Dilliwale

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Item: Dilliwale
Rating: 5
Author: christychinam

4.5

232 Reviews

Taste

Decor

Service

Hygiene

Value

8297

Causeway Bay

$101-200

Indian

224

christychinam

Level4

298

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Recommended by my friend, spending our happy Friday gathering at this restaurant was definitely a remarkable decision.

Restaurant wasn't big, but well design to feel spacious and had privacy for gathering. Most seats were booked, and not many guests walk in.

Reading through the menu, it was impressive to see that many options, even for desserts and drinks, they served varieties. Some even with uniqueness. We ordered heavenly gol gappe, dillt tandoori chicken in half, paneer palak, masala pyaaz bhindi and house butter chicken. For carbs, we got their garlic naan, cheese naan and onion kulcha.

Heavenly gol gappe was a light starter perfectly preparing your palate for upcoming strong spiced dishes. Puffy crispy balls with a hole filling with toppings. They served spiced diced potatoes with onions, delhi style mint sauce and tamarind water. We drizzled little mint sauce in the puffy ball follow by the potato mix. Puffy balls were incredibly crispy even with so much moisture from the sauce. Potatoes were well herbed and spiced. In addition with the mint and velvety texture from the potatoes, it was a perfect bite size appetiser. Tamarind sauce wasn't our cup of tea unfortunately, just found its own unique taste was kind of odd and overly sweet. Overall, a very good start.

Tandoori chicken was ambrosial. We could smell the smokiness when it was sent out from the kitchen. Drizzled with a lemon wedge. Chicken was extremely moist which could tell the magic of using yogurt to marinate. Meat was easily tear apart from bone. It was smoky and well spiced by cayenne peppers. Not chilli spicy but well seasoned with spice. Balance perfectly while still brought out its own meaty flavour. And dont forget the onion slices underneath which absorbed all the juiciness, succulently juicy and sweet.

Paneer palak was on a smooth curry out of the three we picked. Spinach blended to silky smooth while mixing with cubes of cottage cheese. Couldn't taste much of the spinach while with a very gentle taste of garlic and chillies. Not much of the heat but well to serve with slightly salted cottage cheese. Love to bite through the salty cheese coated with a thin layer of smooth herby curry. Wrapping with the onion kulcha, it brought extra onion sweetness. Personally found onion kulcha paired well with paneer palak as giving a mild herby curry with a hint of sweetness and some nibble onion bites.
Onion kulcha was similar to a flat bread stuffed with diced onions. Love the fluffy dough sandwiching the generous diced sweet red onions. Perfect for dipping and adding extra sweetness.

Masala pyaaz bhindi was an okra base curry stew. Okra was incredibly soft that literally melted in your mouth. For okra haters, this dish definitely doesn't suit you as its seeds left your mouth with okra's own sliminess. Yet, my favourite. Its seed gave an aftertaste of masala flavour. Love how they used tomato base with addition of loaded onions and peppers while all were cooked incredibly soft that melted in your mouth with the okra. Eating with garlic naan was another good pairing to add extra garlicky flavour from the loaded garlic naan. Love how the garlic was slight raw which gave that pungent garlic spicy taste and chew. Just another heavenly bite.

House butter chicken was another delightful dish. Creamy indulgence while with a hint of spice. Not strong flavour with a balance of savouriness and sweetness. Chicken again soft and cooked perfectly. Yogurt always acts as a magic on marinate. Dipping the cheese naan with the butter chicken sauce to make the whole experience extra indulgent. A slight of cheesy flavour adding to the rich smooth curry, whole dish was elevated. Naan well coated the curry while itself was slightly salted. It wasn't heavy at all. It's legendarily smart to create naan serving with curry.

After all the savourinesses, we picked two desserts sharing. Even with a big belly, we for sure would try their dessert because here served couple could hardly find out there.

Chandni kulfi pista nutty was an ice cream in pistachio flavour. You could choose mango while we all preferred something nutty. Ice cream was incredibly nutty as expected. Even pistachio crumbles could be tasted on every bites. Rich and smooth while still having a crunchy flavour. Cardamom always the perfect match with pistachio. Love a hint cardamom aroma and gave some warm and hint of sweet complex flavour. Little rose water was also added. Didnt over power the dish. A dessert tasted like just journey back to middle east.

Shahi tukda with rabri was similar to french toast but in Indian way. Bread was dipped in.syrup while drizzled with pistachio almond syrup. However, it was soggy and tough. A very sweet dish. While the spice and nuts did help easing the sweetness.

Last but not least, talking about the drink I ordered. It was the only thing I must criticise throughout the whole night. I requested coconut mojitos. It looked like a normal mojitos with limes and mints. Nevertheless, once had a sip, it's just extremely intense coconut flavour. Neither was the coconut meat, nor the coconut water. It was coconut extract but very strong handed that gave a weird taste and odd gummy texture. I couldn't taste the mint or the lime at all. Not even talking about the rum. I gave up half way as I couldn't take the intense aftertaste. Such a shame.

Overall, a very unique Indian restaurant which will come back for more of their signatures that can't find out there. Staff was friendly and welcoming. Thumb up!