Indian bistro offers delicious take on Delhi
Tasty offerings are sure to satisfy fans of South Asian fare
DELHI 6 INDIAN BISTRO 1766 West 7th Avenue 604-742-3311 Open: daily for lunch and dinner; delhi6.ca
Two winters ago, I ate at Indian Accent in New Delhi, voted the best restaurant in India by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
It involved a Keystone Kops cab ride taking an hour and a half to go a half-kilometre in gridlocked traffic; the driver couldn’t read our phone map or any map at all and started asking random strangers for directions, taking us to and fro and back and forth and around and around. Very politely, he declined to call the restaurant for us. The return trip home took 10 minutes.
At the guest house where we arrived at 5 a.m. to find the gate to the property locked, the hosts were a cookbook author and cooking instructor and her journalist husband. I expected engrossing culinary conversations and a northern Indian cooking class from the elegant woman, but that was hardly the case. Instead, she was in a deep funk about life in Delhi and we became her complaints department. Her husband, however, delighted us with his knowledge of India in his plummy English.
Our journey to Delhi 6 Indian restaurant in Vancouver was much smoother. It has taken over the second-floor space that Thai House had occupied since the mid1980s, and the owners have done a good job refurbishing the interior, starting with a colourful and inviting reception area.
The welcome is swift and warm, especially from one of the owners, Yoona Lee, who is not of Indian descent (Korean, in fact). Here’s the backstory. She was manager at Jagjit Banwait’s Coco Rico Cafe on Robson Street, and she impressed him enough to include her in Delhi 6. Bhupinder Singh is the third partner and a chef who trained in India; he’d also worked for Banwait at Coco Rico. In Canada, he’s cooked at western-style restaurants, and he plates the Indian food with clean, attractive presentations.
I won’t say it’s the best Indian food in Vancouver — that honour can’t be shaken from Vikram Vij and Meeru Dhalwala’s cooking (Vij’s, Rangoli, My Shanti), but Delhi 6 is a popular destination. I’ll certainly keep it in mind next time I’m catching a movie at Fifth Avenue Theatres nearby.
A reader, Cliff Chin, nudged me into trying the restaurant saying the “butter chicken melts in your mouth ($15.95).” It was indeed a moist and flavourful dish and, contrary to its name, it was not heavy with ghee. It was hard to cease and desist eating it, as the sauce hooked me.
Seasonings tend to be soft and fragrant, which is why I liked the tandoor-roasted cauliflower ($13); it’s first marinated in saffron, cream cheese, cardamom and yogurt before hitting the tandoor, then served with lemon mint aioli and a roasted tomato dip.
The garlic naan comes from the tandoor, nicely charred, and bulging with air bubbles ($3.50).
The biryani (vegetarian, chicken or lamb, $15.95 to $17.95) is cooked in the tandoor and arrives at the table in a pot with baked dough tightly stretched over it. As the server instructs, you don’t eat the crust. Just break it and voila, the biryani beneath is moist and flavours co-mingle from the heat of tandoor. The rice is beautifully fluffed and elongated, thanks to a soak before cooking, and the veggies are fresh. This dish could indulge in more Indian spicing.
Lamb curry was in a light, mildflavoured tomato and onion sauce which I liked, but the lamb wasn’t as moist as it should be.
For dessert, we shared a simple kheer (rice pudding), cooked “a really long time.”
The specials are worth checking out. On the day I visited, there was a lobster curry, cooked whole, in the tandoor with a South Indian sauce. And for those who find food in Indian restaurants too heavy, you’ll find Delhi 6 has lightened it up considerably.
The drinks menu needs an upgrade. Why Molsons when we’re awash in local craft beers here? The wine list is fine, with wellknown B.C. wines, but could be amped up with gems for diners to discover.
The name Delhi 6 is from the shortened postal code for the Chandni Chowk area of Old Delhi, a busy market area.
The restaurant makes deliveries through skipthedishes.com and doordash.com.