The husband and I ended up lunching at Kapoor’s Cafe in Whitefield recently, a totally unplanned lunch just because he was in that part of town on work and I was in a position to accompany him right then. Now, Kapoor’s Cafe has been on my radar for almost a year now, ever since I started reading rave reviews of the place on a whole lot of food blogs. Somehow, a visit to the cafe never happened till recently, and I was thrilled to be able to finally go.
Kapoor’s Cafe is an all-vegetarian cafe (a dhaba-style cafe, to be precise), which prides itself on serving authentic Punjabi fare. There are two outlets – one behind ITPL and one in Varthur, both in Whitefield. We went to the Varthur outlet.
Decor and ambience
The decor is colourful and peppy, but strictly a ‘no frills’ one. There are simple chairs and tables laid out in the seating area, which is spacious. Food is served in simple steel plates, no fancy stuff there. The roof is a colourful asbestos sheet.
There are little quirky touches in the decor here and there, like a poster on the wall that proclaims ‘Oye! I’m Punjabi, and I cannot keep calm!’ (or something to that effect) and pretty, hanging lights. Mostly, though, the place looks like an upscale dhaba.
When we went, it was the typical lunch hour, and the cafe was bustling.
Food
I opted for a combo meal, from one of the many combos on offer – a Winter Special meal consisting of sarson ka saag, gur, desi butter, chutney and makke di roti.
The desi butter came wrapped in a piece of foil, and drenched the hot, hot, hot makke di rotis on my plate. Bliss, indeed! The rotis, unlike those we have tasted at some other places, were soft and tasted delicious.
The gur tasted lovely, too, and I took big bites of it in between eating the roti and the saag. It looked and tasted very different from the jaggery we are used to eating in Bangalore. I wonder where they get it from!
The green chutney was beautiful, hitting just the right notes of spicy and tangy.
The sarson ka saag came with a tadka of grated garlic, which tasted mind-blowingly brilliant. I am so going to replicate that at home now! That said, the saag could have done with a bit more flavour, according to me – it wasn’t very bad, but it wasn’t ‘Wow!’ either.
The husband ordered a few phulkas and a Mushroom Masala Subzi. The subzi was super duper delicious, though it was a tad too spicy for us – I could taste many different spices used in it – and both of us loved it to bits. Whether it was an authentic Punjabi subzi or not, I don’t know, but we loved it, and that’s all I can say.
The phulka rotis were nice and soft, and freshly made. When we asked for a couple more phulkas, though, a while later, we got some cold ones that were fresh, but evidently not made to order.
Next up, we got ourselves some desserts.
We opted for a Fruit Cream and a Dryfruit Lassi, both of which were served in clay kulhads, decorated with dry fruits and a cherry. Cute! That said, both desserts we ordered looked the same – a slightly different presentation for both of them would have won the cafe more brownie points, though that is a minor matter as far as I am concerned.
The fruit cream tasted gorgeous – it was like a creamy, sweet fruit salad with nuts that was absolutely delicious, and we lapped it up in seconds. We were expecting the fruit cream to be something like the one we had in Frazer Town once, but this one was totally different. (I’m guessing the Frazer Town was fruit cream in Bombay style, while this is the Punjab style. I don’t know for sure, though.)
The dryfruit lassi was super brilliant, the star of the meal for me. It was thick and sweet and creamy, and oh so delicious! I would highly recommend you try it out whenever you visit this place.
Service
The service staff was friendly and courteous. We got our orders within 20 minutes or so.
Prices
The prices are on the higher side, we felt.
INR 150 for a dryfruit lassi and INR 265 for a Sarson Ka Saag combo is quite high, considering the absolutely no-frills environment of the place. Yes, the food (at least the food that we sampled here) is good, but still overly priced.
We paid about INR 860 for our meal, including all taxes, which is, indeed, high considering the fact that we didn’t order for any starters or additionals.
Verdict
Both the husband and I enjoyed our meal at Kapoor’s Cafe. We loved the food that we sampled (mostly!), albeit expensive, and we would love to go back to this place again.
Would I recommend this place? Absolutely!
Disclaimers
- The reviews I read about this place online seemed to be divided into two major categories – those who absolutely hated the food and those who loved it. Some hated it because it wasn’t not authentic, not what they had tasted in Delhi or Punjab. The husband and I fall into the latter category – we liked the food and the place – without any knowledge of the authenticity of the food.
- This was a meal that we paid for, personally, and not a review offer. The thoughts expressed herein are entirely my own, based on our experience of eating at the restaurant. I do not stand to receive any kind of gain by recommending this eatery to you.
- This was our first experience of eating at Kapoor’s Cafe, and I believe one cannot judge a place by visiting it just once. This is, therefore, just a recounting of our first ever lunch at the eatery.
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