Blurb: a one-woman band that creates serious music
Cuisine: home-style Punjabi food
Atmospherics: in the newest part of ever-expanding Gurgaon, Sector 50 has a couple of busy shopping complexes; Rodeo Drive will be just as happening in the next few months. Right now, you can sit outside the restaurant at dinnertime and conjure up the atmosphere of a small town. Young Ritika Gill will look after you as if you were guests in her own home. The shortest menu in the NCR: just 12 items including papad and lassi! Each has been made with a rare attention to detail from scratch. All ingredients are bought and consumed each day. The staff is as warm as the owner and incredibly, have learnt to anticipate guests’ needs. The interiors are fuss-free yet adequate: all the attention is on the food.
Table talk: Don’t miss the meat curry (Rs 500), perfect for two. Dark and rich, albeit with no oil floating on top, it is the sort of preparation that used to be made in homes a few decades ago. Simple and fuss-free, it depends on slow cooking for its appeal. The other touch of sheer divinity is the dal makhni (Rs 180) that restaurants have started needlessly complicating, whereas long cooking times on slow heat is all that is required. No ghee or cream is used and the result is what this city use to have before Punjabi food became synonymous with high cholesterol. On the day of my visit, the vegetable of the day was bharwan tinda (Rs 180) in which tinda had been sliced into quarters but left whole and masala and chana dal filled in. Even better than the taste, was being seated in a not yet crowded part of the NCR, feasting on simple, home-style vegetables that never make it to restaurant menus. Also on offer was stir-fried bhindi (Rs 180), another homely vegetable that seldom graces restaurant tables.
Plus and minus: The prices are unbelievably low, the service is efficient, warm and not in your face, and the food is the kind that is never seen outside dhabas (where three times the oil would be used). Where Curry Singh has scope for improvement is its presentation: many dishes have a curiously monochromatic appearance though they taste great. Also, a raita or dahi bhalla is a crying need here.
Dahi chicken; soya bhurji, kheer
Food: 3.75; Service: 3.25; Décor: 3.25
Shop No DG01 Unitech Arcade II, Rodeo Drive, South City 2
Tel: 9821595934-35
Open from 12 noon to 3 pm and 7 pm to 11 pm
No alcohol; credit cards accepted
Meal for two: Rs 1200
