I remember the time when I had last visited Gulati (couple of years back), it was difficult to get a seat!! It was a weekday & the place was filled with families, couples, foreign groups..anyone!!
This time it was a horrendous experience. Nothing was right from the service, to the ambience, to even the food!! (Gulati is supposed to be one of the pioneers in traditional Indian cuisine). It started off as a vegetarian’s paradise many many years ago & now boasts dishes like Brain Masala, Prawn curry etc. in its menu.
Okay, we entered & felt completely ignored. It was earlier than usual for a Delhi-ite’s dinner. Half of the waiters were tending to a huge group of about 15 people who looked like they had lots of cash (they were obviously going to leave a fat tip !). The other half were engrossed listening to the ghazal singers. We finally found ourselves a table.
Then we felt a little more ignored - no one came with the menu card.
So, I shifted my attention to the ghazal singers (since they interested the staff so much!). They were okay, performing the same old Jagjit Singh numbers. ’’Jhuki Juki’’ & ’’Tum Itna jo muskara rahe ho’’ kind of things. The way these songs are over-played, I guess even I can play them on stage!!
Okay, after a lot of ’’Excuse me’’; ’’EXSCUME ME’’ & ’’EXCUUSSE MEEE’’, we finally were handed over a menu card. We usually like trying ’’different’’ items, & take a long time to order. But we didnt want to try that here as we had already wasted quite a bit of the evening, so we went in for Malai Kofta & Brain Masala with the usual naan & Fresh Limes.
The Fresh Limes were served in about 20 minutes & were luke warm. The food came soon after that. I can guarantee you the Malai Kofta gravy was burnt. It had definitely been left on the gas too long. The Brain Masala tasted like scrambelled eggs. So that was that, it felt like my usual Sunday morning Breakfast.
I guess we went wrong somewhere, I peeped around at all the other tables & noticed most were having Dal Makhni & Tandoori Chicken. They looked just about satisfied with their meal. So, I guess you have to stick to the traditional here to avoid dissappointments.
I was totally against tipping here but since we are from the hotel industry, we did.
Finally, we had a paan to change taste ; )