This is a review of Purani Dilli festival rivayaat e purani Dilli 19th April to 29 th April 2016

In a nutshell:
One of the best Mughlai food I have had in mumbai so far, including getting to try some really unusual dishes. Even in Delhi u do not get it as good thru out the year.

Address & other details:  maya

Meal for 2: 5000 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 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:

Rivayaat e purani dilli is a festival at Maya that is curated by Mr. Osama Jalali, a man with many interests – once an athlete, a journalist for many years, a food critic, an event management person & a person who has lived & grown up in Purani Dilli. He started a blog on lost recipes and has been actively reviving some lost cuisines.

To read about the restaurant in general please click for my earlier review here.

The service today was super warm. Our Man in charge of service was almost reading my mind & he was as warm & efficient as last time.

Met the Head Chef of the hotel as he was doing his rounds. Enjoyed a short chat with him.

Food was mind blowing good.

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

Rooh afza milk is something that is unmissable as a drink in the Jama Masjid area of delhi. As we sat we were served the same, a tad value added than the street version. Lovely to drink. Some might find this  too sweet but that’s how this fish is. Rate it 4.25/5

Kathal ke kabab – the fibres of kathal were intact, not beaten to death. It had lovely flavor of ghee. The outer layer had become somewhat crisp.

The inside was super soft. Spices were well balanced and that meant there was no excess kathal flavor, neither did spices overpower. Rate it 4.75/5

Mutton boti was a revelation. For the first time I felt I was eating an Indian version of a steak in terms of texture. The meat was chewy, soft and juicy and immensely tasty.

Both meat and spices made their presence felt. It was like a symphony on the plate. The roadside botis that we eat in Jama Masjid area are made from cheap buffalo meat.

The good quality goat meat used by the chef here made a huge difference as well.
Loved the charred ends. Rate it 4.95/5

Kacche keema Ki tikia was flattened keema (almost turned into a paste), mixed with spices and chilly, shallow fried. The outer layer was firm and had become crisp in certain areas.

The meat had a slightly sour taste which was due to lemon and also ( maybe) over marination / being in the refrigerator for long. The taste was salt n sour – the sourness was a tad more than optimum. Rate it 3/5

The next dish we had was daal. It was beyond imagination. It had great flavours of ghee as well as the daal. The daal was intense, thick, was perfectly balanced in terms of seasoning and beyond words. Rate it 4.95/5

We moved on to gosht Nihari. This was different from most famous Niharis we have had across different cities.

However it was brilliant and perhaps closer to home recipe of Nihari. For the uninitiated, Nihari is a meat curry where meat and spices r slow cooked together over a long period of time.

The meat was super soft, melt in the mouth. The gravy was lickilicious good. Rate it 4.75/5

We also tried urad daal gosht. The daal grains were soft enough to be enjoyed yet firm enough to b retaining the shape..

The gravy magically managed to have flavours of both meat and daal. The meats were soft and Yumm. The gravy tasted different and excellent. Rate it 4.5/5

Last dish we had was Mirchi keema – it looked pale and simple but one cud feel the punch as soon as it landed on the tastebuds.

It was simple yet brilliant. Not too much oil floating around, not having spices or chilly on the face yet full of flavours of meat and spices. Super loved it and rate it 4.5/5

For dessert we had a strange dish – gosht halwa (a halwa made from goat meat!!!). The halwa tasted like most halwas but had a difference. One cud feel the meat pieces though the flavours of meats were no more there. This was a dish eaten probably a century back and was lost. Chef jalali revived it. Rate the dish 4.5/5.

We washed this down with Jaljeera – it was outstanding, I guess made from scratch & had massive punch. It acted as a very good palate cleanser. Rate it 4.5/5

Overall rating of food at the festival averages out to 4.5/5

Look forward to the next one….