marination. The chicken has to be dipped in the paste of ingredients for nothing less than eight hours.u00a0 Every chunk of paneer tikka has a pocket like cut in the middle, which has some sort of stuffing.

All the kebabs and tikkas that we serve are very juicy. " To measure the depth of the claims, we ordered a platter of vegetarian starters (anchaari paneer tikka, dal kebab, veg seekh and many more) and Lawrence Road Da Tandoori Kebab. I've tried anchaari paneer tikka at a dozen of places but never got a taste of anchaar (pickle) in it. But here I did. Even the non-vegetarian dish lived upto the claims. We graduated to the maincourse with paneer lababdaar, dal Ambarsari, dal makhni, chicken makhni, mixed kulcha and tandoori roti. Dal Ambarsari and mixed kulcha were brilliant.

Since the preparations were heavy we couldn't try anything from their desserts section that had gulab jamun, phirni and halwa. Ouru00a0 meal ended with fresh lime soda. Burrrp, we had an amazing experience.

At: HS 17, Kailash Colony Market, Greater Kailash Part-1
Timings: 11 am till 11 pm
Ring: 46535672
Meal for two: Rs 500