A new suburban eatery brings the food served at Delhi's Chandni Chowk, to Oshiwara, complete with a fake bank where you pay your bill and a Plaster of Paris barber ARE seated beside you

Whatever else you might have to say about a Pratap restaurant, there's no arguing that each one has character.

First there was the rustic Pratap: The Dhaba, replete with charpoys and a tree covered aangan. Then came the arboreal Pratap's Wild Dining with its tree stump tables, mechanised animals and tribesman statues.

This time around, at Pratap's Chandni Chowk, it's a re-creation, or rather their version, of the famed Delhi market.

At the entrance of the restaurant, a mechanised policeman directs you to the token booth.

It's a version which instead of trying to be authentic or true to the original, is a very witty adaptation created with a humorous eye for detail.u00a0

The entire "chowk" not only revels in its fakeness but every element of decor has been inserted to cause a chuckle.

At the entrance of the self-service restaurant, a mechanised policeman directs you to the token booth that, tellers and all, is the Bank of Chandni Chowk.

Leading up from the bank is a line of adjoining self-service counters, each with its own signage in a different style, written in different typography and with fake phone numbers, fake establishment dates but the correct postal code (Delhi 6).

Running below the counters is a faux pavement that has been tiled with scarred red and yellow paver blocks.

The penchant for fake foliage has not diminished, and the centre of the room is dominated by two trees between which sits a statue of a barber with a customer mid-haircut.

Arranged around the trees are two and four-seater wrought iron benches and low glass tables.

On each table is placed, exactly as you would find in roadside eateries, a metal jug, plastic glasses and paper napkins in a cheap plastic tray.

On the opposite wall, an STD phone booth shuttered, a sari shop and the shop front of a Hakim have been created.
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In a delicious act of subtle self-referencing that would make European filmmakers proud one of the murals of a street scene, has a sign for a shop named Pratap's.

Once you've taken in the setting and picked up your tokens, you head over to the stalls where they take down your order and call out the token number when the order is ready.

Now, this can get a little complicated, especially when there's a crowd in the restaurant or if you're in a big group and you've placed orders at different counters.
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It's also a trifle annoying to keep bouncing back between the "bank" and the counters each time you place a fresh order.

Even after keeping a constant tab on which counter was calling out what number, we picked up someone else's order and had to wait while someone picked up ours. But this is really only a token inconvenience.

With all the dishes priced at a flat Rs 49, except for beverages that are priced at Rs 29, Pratap's is eminently affordable, though the food is neither fantastic nor terrible.

We did like our tall glass of thick Lassi, and roasted jeera and fresh coriander topped Chaas from Ramesh Cold Drink Centre.

Laalan Chaat Bhandar's Dahi Bhalla, topped with imli and pudina chutney was average as were the Golgappas that came with three liquid fillings and a mixture of aloo channa.
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We asked for a Gobi Mussullam, but we suspect Kaatil Kababs served us Mushroom Kathi Rolls.

Only mushrooms in a thick spicy gravy and no gobi rolled out of the roomali wrapped roll served with an intriguing mustard oil flavoured spicy dahi chutney and a mint-dahi chutney.

The self explanatory Parathe Wale Galli is the only counter named after a real area in Chandni Chowk.u00a0

Not very greasy, with a light filling made in very simple dhaba-style, their kadhai-fried Aloo and Mooli Parathas are served with a dahi salad, chole and pickled chillies.

Pratap's Chandni Chok doesn't deliver on food to the extent that it does on decor.

However, for the same price in a regular food court, you'd pick up your meal from a nondescript stall and eat it at a laminated table under soulless white lights.
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Considering that mall food isn't an epicurean experience anyway, at least at Pratap's, you eat it inside a mock Delhi Police thana, if you so wish.

At: Pratap's Chandni Chowk, Mega Mall, Oshiwara, Andheri (W).
Call: 26315353
Pratap's Chandni Chowk didn't know we were there. The GUIDE reviews anonymously and pays for meals