Taste Test: Goila Butter Chicken

The Goila butter chicken.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? We’d say neither. It was the Twitter hashtag, #GoilaButterChicken that came first and turned the world around for TV chef Saransh Goila.

After treating his friends to his signature recipe and hosting multiple #GoilaButterChicken nights for over a year, Chef Goila finally opened his take-away and delivery outlet in Andheri W. Apart from the butter chicken, which is his claim to Twitter fame, the menu includes Goila butter paneer, starters like kheema chaat, biryanis, Sindhi-style mutton curry and desi ghee ke rajma chawal, which Goila learnt during one of his trips to Jammu and Kashmir.

Ordering

The ordering is seamless and you can either order online or call and place your order. The menu is small, but packs in variety in the form of Beetroot Tikki Chaat – a take on aloo tikki chaat that you get in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk and Anda Ghotala – Mumbai’s famous street-side snack.

Delivery

Our food was at the doorstep in 45 minutes, as promised, which is impressive given that the demand for his butter chicken is quite high right now.

Packaging

The food was neatly packed in plastic boxes – no spillage – and came in a cloth bag, which we’re going to carry around on our next grocery shopping trip!

Portion size

For the price, Chef Goila offers reasonable portion size and the butter chicken can be easily shared between two people with decent appetites.

Baked mango rasgulla.

Taste

Now, this is what the entire hashtag trend and social media marketing boils down to – the taste. The Anda Ghotala – bhurjee-like preparation of scrambled and boiled eggs topped with a sunny side up, was a bit watery. We’ve eaten the dish on Mumbai’s streets where a normal bhurjee’s game is upped with the addition of boiled eggs. That was missing here and we couldn’t separate the boiled eggs from scrambled.

Coming to the star dish – the Goila Butter Chicken – the colour and silky smooth texture of the gravy was promising. However, our first setback was getting shredded chicken instead of smokey tandoori meat on the bone. In order to make his butter chicken healthier, Goila uses cashew nuts instead of cream and honey instead of sugar. Does that take away from the richness of the dish? Yes, it does and somewhere holds it back from being a complete Punjabi dhaba-style indulgence. The smokey flavour, which is added using a coal, a signature move, was way too subtle. We would have loved the aroma to waft through the room as soon as the box was opened. We ordered roomali rotis – thin and soft – to go with the butter chicken, but would love to see butter garlic naan on the menu. The dish came with typical dhaba-style vinegar soaked onions, which we loved.

We rounded off with Baked Mango Rasgulla i.e. baked rasgulla topped with rabdi, which supposedly had mango flavour, none that we could identify.

Verdict

Goila Butter Chicken is unmistakably one of the better versions of the dish available in Mumbai. But, if you want the real deal you’ll have to go further north.

Rating: 2.5/5

Price

Anda Ghotala – Rs 225, Goila Butter Chicken – Rs 275, Roomali Roti – Rs 35, Baked Mango Rasgulla – Rs 125

Login to www.goilabutterchicken.com to place your orders. They currently deliver post 6 pm between Andheri to Malad.

This review was conducted anonymously and the author paid for her own meal.