This account is based on the recollections of a meal taken during the summer of 2006.
We were standing outside Kake Da Hotel at Connaught Place in New Delhi. Moaned over by food critics, the legendary eatery – its name implying ‘Uncle’s Restaurant’ in Punjabi - is supposed to be a carnivore's delight. Amateur gourmands drive great distances to feast on its celebrated Butter Chicken.
But Kake Da Hotel was a mere shack beside a smoggy highway. Worse, it was summer and the restaurant was full so we had to wait and perspire outside with many others.
A bearded man at the entrance, likely to be the Kake's version of a maitre d'hotel, was assigning numbers to the waiting diners. He would call out the number each time a table was cleared. While expecting to be summoned inside any minute, we dwelled on the mythical history of this gastronomical landmark. It was said to have been founded by a Sikh gentleman who had migrated to Delhi after the Indian partition in 1947.
With no disrespect to the refugee's entrepreneurial skills, we refused to be impressed. The eatery, with its cement floor, shabby door, and plastic chairs, was not a pretty place for a languid dinner. Just then the maitre d'hotel furiously gesticulated at us to walk in.
That Sinking Feeling
It was an unsettling sight. Our table top displayed remnants of a freshly dug graveyard. Chicken thighs, sucked out of all the flesh, were lying like ignored skeletons on jungle roads. The body language of the waiters warned the diners to eat, slurp, and be swiftly done. We shifted uncertainly on our chairs when an old steward flung a menu on the table. We guiltily pointed at the bones. He swapped a dirty cloth over the table and lo, the bones were down under!
Shocked but not awed, we tried to focus our attention on the laminated menu card, yellowed with old curry stains. There was no need to mull, however. Both of us simultaneously said Butter Chicken. It was the signature dish after all! We ordered it with Palak Paneer and Naan-bread. The steward demanded just how many naans we have in mind. After an exchange of glances we promised to let him know; once done with the first one. He shrugged his shoulders and disappeared.
A prolonged wait was undesirable. It was hot. The exhausted fan was moving reluctantly with great sounds of fatigue. A tandoor furnace glowed red not far from us. A cook was turning rotis in it with large iron tongs. His sweat occasionally dripped from his eyebrows onto the deep pit of the tandoor. It was displeasing to watch and we turned away – only to see a steward, his fingers dipping down into the water jug!
We made a face and tried to think of the dish we were looking forward to.
Called Murg Makhani in Hindi, Butter Chicken originated in the 1950s at the Moti Mahal restaurant in Old Delhi. Famed for its Tandoori Chicken, the cooks there used to recycle the leftover chicken juices in the marinade trays by adding butter and tomato. This sauce was then tossed around with the tandoor-cooked chicken pieces and presto - Butter Chicken was ready! The leftover dish appealed to Delhites and was quickly lapped up by the rest of the world.
Article comments
1 - Howard Dratch
Congratulations on your survival. A visit to your cardiologist is suggested after all that grease. Your picture of the Butter Chicken is sufficient to give up chicken, butter and Indian cooking -- at least as disgusting as the Ketucky Fried version.
There are such places here in Mexico, too. Many. Dysentery lurks behind many restaurant facades. Not far behind.
I look forward to eating in Chinese, Italian and Cuban restaurants on my next trip to Miami (and Indian if I find one that does not look or smell like the one in your fascinating story) and continue to disinfect foods at home and cook them myself.
2 - Nancy
Good gawd - ! Alas, it's both depressing & reassuring that bad cooking, bad service, & bad hygiene are a universal trait. I think after that I'd have dropped my tip into the bottom of the grease-filled dish & left still hungry. You were brave to try a second bite.
3 - manny
I grew up in Delhi eating Daal Makhni and Chicken Makhni at both Kake Da Hotel and Moti Mehel. The original owner used to go out of his way to keep the customers happy but obviously next generation has not been that dedicated. Even 30 years ago when we moved to US these joints had already lost or were loosing their old reputation.
Here in Atlanta my kids love these dishes which my wife makes using Half-and-half, but they really love when it is made by their nani-mummy with some real butter added.
Of course you should visit your cardiologist if it is your staple diet, otherwise it should be ok to indulge occasionally.
4 - supriya anand
That was the most explicit description of eating butter chicken,i have ever read.Besides being extremely candid ,it evidently opposed the popular and biased love given to butter chicken in our city. The highlight for me was your support and appreciation for the 'underdog' dish,'sidedish' rather....the raw onions dressed with fresh lemon juice!by the way i completely support you for the cause of having 'clean' and 'hygienic'eating joints...because for some of us the ambience does affect the appitite.
5 - STM
Nice one Mayank. Never been a fan of butter chicken, unless it's off the bone, mostly for the reasons you describe ... this is not Delhi, but Sydney where there now seems to be an Indian restaurant on every third corner.
However, I do love a good, hot and spicy beef vindaloo, or a chicken vindy on the bone. Lamb saag too or a nice aloo.
In London many years ago, some sniggering English friends of mine took me to an Indian place near Fleet St and ordered the "house curry" for me. I suspected something nefarious was up but didn't realise they had bet 10 quid on how long it would take me to stop eating my faal - the hottest little number on the books.
Silly boys. Australia is part of Asia, and in the mid-80s we were far more accustomed to eating hot foods with lots of spice and chilli than were the Brits. At the Mauritian restaurant around the corner from our office, there were no mild dishes. Still, this thing was tough going ...
I nearly choked on the first bite but when I saw through the vale of tears their expectant faces trying hard not to bust into a giggle, and the staff peering around from behind a column, I realised what they had done and cleaned the plate - eating about a gallon of raita and a plate of naan to kill the sting, followed by 300 lagers.
The restaurant owner was pretty impressed too, but insisted he had a hotter one if I'd like to try it one day (I didn't). The next day, the remnants of the faal being expelled from my shocked body carved out a painful path on the start of their journey to oblivion in the sewers of Fulham. I suspect a few fish died in the Thames that day.
6 - Mayank Austen Soofi
Thanks everybody for the comments. But I insist not to be so overwhelmed by my impressions. That was only my adventure. Kake Da Hotel remains a gastronomical landmark of Delhi.
7 - Katie McNeill
The pictures are fantastic too bad the meal wasn't as wonderful
8 - Rakshak Chopra
i am the grandson of late shri amolak ram chopra who was the owner of kake da hotel. i think you should not listen to this guy and try our restaurant. if you guys want real mughlai food KDH is the place. my grandfather named this restaurant 'kake da hotel' because everyone called my grandfather 'KAKA' and so he named it kake da hotel. my grandfather started this restaurant as a roadside stall and he bought a shop and started working there first he had no workers but now there are 48 workers there. people love eating at kake da hotel and you would love it too if you try it. now if ever you visit delhi ask anyone one about KDH and they'll tell you and by the way he was not a sikh. we serve only original mughlai food and we cook it all in pure ghee(butter).
9 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Hmmm... You appear to have gotten somebody's attention with that comment #8. Time for me to post my eating experiences at S'barro's in Jerusalem. Maybe somebody from S'barro's will respond on-line...
Nice article. Sorry you did not have a better time at this restaurant. I'll have to skip the butter chicken - 1) it's not kosher 2) it's a sure invitation to a heart attack.
10 - rakshak chopra
well............i am back and i am here to tell u more about my restaurant
after reading dat kind of a description of a restaurant anybdy wld hate to go to such a place but now things hav improved
first my mother never used to go dere but now my mother and i both stand over there and control da matters ourselves
really .............. i hav to tell u dat things hav improved and we sure are trying our best to improve everyday
da guy who has posted this article shld kno very well about da lack of space we hav and constreuction in connaught place is not allowed dat is da only reason for da inconvenience
if u like places wid nice decor and well dressed stewards then KDH might not be da place for u but as far as food is concerned we guys serve da best mughlai food in delhi
we guys cook our food in pure ghee(butter) and it is obvious dat it will be greasy
so pls visit KDH sumtime and let us serve u guys
11 - 3monkeys
just browsing and i came across your page, i visited this place in Dec 2000, a work mate Anil took me there and I must say that day I was somewhat disturbed by the swarms of flies and how unkempt it was, also the stares or glares from some of the staff and diners was a little of putting. This was my first week in India and most unprepared for places like this, but I trusted my guide implicitly as I knew his boss very well. I had aloo gobi and chaps with an onion salad which was ok-ish and the dhal which was a milky white thick ooze with black flecks, well that stayed in it's dish, spesh after seeing a waiter pick a fly out of the milk with his fingers and wipe them on his backside, no cow juice for me, I had a bottle of coke which was dusty and warm but it fizzed ok, well I was not ill and survived the rest of the day. I go back to India with a friend quite regularly and always go to Delhi but never there, nope there are better places in Delhi
12 - Deeksha khullar
hi .. am deeksha khullar ... grand daughter of late shri amolak ram chopra and daughter of late shri subhash chopra .. now owner/partner of kake da hotel... i ll juz say a litle tht come and try once our food and giv as ur real live comments thr only at our place... as my brother rakshak chopra mentioned above bout our hotel tht things hav really improved .