The Junkyard Café
2nd & 3rd Floor, J-2/12 BK Dutt Market, Rajouri Garden, New Delhi
Meal for Two: Rs 1,400
Junkyard is a chain of restro-bars and lounges spread across Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. A brainchild of Umang Tewari, the restaurant has three outlets in Delhi: in Connaught Place, Saket and Rajouri Garden. Compiled after my recent visit to its Rajouri Garden eatery, this is a narrative of my gastronomically fulfilling evening.
The quirky way of compiling the junk makes the restaurant’s décor unique. The ambience at its Rajouri Garden outlet has Transformers (a species of sentient, living robotic beings from an American sci-fi) and Mona Lisa portrait made out of junk. From tables to couches to chairs and even the crockery seem to add meaning to the theme of the café. The music and the aura of the place is welcoming too. The brick themed walls and a vibrant ceiling make for an aesthetic combination of the theme of junk and quirk. The two-storey café has a big collection of junk giving it like a garage like feel, notching the themed café trend in Delhi-NCR.
The well-crafted food menu includes relishing Indian, Asian, and Mediterranean delicacies. We started our evening with watermelon mojito. Taking the growing health conscious milieu into consideration, the café also houses a separate section for them. This section includes root collage, made from beetroot, carrot and vanilla sugar. The place also serves a good variety of alcohol that makes it a perfect hangout spot for your squad. Cocktails like red hat made from white rum, watermelon and fresh mint with lemon juice is a must try. Cocktails like Bloody Mary, Long Island and cosmopolitan are also a big hit here.
The food menu here serves to a variety of food lovers. Starting from the appetizers, barbeque spicy onion rings to dahi ke kebab to country fried chicken wings, all are lip smacking. The next thing that appeared on our table was Junkyard veg special platter. It comprised of spicy onion rings, cheesy potato skins and cheese spring rolls served with bruschette. For the non veg platter, we were served tandoori wasabi prawns. It was a combination of wasabi, marinated prawns served with wasabi dip and mint sauce.
Moving on to pizzas, peri peri chicken pizza is a highly recommended entree that indeed was droolworthy. The Portuguese flavoured chicken strips with red onion, jalapenos and rocket leaves was great combo too. Dishes like murh makhani made of boneless chicken cooked in creamy butter, served with rich tomato gravy, baked mushroom alfredo macroni, lasagna and Jodhpur paneer mathania are some of the stellar delicacies of the place.
The evening ended on a sweet note with walnut epic brownie. Our dessert was served with chocolate sauce, vanilla ice and whipped cream. The presentation itself was tempting. Serving an overwhelming variety of desserts, the café also boasts of having New York cheese cake, chocolate milk mousse and others on its menu.