“Nehru Place?!” you ask. I know, i know. Hardly the most obvious place to look for fine dining.
But heck, if all of puraani dilli‘s food has evolved from lashkari khana (food for army encampments), we should probably not ignore the battalions of office-goers whose collective lunch appetites keep a multitude of eateries in Delhi in business.
One place to blow up the money you’ve saved getting cheap deals on fake Windows CDs and assorted electronica is Sona Sweets: Sri Udupi Restaurant on the ground floor of the Saraswati House building in Nehru Place. As the name suggests, the place is a hotch-potch of all sorts of fast food, but with a south Indian touch. You can get everything from rasmalai and kulfi to pav bhaji, thalis, rajma chawal, dosas and whatnot. And in the typical no-nonsense style of an office-goer’s eatery, the place is self-service, and you have to be prepared to share your table with any and every one — that is, if you can muscle your way through the lunch rush into finding one at all.I haven’t tried any of those dishes (except the rasmalai, which turned out to be quite nice, though i prefer my ras less runny), but I have dug into the paranthas on offer at this joint.
Paranthas here come in three varieties — aloo, gobhi and paneer. A plate of any costs Rs. 42. Steep for a parantha, you exclaim? Ah, but you didn’t think you could feed a small country with it, did you?
Yes, the parantha is huge. I had a gobhi parantha today, and they probably used the entire annual cauliflower produce of Kyrgyzstan just for that. Which they top off with a dollop of easily 50g of butter. And if only to restore the mild-mannered south Indian’s sense of bearings in a eatery so clearly replete with bengali sweets and punjabi exaggeration, all of this is served on a banana pattal, to the accompaniment of south Indian mango pickle, south indian sabzi, and dahi. The pickle incidentally, goes brilliantly with the parantha, just as the dahi and veggies nicely do, too.
Delicious. Try it at your own heart’s risk.
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11 Responses to Sona Sweets at Nehru Place
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Seems a place I wanna visit… I would want to try the Paneer Parantha here!
i really love this blog… i cd write for it happily
have joined the orkut comm too.
waiting for u guys to put up more stuff!!
Effort in the right direction. ‘My’ foodie is for sure gonna read up this range. By the way, have you heard about ‘ The channa kulcha chacha ‘ in DU, North campus. I bet ya’ haven’t eaten more delicious batura channa ever. Its like Rs. 7 a plate. Meri mooh mein pani aah raha hai. Yaar, USA mein ek bhi joint nahi hai aaisa. Main soch rahi hoon, let me start my own venture.
Next time, dont miss their wonderful rabdi faluda………the best u can get in that area in delhi……….
Of course Sona sweets do brisk business but only paranthas seems worth paying for. That is too, for their size & butter only.
Most of the clientèle it has consists not very frequent visitors to Nehru place or office guys & gals who like to pay for names not food.
Basically Nehru Place is not where you can get a good meal as compared to other commercial places like Karol Bagh, Lajpat Nagar & Rajindra Place.
I believe Hemanshu & other people will agree with me that one should put some extra effort & better go to Nagpal for a better meal.
when i was in college and money was scarce, i used to go to nehru place frequently to check out second hand and pirated version books from miyan saah who spreads his offering at the other end of nehru place [towards the road going to kalka mandir]. And i used to go to sona sweets for the paranthas…. they were heavenly and huge and filling and one paratha meant u did not really need to eat the entire day….the shop is mainly for office goers and its better to avoid during the office lunch hour time….
I have been a big fan of Sona’s sohanpapdi,lassi and not to forget Their awesome paneer pakoras.They are a must try.
[...] mentioned how Delhi’s food is often descended from that of the mediaeval lashkars garrisoned around the [...]
I am sorry to state that Sona Sweets under no circumstances whould be in this list. My office is in Nehru place and I am sorry to state that there is no taste in Sona’s meal anymore. Even tough you can try out Lassis but will not recommend for any meal.
I use to take kaju burfi frequently