09 August,2011 07:31 AM IST | | Ashishwang Godha
The latest eatery to open at model colony is a restaurant operating out of a converted bungalow and dishes up regular fare at affordable prices
Situated in a converted family bungalow, Urban Desi barely looks like a restaurant from the outside. But it is when the menu makes an appearance that you realise that Urban Desi is actually the new avatar of Kalyani Nagar's recently closed down Crosstown Traffic. Walk in and tables are scattered in an outer courtyard. Gratefully, we are led upstairs to a cafe with simple green tablecloths and bamboo blinds. The menu is a smattering of Chinese, Tibetan and Indian food.
Urban Desi
Food: Indian Chinese
Service: polite
Ambience: sloppy
Indonesian Massaman Curry. Pics/ Jignesh Mistry
Considering the Oriental look of the place and the staff and the fact that they advertise Tibetan food, we decide to stick to it and give the Indian amiss. We began with the Vegetarian Thukpa(Rs 60), a Tibetan clear soup loaded with vegetables and noodles and spiced fresh with coriander and green chillies.
Then come two starters, Vegetarian Chilly Fried Momos (Rs 90) and Thai Pan Kay (Rs 130). The momos came looking like half-moon karanjis, deep-fried with a vegetable filling and doused in a chilly sauce. The Thai dish was a dry, garlicky, spicy preparation with chicken chunks and fried bell peppers. We are quite the lovers of Indo-Chinese food and we appreciated the attempt.
Stuffed as we were, for their portions are generous, we ordered our mains. A Massaman Curry (Rs 120) to go with their Triple Treasure Fried Rice (Rs 120). The curry had a slight overdose of turmeric but eventually went quite well with the simple bowl of fried rice that had slivers of egg, chicken and prawns.
They served up a chicken curry instead of our vegetarian order but apart from that, the staff was smilingly polite. Not their fault that we were awkwardly the only people in the restaurant. Urban Desi does food that should appeal to our Indian-Chinese palate and at prices that we are comfortable with. They are well-located and should have been as buzzing as their neighbouring eateries. Maybe, they only need to work on their ambience a bit to avoid the 'shady' tag.
Time: 1.30 am to 3.30 pm& 6 pm to 11 pm
At: Opposite the Indian Catering Institute, lane opposite Marriott, Model Colony.
