Hotel Broadway at the end of New Delhi and the beginning of the old walled city, is quite a hit with foreigners, primarily because of its closeness to areas of tourist interest like the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk and others. While there, the foreigners can also enjoy the facilities provided by a modern establishment, including a pub called "Thugs" and a restaurant called "Chor Bizarre".
Apparently, Chor Bizarre used to be one really cool place some time back with the decor consisting of completely different and disjointed items (ranging from furniture to cutlery) assembled together as if they were picked up from the thieves' market and brought together. However, they have been through tough times it seems, what with their outlets closing down in Gurgaon and Noida and the look and feel of their flagship outlet having been brought back to normalcy (and dullness). That is not to say that the decor is not impressive...it is, but in a very boring, straight-jacketed manner.
There were eight of us at the restaurant for an office lunch and when we walked in, the place was full of foreigners who were apparently enjoying themselves. Chor Bizarre is known for its Kashmiri cuisine and is one of the few places where you would expect genuine Kashmiri food. Since we had a Kashmiri with us, we were hoping to try some exotic Kashmiri stuff.
However, the food fell far short of our expectations. The beverages (Fresh Lime Soda without fizz and Shikanji without tang) were a let down. The starters were adequate but not great except for the palak ki chaat which was nice and I am saying that despite being a spinach-phobe. We tried to mix the main course as experimental as well as traditional and except for the perennial favorites butter chicken and black daal, nothing else (pyaaz hara khumb, kashmiri dum aloo, kadhai chicken, and the Tarami) impressed...not even the Kashmiri amongst us!
The service was polite but could have been better. When we complained about the fresh lime soda being flat, we were given the option of seeing the opened soda bottle...no talk of replacing the drink or accepting the customer at face value...could have been better as I said.
Overall, I am sure that I am not going back to this place unless there are some "firangs" that I need to entertain and there too, I am going to ask them to take it all with a pinch of salt.
