After reviewing 50 different butter chicken dishes across the city over nearly two years, Ramneek Singh says he’s only sick of eating bad butter chicken. “There’s been some beauty in discovering the good restaurants, but there’s also the negatives where you end up with stomach aches and just wasting your money on terrible joints,” Singh told CTV News Edmonton. A food writer for five years, Singh decided to return to his roots and take a deep dive into popular dishes from his ancestral home, India. He dubbed his project the Butter Chicken Odyssey. At the top of his butter chicken list last year was Chutney and Masala Tree, establishments that now remain in the top five. Kashmiri Delight Nestled in west Edmonton is the only Kashmir restaurant in the city, and one of the top picks for Singh when it comes to butter chicken. “I discovered this one and it just blew my mind. I brought my wife here and I’m like, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for all this time,’ and it was towards the end of the Odyssey,” Singh said. Each dish is made with love and flavour from her roots, according to Kashmiri Delight’s owner Harjap Datta. “The spices from Kashmir are very authentic and very special,” Datta said. Datta’s son opened the restaurant as a gift for her birthday in June 2021. She creates the recipes herself and aims to reflect her roots in Kashmir. “Cooking comes from the heart, whenever we cook something we have to put our love in the cooking,” Dutta said. “That’s what my mom was doing and I’m trying to do the same thing here.” Zaika Bistro If you’re looking for a more elevated experience, Zaika Bistro in south Edmonton is another top pick for Singh. “We cook our chicken in the tandoor (a clay oven), a lot of places don’t do that and I find that it makes it much tastier,” said Zaika Bistro owner Ashu Dhanju. Their naan is freshly made and also cooked in a tandoor. Dhanju grew up in the restaurant world and decided to open her own in 2009. “We wanted to make it modern, ultra sleek and just very inviting. We felt like Edmonton needed something different in terms of Indian restaurants,” Dhanju said. On Tuesdays, you can order Singh’s favourite way to eat butter chicken - extra spicy, bone-in with dark meat. “I really wanted to introduce authenticity back and reclaim butter chicken, because I think that the Western world kind of polluted it, stripped it of its mystique and its roots,” Singh said. While the delicious journey has come to an end, his taste buds are always ready for more. Singh plans to write a book about the Butter Chicken Odyssey to share what he’s learned along the way, including connecting to his roots and discovering the stories behind the iconic butter chicken dish.
