In a nutshell:
A beautiful multi-storeyed restaurant with different deco on each level that serves some usual and quite a few ‘not so widely available in india’ Persian dishes that r yumm and flavourful.

Address & other details:  Persian Darbar

Meal for 2: 1000 onwards

Cuisine type :  vegetarian & non vegetarian

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:

The restaurant is located in a Multi storeyed with different themes in every floor. Some of the floors are very beautifully laid out while the others are normal but very well maintained, neat & clean.

The Dishes served here r a combination of traditional Persian dishes as well as tweaked dishes using local fresh ingredients like pomfret and  Also a small ‘Chinese section’ I guess for the kids.

At 8 pm when we entered the restaurant, it was empty. As we sat on first floor we saw the picture of other floors on the menu card & enquired about them. We were asked to go upstairs.

We waited outside a closed hall for 10 minutes – they had lost the keys!!! We were then moved to another section. This Dining hall was totally empty as well.

We asked about why it is so empty. They said 9 pm onwards people come. They peak after 10 & there is waiting in all floors from 10.30 pm onwards and dining goes till 4 am!!

There were some private dining halls also that needed advance booking.

Menu card was a long list of items with no descriptions. It had pictures of the different dining halls in the building and one cud choose which one to go to.

The waiting staff was very nice, polite and helpful. He also gave us tips on dishes that his ‘Arab guests’ order.

Food was very good in general.

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

We started our dinner with Mutton Turki boti Kebab – This was a unique kebab for us – we at least never had anything like this in india so far. A small piece of boneless mutton in the centre, surrounded with mutton mince, made into a ball and cooked. Then they tossed it in a creamy white sauce. While serving they cut the ball into two.

The kebab was somewhat soft, full of flavours of masala and meat, yumm to taste. The two kinds of meat ensured a dual texture that was unique.

Rate it 4/5.

Next we moved to Aab gosth soup. This was a soup that might serve as a full meal if had with say a bread. It was one of its kind in terms of soups that I have had in india so far. The closest I cud relate to (in some ways, not all) was the mutton soup at chitto babu’s, KolkatA. We got to know from the waiter that this soup is usually ordered by their ‘arab’ guests and rarely by Indians.

The soup had 1 huge chunk of goat rib (7-8) rib bones in one piece. The soup was light, had least spices, no chillies. It had veggies like potato, carrots and chick pea. The soup was immensely refreshing, was great to have in this part of the year, had flavours of meat (though not as much as I wud hv expected). I don’t think the meat and the soup were cooked from Scratch together. Taste was excellent.

The meat was outstanding. It was soft and in the middle part it was juicy also. Salt did not reach the mid part though. Super loved it and rate it 4.5/5

We also tried Mutton paya soup (soup made from trotters of goat slow cooked with spices on slow fire overnight). It was very good. It was refreshing, had flavours of spices and also flavors of the bone marrow. In old delhi this soup has usually more fat to it and more intense flavours. The cartilage around the trotters had become as soft as pudding. Rate the dish 4.25/5.

Mutton kepsa biryani was different. It also had huge chunks of goat ribs with 7-8 rib bones in each piece. The portion was humongous. I guess 4 people cud have it. We were told that the ‘Arabs’ order mutton kepsa pulao but he warned we might not like it. So we settled for the biryani. In hind sight that was a mistake – we shud hv tried the pulao.

The biryani was conceptually more like the Hyderabadi biryani – curried meat cooked with rice, as opposed the kacchi biryani concept of Awadhi and Kolkata biryani where rice and raw meat are cooked together.

The flavours of rice were very good – both of spices and meat and of good aromatic rice. Rate flavours of rice 4/5. The taste was very good. Rate taste of rice 4.25/5. The rice had long independent grains of rice but the texture was suboptimal – not super soft, melt in the mouth. It was also a bit dried – probably due to use of less fat during cooking. The fingers did not turn greasy as well. However, all said and done, the rice was sub optimally cooked and that stole the fun of eating the biryani. Rate the texture 1/5. Overall rating of the rice of biryani averages out to 3.1/5.

The meat was outstanding. It was huge but soft, chewy and juicy inside. It tasted yumm. Rate the meat 4.25/5.

Overall rating of biryani averages out to 3.7/5

We tried matka Rabri. It was excellent. Thick, daanedaar , perfectly sweet and just too good. Rate it 4.5/5

We also tried egg pudding. It had a Matt look instead of glossy. It was not wobbly and brittle either. It had very enjoyable burnt ends. The sauce (leftover) was really nice to taste. Rate it 4.25/5

Phirni was more milky than the ones at say Karim’s of Delhi. It had more taste & character. However not comparable to the one at Kitchen of Awadh. Rate it 4/5

Overall rating of food averages out to 4.2/5

Have heard a lot about Raan biryani. Look forward to trying that some day. Also, wud revisit to try the food that ‘Arab guests’ eat here.