Welcome back to Chor Bizarre; a restaurant synonymous with experiential dining much before it became a cool trend. This iconic space recently reopened with a fresh look and an extended menu while retaining the old classics and their signature Kashmiri dishes.
We are greeted by founder Rohit Khattar and his wife Rashmi. You can instantly feel the warmth, charisma, and humility that are associated with traditional Indian hospitality and a sense of welcoming someone to your home.
The design ethos, as Rohit describes it best, is “nothing matches, yet everything gels”. Rashmi, the group’s Design Director and Rohit have over many years sourced and curated an eclectic collection of curios from across the country. The vibe as you enter is very much traditional Indian, and a few pieces are sure to catch your eye at the newly refurbished Chor Bizarre. There is a four-poster bed converted into a dining table, a Singer sewing machine table used as a table as well, a 1927 Fiat repurposed as Chor Bizarre’s Chaat Mobile and a cinema-themed bright red booth. The Broadway Bar is the perfect ambience for a cosy date night.
There is character, a love and respect for history and an inviting feel throughout. Rashmi shared that “overall there has to be a sense of order and comfort in the design”.
But what makes you really go back to any restaurant, we feel is definitely the food. Chor Bizarre serves large, wholesome portions of regional Indian cuisine and authentic signature Kashmiri dishes. Their south Indian Head Chef, Chef Srinivas A, who completes 17 years with the group proudly and excitedly speaks of his menu. He explains that the menu now includes “more starters and kebabs than before and I highly recommend trying the chicken barra and the lamb chops. For the mains, the Kashmiri tarami is what we are famous for and the Sharabi Kababi Chicken Tikka Masala which is flamed with brandy, which is a registered dish”. Rohit adds that the menu now includes a good offering of South Indian dishes such as the Jackfruit Moily. Come April, Chef Srinivas plans to alter the menu and include dishes using seasonal ingredients.
They are also actively planning regional food pop-ups—either their own brands or expert chefs or home chefs from across the country. They just did a chaat pop-up as a tribute to ‘Purani Dilli’. The next pop-up in November is Hosa from Goa which is well known for its innovative South Indian dishes. “This way the regulars keep on getting a reason to come back and try something new,” says Rohit.
Located on Asif Ali Road, just about ten-minute drive from Connaught Place and in close proximity to Red Fort and Chandini Chowk, it is quite an obvious stop for tourists coming to explore Delhi, not only for its location but also the true Indianness of the experience and cuisine. Many a tour operators’ local itinerary is developed around an early dinner at Chor Bizarre, for an assured truly Indian experience. But what about the regular South Delhiite who has plenty of food hubs closer to home?
“This location in itself is also a massive hub. If you see the hospital across, Maulana Azad Medical, that probably has a few thousand doctors”, says Rohit. “When my grandfather built this in 1956, when the Broadway Hotel opened, it was not commercial at all. It was just the stock exchange and residential and a couple of shops. Today, it is all commercial with many showrooms and there is Civil Lines nearby. For a South Delhiite, if you want Kashmiri food, then you have no choice but to come here. So, the diehard Kashmiri lovers will come. Even in 1990, when we first opened, the cuisine was our USP and you didn’t get this food anywhere else”.
Much of their history is adorning the walls of the establishment. The history and the legacy of the brand is being carried forward with much love and care. Rohit shares an interesting backdrop, “my nana, Mr. Tirath Ram Amla was looking for a winter home for the family because he lived in Kashmir. In those days, Purani Dilli and Daryaganj were the hotspots. There was no South Delhi. In 1954, he put in this bid for a new development next to Daryaganj, called Asif Ali Road. And he didn’t read the small print that it had to be four stories. So, when he read the four stories part, he was stuck. So, he said, what do I do now? And they said “why not open a hotel”?
And so, he did. And got a manager to look after it.
“Until, my parents moved here. So, then he told my mother, why don’t you start working at the hotel? So, my mother also had no idea about hoteliering but with the woman’s touch, she started refurbishing the rooms and everything. And she did a really good job and it ran really well, till I came in to disrupt. My nana’s logic was very simple. He wanted the restaurant to be a clubhouse only for the hotel residents. He didn’t want people coming off the road. And I remember as a little kid, because my grandfather was here, I would come running to spend the weekend with him. It was fabulous and I would go to the Sunday Bazaar.
Then my mother was running this and in 1986 when I came back, my mother said, why don’t you now think of a restaurant here? I was running a restaurant in the US. And then Rashmi and I got married in 1986 and we started figuring it out. In 1990, we opened this, and it all came together. It became an overnight success. And then from here we built more; we got the contract to India Habitat Centre. We built many more restaurants, opened Indian Accent and kept on expanding”.
In terms of customers, Chor Bizarre because of its nostalgia and the past, is definitely attracting our earlier customers. They never really left us because we were at the Bikaner House. But what we started seeing at Bikaner House, and now there are a lot of youngsters because retro is in vogue. They love the old songs. They love the fact that this is done in a certain way. And more importantly, it’s the food. The entire team has been with us for like two or three decades. The Kashmiri cooks have been there right from the beginning. You know our food will be good. So that is actually the brand’s salience. Everybody’s heard of it.
The relaunch of the restaurant is a well thought out decision to bring back and grow a brand that already has a loyal following and brand recognition. The plans are to open Chor Bizarre in other major cities which is very much underway, and it made sense to first reopen the flagship in Delhi.
“We are very lucky. We don’t go out looking for places anymore; developers come to us, they put in the money. They say that they want one of our brands. And if that works for us, we’ll do it. So, whether it’s Indian Accent or Comorin in Bombay or any other place, they come to us. We evaluate the place if it makes sense, we open it. Like this, we have many in the pipeline”. We have 7 brands in our portfolio and the plan is to focus on these. Each of them is an icon, heralding its own brand ethos, each dominating its own space.
Up next is more expansion with Comorin, Fireback and Hosa opening in major metros and the iconic Indian Accent overseas. The Broadway Hotel is also set to reopen in the next couple of months.
