Before the front shutters lift and the dining room fills with chatter, the kitchen is already alive. There is no alarm clock here, just muscle memory. The clang of metal bowls, the hiss of the first pan, the quiet scraping of a spoon on a worn wooden ladle. This is where the real work begins. Haveli restaurant wants to serve you the best of everything always, and we make it possible by getting on foot before and preparing everything. After all, that is what matters to us. Every client that walks through our doors is like family to us. We believe in serving A1 quality food to our family always. Long before the first table is set, someone is at the stove, heating oil. Just watching and waiting for the timing to be correct. The oil needs to simmer just right before the cumin seeds go in. If it’s too hot, they burn. If it’s too cold, they sulk. Timing is everything. We follow a farm-to-table approach. The local vendors deliver the produce early in the morning, and then our chefs get to work. Chopped onions follow. Not store-bought pre-cut ones, but fresh, done that morning, eyes watering and fingers stained. Garlic joins next, then ginger. The smell by this point is enough to pull the kitchen crew in closer.
Flour sits in a wide steel bowl, mixed with just enough water to bring it together. It is kneaded by hand, not with machines, but with palms that know how soft is too soft. The dough is wrapped, left to rest in a corner under a cloth, while the stove carries on its song. One cook handles bread and nothing else. Their board is dusted, their rolling pin seasoned. Each roti is rolled to shape, then tossed onto the hot tawa or pressed against the tandoor wall. There’s no timer. You flip when the bubbles say so.
Patience is key when cooking Indian food. With patience comes flavour, with patience comes the intense flavour of love. The big pot of daal always starts early. Lentils are washed until the water runs clear. They simmer quietly with turmeric and salt. No loud boiling, just a slow, steady cook. The magic comes later in the tadka. Separately, mustard seeds and garlic sizzle in ghee. Whole red chilies darken, releasing their smoky sharpness. That oil, still angry-hot, is poured into the waiting daal. The first splash of the ladle full of daal that goes into the hot ghee changes the taste of it into something heavenly. Tadka, as we Indians call it, is the heart and soul of our cooking.
What lands on your plate is not just food. It is a sum of an early day of work. A good Indian kitchen like ours never takes shortcuts. We make sure that every dish gets it. We love serving every single person who walks through our doors. If you want to taste India in the best form possible, come visit us. We cater to everyone’s taste palette.
