When Sardar Prakash Singh set up a dhaba for truck drivers with nearly 20 charpais in 1956, he may not have imagined that it would turn into a favourite destination for thousands of foodies passing through NH 44.
Over the years, the aloo parathas at Amrik Sukhdev restaurant at Murthal in Sonipat have grown so popular that TasteAtlas – an experiential travel guide – rated the restaurant among the top seven in the country, besides including it in the list of top 100 legendary eateries in the world.
The eatery which began on a space of nearly 200 square yards, is now spread across three acres and includes a hotel as well. According to its owners, the daily footfall here has grown from 100 truck drivers in 1956 to 6,000-7,000 people now.
At present, Singh’s sons Amrik and Sukhdev run the dhaba on the outskirts of Sonipat. Amrik says his father, a native of Sujjon in Punjab’s Nawanshahr district, learnt to run a dhaba from his maternal uncle in Ludhiana. The uncle, who had no kids, entrusted Singh with looking after his business. Before long, he suggested that Singh set up a dhaba in Murthal, hoping to expand his business along the national highway.
The dhaba offered meals and tea to truck drivers around the clock. Seasonal vegetables like bhindi and arbi were used during summers and sarso saag, maithi, gajar, gobhi and matar were cooked during the winters. “Initially, the dhaba had just 25-odd charpais, no table or chair,” Amrik, 57, told The Indian Express.
While he joined his father’s business in 1985, Singh’s younger son Sukhdev followed suit in 1993. “Whenever we visited our native place in Punjab or Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu with family members, we used to face issues due to the absence of bathrooms at the dhabas. So we ensured clean bathrooms at our dhaba so truck drivers could take baths. This boosted business, prompting us to increase the seating capacity from 20 charpais to 100,” Amrik said.
By 2000, truck drivers started coming to the dhaba in cars along with their families. “We constructed a new building with stylish bathrooms. Chairs and tables were introduced. We expanded the food menu to include gajar halwa, gulab jamun and kadai paneer. We also focused more on hygiene. New food items like dosa, pizza, pakoras, samosas, gol gappe, chat papri and Chinese dishes were added to the menu,” he recalls. In 2017, they built a hotel with 48 rooms.
Amrik said they have witnessed an annual increase of 7-10 per cent in their customer base for which he credits their tasty food, hygiene, better seating and parking arrangements and clean washrooms.
He said he spent nearly 60 per cent of his time in the dhabha’s kitchen to ensure the quality of the food. “I have cooked parathas and vegetables apart from helping with other tasks. I still remember cleaning utensils and serving food to the customers when we faced a staff crunch at the dhaba in 1993-94,” Amrik added.
He also mentioned the problems they had when violence erupted during a Jat agitation in 2016 when a group of anti-social elements came to set the establishment on fire. “But people from the neighbouring villages ensured that nobody harmed us,” he said, recalling how they offered free food to agitating farmers in 2020-21.
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