What are your expectations from any food outlet that has been open for a month or less? Most of us would expect great decor, average food, and average to poor service? What if I told you that I came across an awesome new place which ticks great in all three?
I recently went to The Butler House, a chef-owned new place in Punjabi Bagh, west Delhi, a booming new area for restaurants. Chef Manish has years of experience with the best of brands in the hospitality industry. So, one can expect some great food here.
The Butler House is an Irish bar located on Club Road in Punjabi Bagh. It is spread across 3 floors, the lower floor, with the Pub ambiance, and the upper two floors with a more active, sports bar vibe. The pub floor is dim-lit, done in mostly wood, with some great quotes on the ceiling as well as the walls, a great looking bar, a cool bagpiper on a wall, and some private sections for bigger groups in the corners. The upper floors are mostly done in white, greens, and blues, and get a lot of natural light. There is a projector for match screenings, a section with play station among other things.
The staff is very hospitable and polite, and patiently help you go through the menu and always serve with a smile. Chef Manish is in-charge of the continental and oriental sections of the menu, while Chef Asif takes care of the Awadhi cuisine.
The day we visited, Butler House was serving only vegetarian, owing to Navratri. Even though, this review covers only vegetarian, this place is so promising that it is worth it to go back and try out the non-vegetarian food soon. We started out with delicious Manchow soup. It is full of flavour and contains a lot of veggies like broccoli, etc. Then came in the salad and it is a basket of surprises, like literally. Instead of adding the Parmesan cheese in the salad, the salad came in a Parmesan basket. It is a tasty innovation.
Then came in soya tikka with the filling of cottage cheese. Personally, I am not a soya fan, but I absolutely loved the version served here. It is succulent and full of flavours. It was followed by Palak Paneer Tikka, which is an interesting variation of Paneer Tikka. It has a beautiful green colour and we were quite happy to learn that it is due to spinach and not because of some artificial colouring. The menu has an interesting twist on the Bhel Puri, known as Chicken Bhel Puri. Due to Navratri, we couldn’t try the chicken version, nonetheless the vegetarian version made us happy and we would like to visit again to try the non-vegetarian one. Next up were Chatpate Aloo, fried baby potatoes, with the tangy and spicy flavour. They are quite decent. After this, we were served some melt-in-the-mouth Galouti kebabs with ulte tawe ka parantha. Even though, the kebabs we were served were vegetarian kebabs made using red kidney beans, they were so yummy that we almost didn’t miss mutton. Another not to be missed item on the menu is Dahi ke Kebab. The delicious kebabs are very interesting. They are very crisp on the outside due to the vermicelli coating.
After having so many Indian appetizers, it was time to try something else. And that somethings else literally blew our minds. We went for the Mushroom and Cheese sliders with a side of wedges, served with honey mustard dip. We were pleasantly surprised to see the twist here. Instead of cutting the sliders horizontally across, these are filled in from the top. The mushroom and cheese is so juicy, fresh, and tasty, and this dish is a total winner. Next came in Cottage Cheese Steaks. And of course, they did not miss on adding some beautiful elements here as well. There are a few layers of cottage cheese with pine nuts in between the layers and this is served with a veggies on the side. This dish is absolutely worth digging into.
As the bar was not serving alcohol due to Navratri, we tried 4 mocktails. One well balanced Virgin Orange Mojito, a refreshing Watermelon Cooler, a sweet Vanilla and fruit based drink, and another citrus based mocktail.
For main course, we had one Oriental and one Continental dish each along with a few items from the Indian cuisine. In Oriental, the Tofu gravy really stood out. In Indian, we totally loved the dal and the paneer. At present, Chef Manish and his team are working on the dessert menu. So, currently they have only one dessert, sevaiyan, available at the restaurant. But this one dessert is so rich in dry fruits and so creamy in taste.
The Butler House experience has been great and the place seems really promising.
Galouti Kebab, Mushroom and Cheese sliders, and Cottage Cheese with Pine Nuts are highly recommended!
