After having grown tired of jostling for reservations for brunch (and dinners) at posh restaurants located in five-star hotels, my friends and I decided to embark on something we should’ve done when we first arrived in Abu Dhabi more than a year ago.
Every city has it. And everyone who has lived in a city long enough to care knows about it. The famed hole in the wall. The one place you can go to for delicious yet cheap food. And repeat that experience all over again till you become friends with the servers and the cook.
In the past year, there have only been unconfirmed reports of delicious Indian fare found in the nooks and crannies of the city. So I set out last week to test three places most brought up in conversations. The city, it turns out, is rich with great eateries of a number of cuisines. Filipino, Chinese, Arabic, rip-offs of American fast food chains, and of course, Indian.
There are plenty that call themselves canteens – ones where men who live here on their own and hardly have time to cook, go to. These are places with frugal and set menus. Everything is reasonably priced. But that is not to say that the food is not delicious.
Take Red Valley Restaurant as a prime example. It is, like all the others, hard to find in the hustle and bustle of the city, framed on one side by a large mosque, construction on the other, in between 4th and 6th streets.
There were three items listed on the menu, which was stuck to the wall. You couldn’t miss it as you entered. We ordered everything. And so found ourselves overwhelmed with biryani, chapli kebab (a speciality from Afghanistan as well as Peshawar, Pakistan), a basket of hearty Afghan bread, some chicken gravy to dip it into, and another plateful of stewed and mildly spiced lentils. The grand total was Dh35, which included bottles of water and soft drinks. To say the dinner was a success is an understatement. I haven’t tasted such delicious kebabs since my friend’s mother from Peshawar came to visit us in Canada more than three years ago and made a special batch.
A few days later, I found myself staring at Evergreen Restaurant, right next to the bright lights of El Dorado Cinema complex – a one-stop shop for Tamil and Malayalam movies. Evergreen’s speciality is to feed those who are either in a rush to see a movie or get home after one. The counter located outside the shop is the best bet for Indian street food. Try the Gujarati style dhokla and pani puris – deep fried balls of dough stuffed with potatoes and tamarind water.
Finally, my favourite of all favourites is Chappan Bhog. You can order everything on the menu (as I did systematically through several visits) and nothing is mediocre. This is north and south Indian street food at its best. And their fresh lime sodas are worth every bead of sweat that you will generate trying to find your way there.
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