This is a review of punjabi food festival at Maya, Trident.

In a nutshell:It was one of those unusually super lucky days when each and every dish in a long list of food items was excellent- our taste buddies were on the top of the world.

Address & other details: trident

Meal for 2: 3000 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:

Maya trident occasionally comes up with food festivals from around the country. This time it was punjabi food by Chef sweety Singh from delhi. He has a restaurant called kake di hatti – punjabi Khanna at asaf Ali road, old delhi.

To read my previous posts on food festivals at maya, pls click here – Awadhi, purani dilli

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

Kharode ka shorba – a thick hearty robust flavoured broth of lamb trotters (paya) with strong presence of ginger and full black pepper that had a hot aftertaste. This shorba was thick and tasted very good. it was obviously very different than the paya served at Muslim eAteries ( those are much more spice and oily). Rate it 4.5/5

Macchli de tikke – tandoori boneless king fish (surmai). Smoky flavour, burnt corner, super juicy and flaky fish, flavours of the fish and the spices complemented each other instead of one trying to overpower the other. Taste – fabulous. Overall, a Masterpiece. Rate it 4.95/5

Highway tandoori Kukkad – one of the finest tandoori kukkads I have had in a while – no artificial colours, minimal spices. Nothing on the face, yet super YUMM, juicy, soft and very enjoyable. Rate it 4.25/5

Kachri karela- stir fried bitter gourd (karela) with brown onions was a very nice dish. The extreme bitterness of karela had been reduced ( the way it is done for bharwan karela). The karela were crunchy and so were the onion. Loved to munch on these. Rate it 4.25/5

Amritsari Aloo wadi- loved the wadi (lentil dumplings with spices) – soft, tasty, flavours of lentils and masala made their presence felt. Aloo was soft and very enjoyable. The gravy was so good that we finished it till the last drop. Rate it 4.5/5

As discussed, Chef gave us half portions each of aloo wadi and karela and charged us for full plate karela.

Saag Nalli was a masterpiece – essentially it was sarson da saag with Nalli (lamb shank) in it. The saag was brilliant – with its flavours, taste, texture. There was an element of understated ‘hot’ness in it. Flavours of meat had got incorporated in the saag without totally taking away the flavours of the saag.

The meat pieces were absurdly good. They fell off from the bone, were super soft and YUMM and retained full flavours of the meat.

Rate it 4.95/5

For dessert chef gave us small samplers of 4 types of dessert. He charged us for one full portion of dessert though.

Panjiri- was made from wheat flour, dried fruits and nuts. The dessert was daanedaar and it had some of the best, perfectly roasted , very enjoyably crunchy almonds and makhana. Loved it and rate it 4.5/5

Beetroot halwa was super enjoyable. It was intense, had dry fruits that blended very well with the beetroot and gave it a sourish twist ( in some bites). Rate it 4.5/5

Gajar halwa was a masterpiece. We took a bite and wondered what was that unusual ingredient!!! It took us 3 bites to realize that it had grated orange zest!!!! What an idea. What a twist. Apart from this, the khoya and gajar proportions were perfect and so was the sweetness. We enjoyed the flavour of good ghee. Rate the halwa 4.75/5.

Kheer was set in earthen bowl – it was creamy and nice – almost like home made. Wud hv loved it to be a bit thicker. Rate it 3.5/5

Masala chaas was a good taste changer. It was good but did not stand out. Rate it 3/5.

We also got a complimentary kesariya lassi that was thick, had a great balance of sweet and sour, flavours of Kesar – excellent overall. Rate it 4.5/5

Overall rating of food at punjabi festival averages out to 4.3/5

Look forward to more …. unmissable if u r in mumbai I Wud say