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My most pleasurable restaurant finds are ones that look like nothing on the outside (a hole-in-the-wall, if you will) but serve the most delicious food.
Baba Ka Dhaba most certainly falls into that category. Our friends Amit and Michelle, who discovered this strip-mall corner eatery, tried to set the scene well beforehand.
“Don’t wear anything new/nice/expensive,” Amit emailed me.
Were we going to get rolled? But when we walked in and I saw they had both left their coats in the car (despite the winter weather), I realized it was a “you’ll never get the smell out of your clothes” kind of situation.
In December 2008, Binky Silhouette, who is British and therefore much wittier than me, described Baba Ka Dhaba as, “Not a lampshade in sight and it’s tiled, so you can either tell yourself it’s a bit like eating in a urinal, or that it’s really easy to hose down at the end of the night.”
Fortunately — but to Amit’s chagrin — Baba Ka Dhaba is in the middle of renovations, transforming its tiled ugliness and Styrofoam service to a veritable five-star dining room of ’70s wood paneling, proper ventilation, and *gasp* real dishes.
In India and Pakistan, a dhaba is a truck stop restaurant. Truckers often sit on a cot, and are served food on a plank which is taken away when they’re done, and then they can just lie back for a sleep.
The main feature of these dhabas is hearty, comfort food for these truckers who spend hours on the road.
Lucky for us, ya don’t have to be a trucker to savour the curries and daily changing specials at Baba Ka Dhaba.
Goat curry ($7.99) is incredible. The tender goat falls off the bone, and the bones which have been severed properly, don’t splinter in your mouth, a very big peeve of mine. The sauce had obviously been long simmered with layers of spices, and not sloppily tossed with chili powder at the end to mask lazy cooking.
The dark green mound of sarson ka saag ($4.99), a curry of mustard leaves and spinach, looks terrible in photos but is a fabulous vegetable dish, scooped up with huge naan hot from the oven.
Two new dishes to my palate, thanks to Amit and Michelle’s guidance, were the day’s special of Lahore fish, a whole fish covered in spices and deep-fried, and haleem, mutton cooked for at least eight hours and blended with wheat and spices, rendering it into a paste-like consistency. (Like a meaty oatmeal?)
The fish was less juicy than I would have preferred but the taste of its meat made up for it, having been infused with spices.
I loved complex flavours of the haleem, which was a nice change from the regular curries we tend to gravitate towards. However, we were warned that haleem done badly is a terrible, oily mess. After eating here, I doubt Baba Ka Dhaba’s kitchen does anything terribly.
Hot chai (spiced milk tea, $1.95) with a big cardamom pod floating on top was a wonderful end to a great meal.
Of note, most dishes average $8 to $9, with the most expensive entry being tandoori lamb chops for $13.99. No idea if prices will go up after the renovation, but even if they do, it’s still very much worth the trip to this dhaba.
Baba Ka Dhaba, 3504-17th Ave. S.E., Calgary, (403) 207-5552. Open Monday to Saturday 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m.-11 p.m.
I went to Baba right after the radio show finished. And it is closed for renovation from Tue to Wed. How sad….
Oh no! I’m so sorry Vic! They told me that they’d be open through most of the renovations.
We came to this place after the radio show. First of all, I have to praise your courage to finish your dinner there. My wife and I were very skeptical if it actually functions as a dinning place. But we are a believer of the phrase, don’t judge a book by its cover. So, we walked into the dig and actually took a seat. There were only 3 tables, covered with filthy leftover, dirty dishes and most of the staffs dressed in military style camouflage pants and one was even wearing dog tag. I don’t want to further comment on the hygiene issue because you really have see it to believe it. There were very few customers at 6:30pm weekend. My Wife insisted to take-out which was a great idea, as I don’t think we could have any appetites in this run-down ambiance. The staff asked us to come for our order after 20 minutes. We came back after 20, but the food was not ready for another 30 minutes. That was probably the longest and the most uncomfortable 30 minutes in our restaurant experience, given we had to stand in such a “scary” surrounding.
Okay, enough of whining, let’s dive into the food. We ordered goat curry, tandoori fish, Bbq Seekh Kabab and 3 Nans. Total cost was $32. When we paid the bill, the goat curry price went up by $2 unannounced. There were only 4 small squares of goat meat clinging on some bones in the curry. Too much source not very filling. The fish was too spicy, dehydrated and tough to chew. It almost tasted like beef jerky. I know what you are thinking: com’on, they are just fish fillets. I think the fish was left in air too long after deep fry, causing congealment. The goat curry source splashed onto the nans during the transportation. I have to blame the staff did the packing. They could have used more leaking proof containers rather than just wrapping it with aluminum foil. The kebab was a joke. They used minced beef and shaped it into a sausage look, tasteless and again, tough to chew.
I would rate the food 4/10 and the overall experience in the restaurant 1/10. Not quite sure if wine and dine is their day job. A hole on the wall truly desert its name. I would never recommend this place to anyone and will never return.
I would check out the Chinese restaurant next to it though. It seems the place was packed every time we passed by.
I love this place and they need to stop making changes! Used to be a $4.99 “special of the day only” type of place. Which was fine, because all the specials were awesome. Last time I was in they were up at about $8, more if you want naan.
It used to be way worse (or better, depending on your definition) than it is now as far as decor goes. There was a time when they had a broken screen door at the entry leading you into a completely white tiled room with a few ratty tables and a bathroom sink in the corner.
Then, just when you thought it couldn’t get better, a wee man in the kitchen would poke his head through a little cutout in the back wall asking for your order. It was literally, a ‘hole in the wall’.
And seriously, try the chicken spinach. I crave this stuff bad… constantly.
Worst food place in calgary.
They cheat a lot. I recently ordered chicken biryani for take out. They gave plain saffron colored rice and cooked bland chicken pieces in it. No spice or even salt.
When contacted, they said that it was a special kind of biryani with special spices!!!
Obviously they had ran out of chicken biryani and hence were trying to sell us this saffron rice.
Will never go again there.
i’ve heard some good and bad things about baba but yesterday i went there with my friends I had thier buffet just one word excuisite taste their biryani charga butter chiiken was finger licking, atmos was cool changed service reason new managment 5 star going back on sunday for a party in the restaurant the hall is big they renovated the restaurant good job. new mngmnt is good 20 july 2011