Dabeli Classic is the reference build: the standard Gujarati dabeli with nothing added and nothing left out. Potato filling, pomegranate, peanuts, sev, and three chutneys, assembled in a pav the way the dish is meant to be eaten before any vendor starts tinkering. Its angle is balance. Every other version, cheese, dry, extra of one topping, is a deviation measured against this one, so getting the proportions right here is the whole point.
The build is a sequence of deliberate layers. Boiled potato is mashed and worked through the sweet-spicy dabeli masala until evenly coated. The pav is split, and the inside faces get all three chutneys: a sweet date-tamarind, a hot garlic, and a fresh green coriander, each doing a specific job. The masala potato fills the roll, the cut edges are pressed into a mix of fine sev, roasted peanuts, and pomegranate seeds so the toppings adhere, and the whole thing is griddled briefly in butter. Good classic dabeli keeps the three chutneys distinguishable rather than blurred into one sweet smear, the potato smooth but holding its shape, and the sev still crisp when it reaches you. Sloppy versions tip too far toward the sweet chutney, under-spice the potato, or assemble so far ahead that the toppings have gone limp by the time you take a bite.
Because this is the baseline, its variations are precisely the named offshoots in the catalog: weighting the build toward extra pomegranate for sweetness, extra sev for crunch, or pulling back the wet chutneys for a drier, crunchier handful. The classic sits in the middle of all of them, with every element in proportion. The garlic chutney that gives it its low fiery hum is a distinct preparation with its own technique and deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here. Done properly, the classic needs no additions, which is exactly why it is the version everything else is judged against.