The Potbelly Restaurant Bihar Nivas — Restaurant in New Delhi

I had heard a lot about Pot Belly Cafe from various sources and was wondering when shall I get the opportunity to visit this outlet. Ultimately I had the chance to visit it as I was in Chanakyapuri area with my wife for some family reason.

We decided that we shall have our lunch at Pot Belly, housed within Bihar Niwas. So we headed to the place. There is no parking facility inside the building so you have to lock your car on the road itself. This is not an easy task as the fear of your precious car be towed away keeps haunting you all the time. Anyway, you are helpless. We were guided towards the cafe by the guard sitting at the gate. Let me tell you it was a lovely brief walk which I appreciated very much.

Once inside I found most tables were occupied by guests. Anyway we too were lucky to get one. Now the question was what to order! Only two of us and my wife's eating capacity comparable to a child. A daunting task, indeed.

We flipped the pages of menu which was like a beautiful mini booklet.

We ordered chicken with paratha and pooris. The thought was that we will share it and it might be enough to fill our small tummy. We, generally do not like wastage of food so we are very careful while placing orders at any restaurant. This is what we did here too. The food arrived promptly. All our dreams and happiness flew when we found that the parathas were too thin and not large enough. The pooris were the size of 'gol gappa' and could be gulped in one go. The chicken pieces were again small and served in a bowl, good for soup. The dish was also accompanied by raita and mashed parwal (pointed gourd)-- 'Parwal Ka Chokha' or 'bharta'. The bharta was tasty though the quantity is too small and can just be tasted if you are in a group.

Me and my wife shared one poori each and had it in one gulp. Yes, of course. Then we shared the paratha.

Since we felt we needed to order something more we decided to go for mutton with Bati. This dish too came promptly but there were two batis only and we shared one each. The mutton was spicy and covered with thick gravy. It was, however, too hot for our taste as we are not in the habit of eating too much of chilli. The gravy grabbed my attention as I could feel the sweetness of onion in it. If you don't mind chilli then this was the best thing. Loved eating mutton in a restaurant after a long time. This dish too was accompanied by a small quantity of mashed potato, 'Aloo Ka Chokha'.

Now the price. Well, this is an expensive place to eat. No non vegetarian dish comes for less than three hundred rupees and one dish will serve one person only. Only two pieces of chicken or mutton are served in one plate. Any lunch for a couple would cost around one thousand rupees. Add some more if you go for beverage and sweets too.

Overall a decent place, good food but for casual visits only. Recommended but not highly recommended. What pinched me most was pricing vis-a-vis quantity.

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There are many aspect which makes this restaurant mole out of a mountain. PRICE: this is over price proportional to quantity served. All the new rates have been scribbled on small chits and pasted on menus which is thicker than tax reports of Bihar. A sattu parantha platter here cost more than a chicken platter outside which much less quantity. QUANTITY: The quantity of chokha is served in katori which is size of suji gol gappa. Same goes with mashed potato served for unknown reason or probably just to fill the empty space of serving dish. The two chutneys is full teaspoon each. They want mustard seed for every bite of sattu parantha. Their price proportion to quantity is unjustifiable, nightmare for north indian who wants to pay more for good food quantity. Pakora platter has 4 types of pakoras of 2 pieces each. Potato, Brinjal, onion and cauliflower served with chutney and priced at Rs.300/-. CONTRARY FOOD: Litti, a famous staple of Bihar, which is baked in coal so as to prevent it from frying/deep frying/using oil in any way and to prevent its taste giving a charcoal taste is deep fried. They just done the opposite of litti can still has the audacity to call it litti. Same goes with Chokha. A plate of litti chokha has urad daal on it rather than chokha. For formality, they serve chokha not brinjal one remember but brinjal mixed with potato in microscopic katori size, a size which you can find at any chapp corner, in which they serve green chutney or vinegar onion. Urad daal is served with saatu parantha and litti chokha for reasons unknown. AMBIENCE: No doubt, it has the excellent ambient and atmosphere but a crying child will ruin it without hesitation. One common toilet for entire lounge which has wash basin inside is quite a challenge. If one has to wash his hands, he has to use the toilet and lock the room from inside as the comode inside doesn't have a secondary door. CONCLUSION: They add the service charge without asking so beware. Moreover, if you want to travel all the way from Rohini or much far and want to eat Bihari cuisine, I recommend take NH19 and after Varanasi, taste the authentic Bihari food. Second route is after crossing Gorakhpur. Its time taking but gives far more satisfaction than this over priced, over hyped, under quantity, under washroom...

I had high hopes from this place. However, I did not like litti chokha much. I have had better litti chokhas in my life. There was a weird smell in litti. And the quantity was way too little. They had served chokha in chutney bowls. We had ordered Poori Basket for starter, and it claimed to have sattu pooris. But the sattu filling was barely there. Palak pooris, however, were good. Kaddu sabji served along with pooris were good too. But then again, kaddu sabji was also served in a very small chutney bowl. Barely enough for 1 person. Looking at the quantity, we then ordered a bhojpuri thali, and as per the menu, it was supposed to have rice, daal, aloo ki bhujiya, etc. But we were again served poori basket. Only with Paneer aloo ki sabji this time. When we asked, the hotel staff said you'd either get rice dal or you get pooris. All in all, it was l not an experience I was hoping to have. The taste of food was not too great. But it's not that bad either. Since there were not many people and there was a big garden outside, the ambiance was good. But the place is small and not meant for...