In a nutshell:

Intricately designed, mammoth attention to detail in every aspect of the décor & concept, average service & some very good food.

Address & other details: Oudh

Meal for 2: Rs. 1000 onwards

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 everyWe & thing & 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 ur in a hurry:

When I came across this name, I started wondering what happened in 1590 in Awadh.

Google led me to this info – Awadh (also called Oudh in British texts) is a region in the centre of Uttar Pradesh. Also referred to as Oude (supposedly derived from Ayodhya), it was established around 1722 AD with Faizabad as its capital and Sadat Ali Khan as its first Nawab and progenitor of Nawabs of Awadh. The traditional capital of Awadh had originally been Faizabad, but it was later moved to Lucknow, which serves as the present-day capital of Uttar Pradesh.

Awadh at the time of Akbar was one of the many subahs (states) into which he divided the Mughal Empire as it stood in the year 1590 A.D.

Coming back to the restaurant, as described above, it is very intricately and beautifully designed. Starting from the exterior of the restaurant to the interior there is heavy woodwork with intricate designs. The interior designer if this place really did a fab job and had tremendous attention to detail.

There were beautiful paintings on the wall

Lampshades were colorful and floral.

Even the split AC vent was colored to match the rest of the decor.

Copper / Brass utensils were used to serve water and food.

What was irritating was Very slow service. It was almost always difficult to draw attention of waiting staff if u needed something. Most people were expressionless and behaved like the bored waiters of restaurants that have been thru the 70s licence raj.

 

biryani

The menu card was also nicely designed and had detailed description of food served. One of the few places that has a long list of awadhi biryanis of different types ( tweaks to original and different traditional variants). They stuck to few genres of Food & did those in depth. E.g kabab, biryani, curries and rice each had a wide selection.

Food was really YUMM for most part of it.

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

We started our lunch with Galawati kabab mutton – The lucknow roadside ones have strong very robust spicy oily & somewhat hot taste. This was was optimally spiced but not on the face. There was no excess fat, there was a hint of hotness but not much . Super duper soft as it shud b, difficult to serve a piece on the plate – tends to break off. The one a Kainoosh & Dum Puhkt r quite better than this. Rate this 4.25/5

Enjoyed the kabab with Warqi paratha / ulte tawa ka paratha – lukhnowi paratha Soft, slightly sweet, very nice – as good as it cud get. 4.25/5

Moved on to Mahi kofta biryani was good but not beyond that. This was a fishball biryani in which the rice taste like any other biryani with fish balls plonked into it. The fishballs were soft and tasty but not juicy. I have had mahi biryani much better than this but this one was nothing short if good. Rate it 3/5

The next dish, Mutton Nehari khas was very good mutton curry but not real nihari. There was a mild sweetness maybe due to fried onions. Gravy was so good that we had it till the last drop. Meat was also melt in the mouth. Tasty as well. Wud have got 4.75/5 but due to lack of authenticity I rate it 4.25/5 for its sheer taste.

Last dish in main course was Raan biryani. Raan meat hand pulled & cooked in a biryani. Being Raan, it was fibrous visually but on chewing it , did not feel fibrous. It was soft but mildly chewy. Very enjoyable. Tasty. Flavors were excellent. Served in earthen handi. Aroma burst out as soon as lid was opened. Long grain independent morsels of aromatic rice, super soft melt in the mouth, outstanding to taste, and in terms of flavors. Rate it 4.5/5

Phirni very good but nothing much to talk home about, It was optimally sweet, well set. It was better than good, rate it 3.5/5

Shahi tukda was outstanding. One of the best I have had in months. Thick creamy layer atop was excellent in taste & texture. A hint of salt balanced out thetaste much better as opposed to it being unidirectionally sweet. Rate this 4.5/5

Rating of food at Oudh 1590 averages out to 4/5.

I wud surely revisit to try out other biryanis. Really loved the overall food experience.