DABBAWALLA, the newly opened restaurant, stands true to its name. Located in the New Jersey suburb of Summit, the restaurant serves cuisines from various parts of India. It takes inspiration from Mumbai’s dabbawala system where a network of 5,000 men deliver over 200,000 homemade lunches each day from suburban homes to downtown offices.
Started by restaurateur Sanjay Narang, the swanky Dabbawalla restaurant is a unique dining experience. “Our whole concept of serving food in dabbas is what makes us different,” states Narang. Apart from running various restaurants in Mumbai like Not just Jazz by the Bay, All Stir Fry, Dosa Diner, and Just around the Corner to name a few, Narang’s company also operates all of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s restaurants in India.
Narang who refrained from a big opening for Dabbawalla is now optimistic about the expansion plans. “It’s wait and watch for now before we hopefully move to other locations by next year,” he says.
With Narang running various restaurants one can be assured about the food. To top it all, they have Colin Crasto as their executive chef, who has 14 years of experience in the industry.
There are three different menus to choose from: the regular one, lunch and finally the brunch one, each distinctly different. Take your pick from bhel puri to shrimp spring rolls to the medu vadas. Not to miss are their popular items like the big man tandoori platter. A combo of tandoori shrimp, three flavors of chicken tikka, seekh and lamb kebabs are served with various chutneys. Besides the traditional chicken saagwaala, Kashmiri rogan josh and shrimp malai curry, Dabawalla also offers a couple of Indian Chinese dishes. These Indian versions of Chinese dishes like chili chicken and vegetable Manchurian are served with fried rice.
If that sounds tempting, do watch out for their brunch menu. If eggs and dosas are your choice, I would highly recommend a Sunday trip. It’s a tough call between a dabbawalla eggs benedict and the egg bhurji, their exotic Indian version of scrambled eggs cooked with chillies, tomato, potato, cilantro and bacon, and accompanied with a dosa.
However, don’t let the bench seating mislead you that the food is cheap. Be prepared to shell out anything between $18-22 for an entree. But for regulars like Pasha Singh, price isn’t an issue when it comes to great food. “The food is incredible. I take the long time to order as it’s got a perfect mix of all Indian cuisines,” says Singh.
The lunch menu comprises of dosas, roomali wraps and the dabbawalla naanwich. The restaurant has innovative crepe warps such as the Kashmiri rogan josh and the chicken tikka masala dosa. The other popular options with regulars are the roomalis. Stuffed with seekh or chicken tikka these wraps make for great lunch bites.
The desert menu lists traditional dabba kheer, gulab jamun, kulfi and carrot halwa. It’s a treat for people who love Goan food to wipe the shrimp or fish curry off with warm bibinca. Interestingly this is one of the first few places where I have seen this traditional Goan desert made of layers of pancake and coconut.
Hopefully Manhattan would be the next stop for the Dabbawalla.
Recipe for Shrimo malai Curry
Ingredients:
Shrimp (16-20 count) 1 pound Ginger 1 oz Serrano chillies 2 nos (to taste) Mustard seeds 1 oz Milk 1 cup Heavy Cream ½ cup Cashewnuts 4 oz Water 2 cups Oil 2 tbsp Salt to taste.
In a blender, grind to a fine paste ginger, serrano chillies, mustard seeds, cashewnuts, milk and one cup of water. Transfer to a saucepan.
Rinse blender with remaining water and add this mixture to the saucepan. Add heavy cream (keep aside 2 tbsps for garnish) and simmer for 10 minutes on a slow fire, stirring continuously.
In a sauté pan, sauté shrimp in the oil for a minute on each side. Add shrimp to the mixture in saucepan and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Add salt to taste. Garnish with drizzles of heavy cream.
Serve along with steamed rice.
427 Springfield Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901 Tel: 908.918.0330 Fax: 908.918.0332
