We first ate at Matamaal, the premier Kashmiri restaurant in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region), back in January 2023. This was when there was but the one location, in the City Court Mall in Sikanderpur/Gurgaon. We liked that meal so much that for a while I/we ate there on every subsequent trip (in March 2024 and in December 2024 and March 2025). As I said in my last report on a meal at Matamaal, I’m not sure when their branches—in Delhi and Noida in the NCR and also in Pune—opened. I’ve heard some mixed reports of the Noida location but I’ve still not been to it or any of the others. I think they might be franchisee-run, not operated by the owners of the original—this because the restaurant’s website seems to invite franchise partners. I can tell you though that the food at the original is still as good as it was on our first visit in 2023. This judgment is brought to you from a dinner eaten there this past August. Here’s a quick look at it.

While my last pair of reports from Matamaal involved thalis eaten at lunch, on this occasion I was not eating alone. I met a bunch of old friends there for early dinner a couple of days before my return to Minnesota. We were dining extremely early by Delhi standards: 7 pm, when some people are probably still finishing their lunch. Not surprisingly, we were the only ones in the restaurant at the start of the meal, though more people had begun to arrive by the time we got done.

Two of the party had arrived well before I got there and they’d taken one of the larger tables at the far end of the dining room and started with some tea. As is often the way in the blighted capital, they got there first despite having come the furthest (all the way from Noida). Our other friends live in Gurgaon itself but arrived a full 20 minutes after me. Once we were all assembled, we quickly got down to business. The others were happy to cede ordering decisions to me and I put together a meal of some of my very favourite dishes, plus one I’d not had there before (and which might have been my favourite dish at this dinner).

We started with orders of the Kabargah (lamb ribs, poached in milk and shallow-fried in ghee) and the Mutton Tuj (skewered pieces of mutton cooked over coals). Both were excellent. The mutton tuj comes on grilled bread with green chutney on the side. Also on the table were bowls of their onion and radish chutneys. The former is basically pickled, sliced onion and the latter is more or less indistinguishable from raita (both were set down gratis with our order).

Several larger dishes followed: Mutton Goshtaba, Mutton Roganjosh, Kashmiri Rajma, and Tchok Wangun. The goshtaba (a spongy meatball made with hand-pounded mutton) here is always excellent and so it was on this occasion as well. The same is true of their roganjosh and Kashmiri rajma, both of which I have enjoyed on past visits as well. The dish that was new on this visit was the tchok wangun, which features fried wedges of brinjal/eggplant in a tangy-spicy tamarind and fennel gravy. I think this was everyone’s favourite dish. To mop all this up, we got some steamed rice and a bunch of breads (Sheermal, Bagherkhani, Lavasa, Girda).

Finally, to end, an order of Shufta (dry fruits, cottage cheese and nuts draped in caramelized jaggery) and two orders of their Phirni. Shufta is in a category of sweets that doesn’t do much for me but the phirni was outstanding as usual, with no grittiness/graininess from the rice or over-weening sweetness (as is so often the way in lesser versions).

For a look at the menu and everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.

Service was attentive and the food came out at a decent clip. Cost? My friends had already paid for their tea. The rest of the food, a bottle of water, tax and tip came to a total of Rs. 5200 or just about $55 at the current exchange rate. That’s $11/head, which is pretty crazy value in Delhi for this food. I’m not sure if I’ll be back again on my next trip (coming up this weekend) but I’ll be there in 2027 for sure.

Okay, that’s this week in the books. I’m past the halfway mark with my reports from this Delhi trip and will be almost done by the end of next week. There are more reports left from Seoul, so those will stretch into November. On Wednesday, I’ll have a report on bbq eaten at Animales in Minneapolis in the summer. Before all of that, I will have the last booze post of the month tomorrow.