The New Friends Colony Community Centre market was once a hub for well-priced food and therefore the only place to chill out for Jamia University students. Recently, I noticed that it is getting back its lost glory. A number of restaurants, specially the quick service ones, have come up offering a range of food. Since I am a chicken lover, my eyes lit up when I saw the recently opened How About Chicken Today? outlet. I just loved the question and stepped in the other day with the aim of answering it by tasting almost all the dishes they serve.
Its décor was quite vibrant though at times I felt I entered my daughter’s play school. A glance through the menu card gave me hope. It had a couple of typical Indian chicken dishes like butter chicken and also has interesting names like Bengal mustard chicken tikka. Under the banner of Alchemist Foods Limited, HACT, I would think, is one of the very first Indian quick service restaurants which is solely chicken based.
I started with a murgh seekh and found it quite juicy though the seasoning was a bit bland. It was followed by ajwaini fingers, a true delight. The typical North Indian flavour of ajwain infused in a crisp, thick fillet of chicken.
The tikkas here come in three variations. I liked the Bengal mustard chicken tikka the most. Perfectly succulent and so flavourful. Those who like spices should opt for chutney murgh tikka.
Also, no starter list could be complete without the chicken wings. At HACT, it has three variants — peanut and tamarind wings were quite innovative, had distinct flavours. Peanuts with tangy chicken was worth a try. I enjoyed my starters with Spicy Red, a refreshing mocktail with cinnamon and cloves.
The burgers and the main course of butter chicken and rumali roti I tried out at HACT were a bit let down compared to the starters. The bun of the burger was not fresh though it had a yummy mustard chicken fillet.
I missed signing off the meal with a softy cone which I usually do in every QSR. Though the hot gulab jamun tasted good.
Meal for two - Rs. 500
