Tucked away in the narrow lanes of Chowk Passian, Amritsar, not more than 800 metres away from the majestic Golden Temple, you will find the Kesar da Dhaba which looks exactly as it did a 100 years ago. The dhaba, once a favourite of personalities like Lala Lajpat Rai, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, will take you back in time with its wooden benches and tables. Though, visitors may come for the name but stay for the dhaba’s mouth-watering, ghee-laden food.
However, Kesar da Dhaba was not always located in the bylanes of Amritsar. It was originally started in 1916 by Lala Kesar Mal and his wife, Parvati, in the Sheikhpura region of Pakistan where they sold Dal Makhani or ‘Mah ki Dal’ along with roti. After the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the couple decided to shift the dhaba to Amritsar.
Today, the dhaba serves a wide variety of food like hot crisp paranthas, creamy lassi, delicious thalis and the traditional Punjabi dessert — firni. Despite the…