Darjeeling Restaurant

Darjeeling Restaurant is down on South Boring Canal Road in Patna. We are in the Boring Road area, right near Lalita Hotel. This part of Patna is always moving. There are students everywhere and people heading to the various offices along the canal. The restaurant isn't very big, and it sits right on the edge of the busy street. You can hear the rickshaws and the chatter from the sidewalk all day long. Inside, it’s a bit simpler. We’ve got some tables squeezed in to make room for as many people as possible. The walls are plain, and we don't spend much on decorations. We mostly focus on making sure the food is ready for the lunch crowd that comes in around one o'clock. It gets really crowded then, with people sharing tables and talking over each other. The smell of the canal is sometimes there if the wind blows a certain way, but mostly it’s just the smell of whatever we are cooking that day. We have a couple of guys who have worked here for years and they know the regulars by name. It’s a noisy, busy place that doesn't pretend to be anything else. When the sun goes down, the lights on Boring Road come on and we start cleaning up for the next morning. It’s a lot of work, but we are used to the pace of this neighborhood and the people who live here.