Frontier — Restaurant in New Delhi

Situated on the ground floor of Ashok Hotel, Frontier is a north Indian restaurant that specializes in tandoori dishes. You enter past a bar counter, into a large dining space that is decorated in abstract styles, fairly minimalistic in black, silver and blue, with a show kitchen at the far end.

The menu includes all the usual suspects when it comes to popular kababs, though often disguised by exotic names: the murgh malai tikka, for instance, is called ‘kabab-e-hazarvi’, the mutton burrah is ‘garhi kabab’, and so on. Because of this, we got mixed up and ended up ordering the burrah kabab (as it appears on the menu) though the garhi kabab was what we really wanted: the ‘burrah’ is boneless, the garhi is how burrah really should be: a mutton chop on the bone. We later ordered the garhi kabab too, to compare, and it was far better than Frontier’s boneless burrah.

Other than that, we ordered the patthar kabab, the murgh malai tikka/kabab-e-hazarvi, and the tandoori cauliflower, along with garlic naan, dal makhni, and green salad. For dessert, we ordered kulfi, gulabjamun, phirni and an anjeer-akhrot (fig and walnut) halwa.

Every item (barring the boneless burrah, which was a little underwhelming) was excellent. Service was attentive and prompt, and though the ambience could’ve been better, if you’re here mainly for the food, it...

The simple, nomadic flavours of Frontier evoke the enduring romance of a place and a time that saw many a community come together over a crackling fire, grilling shanks of meats and evolving a robust and characterful style of cooking – tandoori cooking – that has left its mark on the culinary map of many cities across the world. And how.

The décor of the place has undergone a substantial change at the turn of the millennia. Starting from leather upholstered chairs and torches on the walls, the ambiance today is more chic with dark and blue hues dominating it.

But its their food which has stood the test of time. The cuisine, known to use mild aromatic spices and relatively less spices is beautifully curated by Executive Sous Chef Kirti Rastogi. The recipes created decades after being handed down generations have still been kept true although a few more additions have been made to usher in the changes in the palate of...

We had lunch yesterday at the Frontier. For drinks had ordered from the mocktail Kaala Noor. It was something I had not tasted before, the color of the drink was black and it had a special sweet and sour taste. Really very refreshing and nice. In the main course their dal dera ismail khan was outstanding. I would rate it above dal bukhara at Maurya Sheraton. The other dish which we ordered was paneer peshawari which was also very good. The staff at the restaurant are courteous and helpful. The decor is very decent. A nice place to...