Hello everyone this time I want to share my experience on a good well known restaurant i.e DARA’S Dhaba, earlier I have written on games, but this time bit different I would never have known about this place if my office colleague wouldn’t have planned a small trip to Nashik and Shirdi a couple of weeks ago. we were passing from Mira road and it was pretty late with stomach growling for food and the long forgotten name surfaced as we decided to go directly from after the office.
Being a South Indian I was always fond of having food North Indian food and visiting Dhabas. Actually their food is awesome the “Lassi da glass” then we have “Saroon da saag" and "makke di Roti” just amazing and DARA’s Dhaba was a perfect place for dinner.
Address
Western Express Highway 8, Kashimira, Post Mira Road East, Mumbai, Maharashtra – 401107.
What I liked about that place?
All this made me more and more excited and curious about this place. Well the 1st impression was Good as we entered. This was an open air affair with Street Side Dhaba Type decor. They had Khatiyas and coir chairs arranged under Huge Wooden Shacks. The ambient view was all natural and serene, though in the darkness of the night we couldn’t see much.
It was quite late around 10:30 pm the place was roaring with business, with most tables inside were occupied but it also has outdoor seating which was admirable so we decided sitting outside. We were escorted by the staff. I fought that the staff was really kind and polite and helped us for each and every dish we ordered.
Timings
Another best thing about this place is the way they have scheduled the availability of the items they serve on the menu. Let me list it here:
Breakfast – 8.00 AM – 11.30 AM
Lunch 11.30 AM – 6.30 PM
Dinner – 6.30 PM – 12.30 AM
Beverages: Serves liquor, wine, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages.
How we started there?
We first started with the masala papad we ordered 2 for 4 people and for starters I ordered some chinese stuff paneer chilly followed with vegetable soup an interesting named stuff we ordered that was “Naram Dil Kabab”. We were shocked that for this they took hardly 10mins they were very quick in serving food.
After having being done with the Masala papad and starters we moved on to the main course we had a huge list of main course food and it was tough for us to decided what to eat and what not, but we have to chose something so finally we went for Paneer Kadai, Malai Kofta and Butter Chicken in veggies and for rotis we were having a long list we decided to try different different like 2 Butter rotis, 1 Makai roti, 1 Roomali roti and Cheese Garlic Naan after ordering all this our mouth watering to have all this.
Butter chicken - very good, not too sweet with nice thick reddish brown gravy and not the tomato puree that is served elsewhere Malai Kofta - completely blissful with very little oil as instructed with enough Koftas in it. Paneer Kadai - the master dish which everyone agreed tastes the same even today. Butter rotis - nice not too over or less cooked with lots of butter in that. YUMMY! Makkai roti - tasty with little gud on it and deshi ghee. Roomali roti - bit spicy with some masalas in it and was awesome would recommend you to have it. Cheese Garlic Naan - it was fully cheesy and woww with a slight taste of garlic paste in it and well stuffed.
Once we done with all this we ordered dal tadka - this could have been a tad better, but it also did not receive too much attention given the other three items were perfect and jeera rice you can feel the fragrance of the jeera along with the basmati rice no words to describe that lastly we had 4 big glasses of “LASSI” the glasses we actually bigger than we usually have we can feel the purity of lassi by just a small sip of it. All this costs us about 3500 Rs but it was worth. Two people can have 1000 Rs which actually worthwhile.
Talking about the ambiance?
The ambiance was one sided with with nicely laid khatiyas and couches at outdoor seating and inside there was nice sofas and tables not talking much about the inner side as we were sitting outside it was like a “Rath of King” of olden times big wheels at the boundary side. It was so calm and refreshing that you will feel happy.
Conclusion
I would the DARA’s Dhaba overall 4 out of 5 it is actually a nice and superb restaurant on the highway for the delightful North Indian in Punjabi style the only thing I didn’t like about it was it should have different zones for drinking/smoking and for non-drinking/non-smoking. Rest was awesome would recommend to visit if you pass by NH-8.
Thanking you all for reading many more to come.
Naveen.