Connaught Club House — Restaurant in New Delhi

TLDR: Rude, disrespectful, and condescending servers and front-of-house managers, but a really nice and helpful head chef.

We visited this restaurant as a family of four for a Christmas lunch, and I deeply regret ever going there.

Our experience began with an extremely rude valet. We had to wait for someone to come and take our car because they were busy chit-chatting. Eventually, they took our keys, handed us a coupon, and only then informed us that it was a paid service.

Upon entering, we were greeted by a hostess who seemed like she’d rather be doing anything else than welcoming guests.

After struggling to find someone to take our order, an extremely distracted server finally arrived. I had to repeat everything 4–5 times and was almost on the verge of taking their notepad myself.

Now, the worst part was yet to come. We were served our mains alongside our appetizers.

When we pointed this out to the server, he blamed us, claiming it was our fault for not specifying that we wanted the mains served after the appetizers. After a few minutes of arguing, he begrudgingly admitted it wasn’t our fault and took the food back.

Not even two minutes later, another server approached our table and asked us to finish the appetizers quickly because the mains would go bad under the heat lamps.

At this point, we requested to see the manager. The server informed one of the managers (a male), but he didn’t bother coming to our table.

We quickly finished the appetizers, and the staff brought out the mains, which were ice-cold. When we informed them, they argued with us again, insisting the food was warm.

By this time, we had asked for the manager three times, and he finally decided to visit our table. He listened to our concerns and agreed to provide a fresh portion of one of the dishes.

However, over 30 minutes passed, and we still hadn’t received the fresh portion. When we called over the other manager (a female), she casually responded, “You ordered an appetizer, so we didn’t know how to serve it.”

When we pointed out that chicken tagine (a dish with chicken and rice) is not an appetizer, she outright laughed and said, “Customers don’t know this as it’s a starter.”

We had to request a menu to show her that the dish was clearly listed under the mains. Despite being proven wrong, she began arguing about something else. It’s baffling how someone can be so stubborn even after being called out for their error.

Our experience was salvaged somewhat by the head chef, Chef Balla (if I recall correctly). He checked on our table, listened to our complaints, and promised better service on our next visit. He also threw in a small freebie as a gesture of goodwill.

Finally, as we were leaving, I handed the valet my coupon, and he asked for payment before even retrieving the car. I had to request him to get the car first before I paid.

I’m not sure if this was a one-off experience or if the staff regularly behaves this way, but I sincerely hope someone reads this and...

Went with friends and family on 29th September 2024. We had purchased discount vouchers of 50% from Swiggy Dineout for 3 pm. The whole place was crowded and there were no seats. Had to wait for 20 odd minutes before we were alloted a table. Wasn’t good but there was none other available. After some time they gave us another table. Too crowded and noisy. Had to repeatedly request for water. The staff was super busy. No server was allocated. Took us almost 40 minutes to settle down. Ordered for veg burger, French fries, spaghetti pasta in white sauce, Oreo shake for the kids. Everything was tasty. We ordered paneer tikka, patooshi kebab made of chickpeas, which were good but very less portion size. 5 kebab pieces in Rs 550 plus. Buy it was tasty. Creamy brocolli, dal, garlic naan were good too. Had lager beer which was ok. It’s a microbrewery. Initially they were asking for charges for the beer tasters, which no one does. Later they ddnt charge us. Cocktails like my last wish and others were good. Noodles weee good too. One of the servers was getting very irritated if we requested to change the stinking plates to fresh ones or asked to replace the garlic naan since it has no garlic flavour. On complaining our server was changed and Isha was quite good. She made sure everything was in order and was quite polite. Overall we enjoyed. Food was good. Music was nice. They gave us a brownie on the house.

2022 We & my friend went to the Connaught clubhouse, a micro brewery in Janpath, CP. I just went through the reviews on dineout & i wasnt disappointed. Nice place, seating is good. We had paneer chilli & pizza. Both the things were tasty. Pizza had a nice smokey flavour to it. The chilli paneer was good too. We had white wine. They have just 2 types of wines, an imported wine & a domestic one. More on beers. Had a vodka shot too. We spent some good 5...6 hours there. Nice music too. Tried sheesha. He have us a mix of flavours, which was quite good. Sheesha is kinda outsourced & i found it to be expensive. Service was good. Nice polite, courteous, smiling staff. Pradeep, who served us was good. Took care of things. In fact, I mistakenly burnt my finger on the sheesha sigdi & was just dipping my finger in water to reduce the discomfort. Without me even telling them or asking, Pradeep must have noticed & got me a band-aid. The next time we went thinking that our earlier experience was good but things were different the next time. Poor service, rude staff & manager, incorrect billing, overbilling I am a blogger on instagram & zomato as the @the_food_date. You may check my food & travel blogs on instagram at the following link ...

Finally, with the opening of the Connaught Clubhouse, Delhiites will no longer need to travel all the way to Gurgaon for brewed beer. Located in Janpath, Connaught Clubhouse is a sight to behold with its humongous area and lively ambiance coupled with a huge bar area and comfortable seating space – both high rise and low seating. Not only did I like the ambiance of this place but also the excellent choice of aesthetic furniture and the crockery.

Upon seating, we were first offered freshly brewed beer samplers; comprising of land beer, wheat beer and rice beer.The food menu has been curated by celebrated chef, Nishant Choubey who’s very well known in the culinary circle. The menu ranges from Soups, Salads to Sandwiches, Chaat, North Indian, European & Mexican, Asian, Dimsums, Pizzas, Desserts etc.

Out of a number of items we had, my top recommended dishes are :-

Mezze Platter – All-time favorite platter with falafel, hummus, baba ghanoush, tzatziki, housepickle, tabbouleh and pita.

Papri Chaat – One of the most unique compositions consisting of papri topped with avocado mousse and raw mango salsa.

Bruschetta Plank – One of the most picturesque and delicious bruschetta I have laid my hands on. Not only all the bruschetta were delicious but consisted of never heard before options – Beetroot-feta avocado hummus bruschetta, caramelized onion goat cheese bruschetta, aromatic mushrooms bruschetta and assorted peppers bruschetta.

Pizza Evergreen – Thin crust pizza topped with fresh mozzarella, basil pesto, zucchini, broccoli, beans, carrot, sundried tomato and olives.

Tawa Gobhi Adraki –this dish really did hit the right spots. If you love gobhi, do give it a try!

Connaught Club Dal – creamy and delicious dal makhni which paired perfectly with chur chur parantha.

Achaar Rajma ki Khichdi – One of the most unique dishes I have tried in a long time. Both, Rajma and Khichdi are two of my favorites dishes’ and their fusion was like a match made in heaven.

Tiramisu with Cocoa and Kahlua – I ended my meal with sweet indulgent dose of tiramisu-loved the perfectly balanced notes of coffee and chocolate. And it looked totally instagram worthy!

In a nutshell, Connaught Clubhouse is the perfect place to go both with friends and family. Not only the food here is excellent but the brewed beer is exceptional – smooth and zippy. Special mention for great staff and hospitality. Staff was attentive and helpful. Food preparation was authentic and full of flavors. Presentation of food was also amazing.

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