In a nutshell:

A memorable experience in a 5 Star Restaurant with excellent food, good service, good ambience & of course 5 star prices.

Address & other details:Dum Pukth

Meal for 2: Rs. 3000 onwards (without alcohol)

Cuisine type :Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

My first experience of Dum Pukth was at ITC Maurya Sheraton many years back & it was fabulous. The amazing interiors, the elderly & knowledgeable staff, the grandeur, the opulence, the cutlery – almost everything had impressed me & of course the food. I have always found this to be much better than the over-hyped Bukhara (in the same hotel). Have eaten at Dum pukth few more times & experience has been similar.

Last month we went to Dum Pukth Kolkata & found the experience to be quite different. The staff members were modern day young Hotel Management Graduates, the grandeur was not at all comparable, the ‘Royal’ feel of the Delhi restaurant was missing, the interiors were much darker than the Delhi one & that is one of the reasons I am unable to share great pics with u – it was too dark for even a good camera to get good pics.

We were a group of 6 people & hence had the opportunity to share the food & taste many different items on the menu.

The menu card was pretty long & it had detailed & very well worded description of the food. Looked to be work of a good marketing agency. Most of the items are Dum cooked in Awadhi style (slow cooking over long period).

Food was excellent in most cases with a few exceptions in which they were ‘good’ but short of being ‘great’. A great place for taking ur expat colleagues, friends, a date (with a foodie), to celebrate with family etc.

Detailed Description – In case u have the Time to NJOY reading:

We started our evening with Himayati Shorba Rehmani – It was a Lamb extract flavored with coriander, clove & cardamom, laced with yoghurt & spiced with yellow chilli. Not very thick, not very thin, this shorba (soup) had a very good spiced flavor to it while not being over bearing. It was pleasing to the senses yet far from being bland. It had a character of its own. I rate this 4/5.

For starters we had a vegetarian dish – Dudhiyan Kabab. It was Roundels of cottage cheese stuffed with spiced mashed potato, shallow fried & finished on the dum. Super soft outer layer that had a mild charred effect, with a spiced up mid layer that tasted very good. The dum effect was not that evident but it came out to be an outstanding dish as well. I rate this 4/5 again.

Then came the famous Kakori kabab – minced meat spiced up ,wrapped around an iron rod & sigri grilled. Awesome is the word. Intense, jaw dropping, flavorful, fabulously tasty & perfect texture – it made us speechless for few moments. We were looking into each other’s faces & expression. This gets a straight 5/5.

Next dish we had was Jhinga dum nisha – Jumbo prawns marinated in hung curd & spices, served with a saffron flavored seafood chutney. The prawns were juicy to a certain extent & surely very soft. Taste was very good & so were the flavors. Loved this as well. I wud rate this at 4.5/5. Seafood chutney was very enjoyable as well.

For main course we had Mahi Kaalia dum pukth. It was marbles of rohu fish cooked in mustard oil gravy enhanced with fenugreek seeds, soaked in lemon juice, served with garnishing of juliennes of ginger & freshly chopped coriander leaves. This was good but just did not match up to the standards of Dum pukth. The fish balls were good to taste but I have surely had better. The gravy was good but pretty plain Jane as compared to the other items we had here. I wud give this a 3.5/5.

Dum Pukth Koh e Awadh. This was ‘Chef’s recipe for Korma of elegant exposed lamb shacks dum cooked in its own juices & juices of the bone marrow , tinged with cardamom’ as per the menu card. Loved this dish. Succulent pieces of lamb that fall off froom bones at the slightest provocation, yet not too soft to the extent of losing texture. The gravy was intense but refined. I give this a 4.5/5.

The second last dish for the evening Raan e Dum pukth. It was Raan of goat marinated in dark rum, stuffed with onions, pickled garlic, sealed with flour, cooked on dum. When served, it looked like an European pie. The outer flour layer was layery, not khasta but mildly crispy on the top & soft within.

As we broke in the layer, the meats popped out from the center. Dry, spicy, not that hot, robust taste, pickled effect. Just too good – with the layer as well as without the layer. I rate this at 4.9/5.

The last dish was obviously Gosth Dum Biryani. It had long aromatic grains of rice that were independent but melt in the mouth. The rice had infused the flavors of the spices, the meat & course its own. The meat was again super soft  & very tasty. Loved it beyond words. I rate this a 4.9/5 again.

The last dish was Muzaffar – it is a semia (vermicelli) based dry sweet dish. The last time we had this at Dum Pukth Delhi, we were floored. At Sonar, it was good but nowhere near the greatness of the Delhi one. Dry vermicelli sweetened, with loads of dry fruit & flavors. I rate this a 3.5/5

The rating of food at Dum Pukth averages out to 4.3/5.

I wud keep going back here to benchmark my taste – maybe once a year / once in 2 years.