We (Husband and I) love The Dhaba. Our first two visits were pretty different from each other, so we waited until our third visit to formulate a solid opinion on the place. It's a very thorough four stars for us! The food is five-star good. It's that simple. We love the crisp, cumin-laced poppadums (spelled many ways once translated to English: pappadams, papadums, etc.) they serve while you wait for your order and the choice of three sauces. Husband dips with the chili sauce; I mix the sweet tamarind sauce and the chili sauce. Their chicken tikka masala contains very tender chicken, and consistently has a nice spice blend, level of cilantro, and velvety texture. We find it sometimes has a little less chicken in it than the chicken makhani (makhani murgh), and Husband isn't a sauce guy, but he orders it every time anyway. The murgh makhani (often translated as butter chicken) is tied for the best I've ever had. The sauce is a rich, as the name would suggest, blend of butter, pureed tomato, and cream, and it is studded with plump golden sultanas (NOT RAISINS, GUYS--these are not hard, chewy blobs) and cashews. The chicken has its trademark bright red skin and is so, so, so tender. Seriously. So tender. Their mango lassis are the best I've ever had, and I've had Indian all over the place--NYC, London... they are thick, fruity, and perfectly sweet, which means not overly sweet, not under-sweetened. The garlic naan is superb; we always order two. They use real minced garlic and it is always a nice balance of crisp and tender. No gummy naan at The Dhaba. Great gulab jamun, but like most Indian places, they cost quite a bit. The service is where I quibble--the staff are super nice, and super personable. The kitchen just seems to be slow. Our first visit, we waited a longish time, but not so much that we noticed anything out of the ordinary. On our second visit, we waited a full fifty minutes from the time we ordered to the time we received any food--naan included. It all came out together fifty minutes after we ordered it. Eek. There were only a few other patrons in the restaurant at the time, too. The food was still blow-our-minds good, so we decided to give them one more chance, and we're glad we did, because the wait was very reasonable our third time, and the staff especially attentive. (AND they brought the naan out for us to graze on while we waited--perfect.) In short--eat at The Dhaba. The food is outstanding, the wait time is tolerable, and the staff are kind.
Choose the sentiment of this review?
pick from the following. (1). negative (2). positive
(2).