Nagalands Kitchen, Delhi

Nagalands Kitchen
S 2 Green Park Extension Market
Uphar Cinema Complex
Delhi
2211 8754, 2257 4649

The Nagaland Kitchen had been sporting an "Opening Soon" sign for awhile, until they finally did open about 2 months ago. I had been planning to visit, but when the opportunity hadn't presented itself for so long, I just went ahead and ordered a home delivery.

The menu has quite a few Naga dishes mainly featuring Raja Mircha, akhuni and Bamboo, but there are also Chinese and Thai options for the less adventurous.

The Naga special pork ribs 295Rs were billed as a starter. 2 good sized ribs with fat were what arrived home. As a dish, I think this would work better if eaten hot at the restaurant than delivered home in the middle of winter. They will also serve the dish to you without fat if you request them.

The Pork Raja Mircha 220Rs was excellent. Not too spicy and with some lovely green leaves in them, that I haven't been able to identify yet. This will go very well with just steamed rice, but since I wasn't sure, I had ordered the Basil Thai Vegetable Rice 120Rs as a side. The quantity of rice is huge and it was mildly yet excellently flavored.

The Thai Deep fried chicken 170Rs was average. Boneless pieces of chicken deep fried with a light spiced coating. Varities of this are sold at every street side self styled Chinese cart.

The Rosp Aon Dry Mixed Vegetables 95Rs was another interesting Naga dish. There were fresh snow peas, brinjal, bitter gourd and a host of other vegetables in this preparation that was flavored with angothi  - a local variety of sichuan pepper.
 

I'd ordered a side of the Raja Mircha Chutney 80Rs, hoping for a bowl of dynamite. What arrived was extremely tasty, but not as spicy as I'd hoped for. It did not showcase the uniqueness of the Raja Mircha the way the pork did.


In my recent quest for North Eastern food, I have found that they use minimal spices, relying mainly on fresh ginger, garlic, onions and tomatoes. The rest of the flavouring comes from using fresh vegetables and meat. In this manner of speaking, the concept is very close to Lebanese food, where again, it is the freshness of the ingredients that are the stars of a cooked dish.

I'm waiting for a convenient date when we can go visit the restaurant and eat the dishes fresh off the fire, and see and smell more dishes that come onto the restaurant floor.

Edited on 10 Jan 2011 to add restaurant visit review:
We visited the restaurant at the end of December and were welcomed in by the warm environs. The layout uses dark stained bamboo with sheer curtains seperating some areas from the others.

They do not yet have an alcohol licence and although it was quite cold, the warm interiors induced us to try their non alcoholic Bloody Mary (they don't call it a Virgin Mary) and Mojito (110Rs each).

The chicken Tom Yum soup (125Rs) was spicy and comforting especially combined with the Chicken Momos (175Rs) and the excellent red chilli sauce.

The Chicken Raja Mirchi (220Rs) was lip searing spicy in a thin gravy with Naga green leafy veggies in it. We had ordered a mixed fried rice (165Rs) but the Chicken Raja Mirchi would go well with just steamed rice too.

When we were finishing up they offerred us complimentary black tea which was quite welcome to end the meal.

The food isn't fancy, its got a home cooked feel to it with the added excitement of the Naga specialities on the menu.

VAT of 12.5% and Service Charge of 10% are added to the above amounts.