Moti Mahal Restaurant — Restaurant in Delhi

All through my life my parents had told me tales about food & atmosphere in this restaurant and I was very excited to take my whole family along with my mother who was visiting after 45+ years to this restaurant but all I can say is it was a disappointing experience , nothing absolutely nothing was up to the mark , most shocked was my mother who couldn't believe that this is the same place where as a child she use to have food & have a great time with her parents ,brother & sister . This whole place is in shambles , the interiors are less said the better , staff though was friendly but the uniform they where wearing was torn & dirty . Service was pathetic even though 2 tables were occupied in whole restaurant at the time , on one we were sitting and on other another table family of 3 were sitting but it took them good 30mins to prepare our food . Food tasted worse the vegetarian platter that we ordered which the staff said will take 20mins to cook didn't taste good at all , the bharwan Aloo was not cooked well infact it tasted raw , butter chicken was invented here & I had read ,seen innumerable videos about it on this restaurant and was most excited to taste it but all I can say is it was disappointing , I have had much better butter chicken than this in other places . Toilet were locked and were only opened when someone has to visit it and they were ill maintained , both male & female ones as my wife had also gone to female one. As I was leaving this place I meet the manager & asked about the original owners Kundan Lal Gujral, Thakur Das Magu and Kundan Lal Jaggi who started this restaurant way back in 1947 , he told me this restaurant was sold by them to Mr Chaddha in 1991 and from then onwards he is running this place , he can be seen sitting behind the cash counter. Kundan Lal Jaggi's grandson along with his childhood friend has started 'Daryaganj' restaurant , they even had appeared on one of the episode of 'Shark Tank India' and I must say their food taste 1000% better , I have visited their aerocity restaurant as well which was another great experience , Kundan Lal Gujral's family have started Moti Mahal Deluxe & Trandoori Trail restaurants. After coming back home when I along with my wife & mother shared our experience with our father who till his teenage years use to visit this place along with my grandparents was shocked to know this . All I can say is this is one visit which I want...

Edit My review for this restaurant in March 2022: "This is place is the Birth place of Butter Chicken. Try this restaurant's Butter Chicken and you will forget any other butter chicken, it is that great. A must visit for any one visiting Delhi. This restaurant is near Jama Masjid..."

My review now: "Based on the good experience I had with this restaurant a year ago, i decided to pay it a visit again with my family. But things this time were changed for the bad.

First of all, official opening time of this restaurant is 11:30AM. I reached there by 12:30PM. However the restaurant was still opening up and the things were being set for the day at that time. They opened up late. Then at around 1PM they asked for order. We decided to order Tandoori Chicken, butter Chicken, dal makhani along with some Missi roti and rumali roti to which the waiter said Missi and rumali roti can't be served as workers (they said "karigar") are not in yet. So we had to take normal roti for that time. Now before eating, we decided to go to the washroom to wash our hands before eating. However the washroom was locked and the wash basin outside the washroom didn't have running water. So we had to buy a bottle just to wash hands. Then they served the food.

One of the worst food ever served by a famous restaurant like this. With respect to the last year, the Butter chicken gravy was too sweet and the chiken pieces were hard and stale. Same with the tandoori chicken. It was not at all fresh. Dal makhani was okay-ish but definitely not upto mark. Even a roadside stall serves better tasting dal makhani than here. Also in March 2022, the staff count was good. This time however there were just 3 4 staff members who were not looking interested in their work.

I don't know what exactly happened to them in the last one year, but they have definitely lowered their quality of service. So now, i would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. There are better restaurants nearby which can give you better food. Go there and...

The moment I saw the entrance of this restaurant, I remembered I had seen it somewhere in TV. It increased my excitement and when I got to know how historic this place was, all I wanted was to eat at this so-called famous restaurant where apparently Gorden Ramsay had cooked.

I went there along with my friend. As we entered, no one bothered to ask as anything. I went to the reception to confirm if the kitchen is still open and if we can take a table. Once that was done, none came to give us any menu.

After requesting for menu, we ordered Burra Kebab, butter chicken, rogan josh and naan.

Butter Chicken - It was good, like wonderful.

Burra Kebab - It said tender meat. When we got the dish, I wanted to throw a dictionary on their face to show what tender meant. It was hard, tasteless meat with some random masala.

Rogan Josh - The meat was soft, but as you start eating you get a raw smell/taste indicating the meat hasn't been marinated well/ or hasn't been allowed to be in the masala for adequate time.

Naan - Naan was forgetful. Nothing special and nothing bad.

There is something more irritating than food itself. Once you go to pay your bill. The reception guy, who did not bother acknowledging our presence when we had entered the restaurant, pulls a phone goes into whatsapp and takes a random QR code. He then goes on to demand to scan it and give the "Best Heritage Hotel" rating in easy diner. My problem is not asking for rating or review, but the way one does it. THey never bothered to ask us how we liked the food, if we enjoyed it or not. They only care about the way their restaurant is potrayed via this rating.

So all in all it brings a question, What is Moti Mahal? Well, according to me, Moti Mahal was once a restaurant which is now a marketing entity which gets its customers (mostly foreigners) by selling them stories of how old it is and how it had once served the rich and famous.

So if you love food and respect your money, DO NOT GO!

My bill...