Chawla Family Restaurant

The restaurant sits right across from Surya Hotel in the DDA Market. We have shops 53 and 54 joined together, which gives us a decent amount of room for families to sit down and eat. Rajouri Garden is a busy spot, so there is always noise from the street and people walking by looking for a place to rest their feet. We start the day early, getting the kitchen ready before the lunch rush kicks in. The fans hum all day and the smell of the stove stays in the air long after we close up. Most of the people who come in live nearby or work in the local shops. They know us by name and we know what they usually order without them having to say it. It’s a plain place, nothing too fancy, just some tables and chairs where you can sit and have a meal. Sometimes the market gets really crowded on weekends and it feels like we are right in the middle of everything. We keep the lights on until late at night when the traffic finally starts to slow down. The floors get scuffed up from all the boots and shoes coming through, but we mop them every night before we head home. It is a lot of work running a family place like this in Delhi, but it’s what we do. We don’t change much around here because people like things the way they are.