Let’s keep the restaurant reports from my recent trip to Delhi rolling. As I noted in the first report I posted—on a very good lunch at Arunachali Sajolang—I am not posting these in the order in which they were eaten. Indeed, today’s report is on a lunch eaten two days prior to the Arunachali Sajolang meal. On this occasion, I was on my own; I was, however, in the same neighbourhood, in Humayunpur. If you’ve followed my Humayunpur reports over the last few years, or if you know Delhi well, you know that this neighbourhood—an incorporated village in Safdarjung Enclave in South Delhi—is one of the centers of North Eastern life and food in Delhi. The market is dotted with restaurants that serve the foods of the North East as well as other businesses that cater to residents who hail from those states. Bhansaghar is technically not one of those restaurants as it is principally a Nepali and Tibetan restaurant. But North Eastern solidarity in Delhi extends to people from Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet as well (to say nothing of Sikkim) and so it is not surprising that they are located in Humayunpur. They were recommended to me by the food writer, Shirin Mehrotra and I am very thankful as I had a very nice lunch. Here’s how it went.
While many restaurants in Humayunpur can be hard to find if you have not visited them before—Google Maps is mostly useless there—Bhansaghar has a prominent location near the entrance of the market and its attractive blue facade is hard to miss. The restaurant itself is smaller than the facade might lead you to expect but as with most restaurants in Humayunpur, it is an attractive space. (Really, I think the Humayunpur restaurants are probably the most attractive restaurants in Delhi as a group.) I was tempted by the gent sitting outside in front of a momo cart but controlled myself as I had designs on one of their thalis.
The menu is actually quite large. When I sat down I was told to scan a qr code to see the menu and place my order but when I asked if there was a physical menu an attractive bound menu was readily provided. It contains many of the Nepali and Tibetan all-stars, as well as Indo-Chinese and Assamese sections. If you’re dining alone, however, as I was, one of their thalis is your best bet. There are a number of these on offer but if you’re greedy, as I am, the Grand Thali is the one to get. With this you get a choice of two meat curries as well as two sel rotis and a couple of other small things that don’t show up on the smaller thalis.
For my meat curries I chose the smoked pork curry and the buff curry. Also on the large, attractive thali that arrived were the following: mulo ko achaar (a fresh radish relish), rai saak (sharp mustard greens), curd, a mellow masoor dal, a papad, a large fried wedge of potato (aloo bhaja), some raw veg and a chutney. In the center was a mound of rice topped with a fried egg and the sel rotis. A small teapot filled with ghee shows up alongside. I added a bit to the dal but otherwise abstained.
How was the food? In brief, very good. The veg dishes were excellent. Indeed, the rai saak might have been my favourite things at the meal along with the sel roti (which look like massive onion rings but are sweet-savoury rings of dough that you can dip into the curries or eat alongside). The two meat curries were both extremely tasty as well but in both cases—especially the buff—the meat was insufficiently tender. The thali is not unlimited—I think you pay a bit more to get refills of things—but after demolishing it all I was utterly full. So much so that I could not countenance dessert.
For a look at the restaurant, the menu and everything on my thali, please launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.
My next Delhi report will also feature a thali lunch but one featuring food from a completely different part of India and in a very different location. That’ll go up on Tuesday. It’s my plan to finish posting all my Delhi reports before getting started on any more Twin Cities reports—I’d like to not go months for a change in finishing my trip reports.