In a nutshell:

Traditional intricate & ornate look interiors, good service & some good kababs, curries & Biryani.

Address & other details: Nafees

Meal for 2: Rs. 300 onwards

Cuisine Type: Nonvegetarian & Vegetarian

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

I was told that this Restaurant is owned by The Uncle of Bollywood star Salman Khan.

The Glass inside the Restaurant & at the entrance has intricate floral design. The Furniture & the interiors look traditional & intricate. It has a feeling of a 19th Century Palace interior. There are separate seating sections for stags & family. A bit crowded but overall, a good ambience.

With all that Grandness, the menu card looked quite ‘cheap’. It had bad quality badly edited photographs, strange fonts, inconsistent font sizes & overall a lack of class. I hope they imnprove it going forward.

The service level was beyond expectation – warm, knowledgeable, enthusiastic & friendly. When I told the guy serving us that such ‘passion & involvement’ is rare nowadays, he said – ‘U have come here for the first time. So I am taking special care of u so that u enjoy the experience this evening & remember us for long’.

The food was very enjoyable as well. I usually order three things in my visit to a Mughlai Restaurant – Sheekh, Burrah Kabab & Biryani as this is a test for the restaurant. I usually never revisit restaurants who fail in these basic dishes. On future visits to restaurants that pass the test, I usually try out other food.

The Sheekh kabab passed the test with Flying colors, the Burrah was enjoyable. The Biryani gave me mixed reactions – The rice of the Biryani was awesome. The goat whose meat was in the Biryani seemed to be a fan of Salman Khan – It must have been too muscular – .resulting in stiff, unedible meat pieces of Biryani.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

The Sheekh Kabab was of the Karim’s variety. It was almost as good as the Karim’s sheekhs in the original shop opp Jama Masjid, Delhi in terms of the taste & slightly better in term sof the flavor. This sheekh is not melt in the mouth like the ones served at Lucknowi shops or Restaurants like Kainoosh Delhi. However on their own the kababs r soft, mildly juicy & have strong & rustic taste & flavor. Loved it.

The Burrah was enjoyable – It had charred corners, spicy meat pieces that were very high on taste & flavor. In terms of texture, it got left behind Karim’s due to the meat being fibrous. Maybe it had also to do with the fact that the pieces were too big or they were marinated less as compared to Karim’s.

The Biryani was a layered one – served in a handi. So before serving, the server mixed up the contents so that all layers mingle with each other. The rice was awesome & one of the best I have ever had in terms of soft ‘melt in the mouth’ texture, outstanding flavor, long independent aromatic strands of rice. It was also quite spicy , moderately hot , outstanding taste & of course a lot of ghee. Too good. This Biryani rice stands miles ahead of Biryani at Karim’s & also moderately ahead of Biryani at Arsalan Kolkata, Tunday Lucknow.

The meat used in the biryani was however a terrible disappointment. It was as stiff as it cud get. Out of the four pieces that I was served, I cud eat only one!!!! …………. As I said the Goat must have been a fan of Salman Khan & hence excessively muscular.
I was also surprised at myself that inspite of not being able to eat the mutton,I was super satisfied with the Biryani & was smiling from ear to ear post the meal.

This place is also famous for its Raan Nawabi – a full roasted leg of goat. But unfortunately we cud not have it coz it is a large portion & has to be shared by . Looking forward to trying it sometime later.

For desserts we went for Phirni that was served in an earthen bowl. This phirni was quite different than the other versions that I have had. This was not at all grainy like the traditional versions – in fact it was quite smooth & hence it tasted different. I liked it but given a choice, I wud still go with the grainy version that is served at Arsalan.

Shahi tukra, I was told, is also good here.

Will surely revisit on my future trips to try out other options in the menu, specially the curries.