Find It...

Delhi Darbar

Buffet. The word conjures unappetizing images of bland, rapidly aging food under sickly heat lamps. Fortunately, that’s not the case at Delhi Darbar. Until two months ago, the restaurant was located at the intersection of Glenmore Trail and Ogden Road S.E., but it has moved to 16th Avenue N.E., just east of Centre St.

Online food review sites can be less than enlightening. For example: “I don’t remember what I ate, but it was delicious!!!” However, the name Delhi Darbar caught my eye recently while surfing these sites due to its high ratings and positive, if vague, customer comments based on its old location; particularly, its buffet.

Recently visiting said buffet, my guest and I stepped out of traffic and into a pleasant oasis of muted greens, neatly folded royal purple monogrammed napkins, light piano music and polite, pleasant service.

Food review spoiler alert: I loved the buffet (daily lunch $12.95; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday dinner, $18.95). So much so, that later in the week I gave co-owner Sanjay Kumar a call for the lowdown on the restaurant’s flat-out stellar Delhi-style dishes.

Ordering two Kingfisher beers ($4.95) and receiving a basket of fresh, crispy naan, we headed to the buffet at the back of the restaurant. Plate in hand, I started with a heaping scoop of saffron rice. From the salad and sauces station, I added a scoop of diced vegetable salad composed of onion, tomato and cucumber. I then chose from four vegetable and six meat selections (dinner buffet includes eight meat options). I topped a small veggie samosa with mint chutney then added a scoop of chana masala — a chickpea dish, and navratan korma — a creamy mixed-vegetable dish. Finally, I selected two meat dishes: lamb vindaloo and kadhai beef.

The plump little samosa was crisp and fresh. Kumar and his two co-owner and co-chef brothers prepare them in-house. Best samosa ever. Its potato and pea filling is spiced with garam masala — an Indian spice combo the brothers grind themselves. The mint chutney adds just the right tangy accent.

Kumar tells me the buffet selection changes every day, but the popular chana masala is usually included. Its simple appearance belies the fact it takes hours to cook and its recipe is complex. The dish’s chickpea base is flavoured with multiple spices including cardamom and cinnamon stick as well as onion and garlic sauce.

Navratan korma is the restaurant’s signature dish and, suitably, it’s a knockout. It consists of nine vegetables cooked with cottage cheese, spices and yoghurt. “You can find the name navratan korma, but you can’t find that taste. You can’t find it anywhere else,” brags Kumar. I’ll back him up on this claim. It’s one of those foods you’ll keep returning to the buffet table for.

Kadhai beef is traditionally cooked in an iron pot. It’s a tradition the Kumar brothers maintain in preparing the dinner entree version of the dish, though not for the buffet. The beef is cooked with peppers, carrots and onions in a golden sauce with a mellow spice heat. The lamb vindaloo, a typically spicy southern Indian dish, is mild. The big, tender chunks of lamb really hit the spot.

A second trip to the buffet is a no-brainer. The white meat of the palak chicken was deeply marinated — for almost six hours — and then cooked with spinach. A spoonful of thick, sweet and fruity mango chutney went beautifully with this superb chicken.

My last main selection of yellow lentils is a common Indian dish. Delhi Darbar makes it with the usual garlic and tomato, but includes fried whole chilis — adding to the dish’s esthetic and giving it a warm, sophisticated spiciness.

The dessert selection is also impressive. The pinky-orange carrot pudding is reminiscent of tapioca. The ingredients are simple, says Kumar: milk, carrots and a pinch of sugar, but time and care are required to cook the pudding properly. With it, we also tried gulab jamun, a standard Indian sweet. The small, golden orbs, though cake-like, are made entirely of milk and served in a very sweet, thin honey syrup.

Thus ended one of the top buffet meals this reviewer has eaten. I take great comfort in the fact that I can always go back for seconds. Thirds. Fourths.