In a nutshell:A dark and congested restaurant in the mall with super funny people who will make unlearn all that u know about Indian food , serves some very good food.

Address & other details: khiva

Meal for 2: ₹1500onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian and non vegetarian

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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:

We wanted to try a place out that had good Indian food. So after a 15 minutes playing around with options on zomato we ended up with this option.

We were not familiar to the name. So googled it. Khiva is a 2000 year old city in Uzbekistan. Later, at the restaurant we realized they meant north west frontier food. A little later we realized they were having Hyderabadi dishes as well!!!

If u want to unlearn everything about Indian food, pls go here.if u want to get entertained by funny table talk by staff, pls go here. If u want newer classification of food, do not miss this place. And of course, if u want to take a look at new age molecular gastronomy with Indian food, this is the place to be – what is written is different from what comes on the plate ….. very good food with huge doses of unintended humour!!!

The menu card is designed like a tabloid. It has small writeups about the place khiva, its people, customs, food etc. Page 1 from a distance looks like a newspaper. Page 2 onwards there is a list of good items on the menu

There were many interesting items on the menu. However on talking to the serving staff we realized what was written was different from what it actually was.

We got excited seeing chooza (full baby chicken roast) on the menu. This is usually lean meat and good to eat. Just to clarify we asked the size (is it good for 3 to share). He said ‘4 people usually share it.’ That surprised us. We said ‘how big is the chooza’. He showed us size of a big chicken. In the next few minutes of super funny conversations we got to know that they refer to normal chicken as chooza – interesting , as if chooza was on a complan diet (grew faster than they anticipated). It’s also like me inviting guests and saying to myself ‘from today I will call an apple a banana and thus name the apple pie as banana pie.’ !!!!!!

Another one – I saw picture of biryani here and it seemed to be a good one. So we asked – is this dum biryani. He said ‘yes, asli dum biryani.’ I said ‘Awadhi or Hyderabadi’. He said ‘this is none of those. This is asli’. I felt stupid and asked ‘what is asli’. With a little smirk this professor of Indian food told me ‘this is the earliest original form of biryani’. I gave up. It was then that I heard that there was Salan in the accompaniment and got sure that it was Hyderabadi.

Keeping aside the unintended sense of humour part, they boys were good at service. Nice bunch. At least gave us a good laugh and maybe now giving u one:)

Food was generally very good.

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

We started our meal with Baluchi boti kabab. As per description on the menu – meat pieces marinated in yoghurt and poppy seeds, with a hint of nutmeg and chargrilled. Don’t remember the hint of nutmeg. Neither did the poppy seeds make their presence felt.

However it was a fantastic boti kabab. Memorable. Soft, juicy and chewy meat kababs with intense flavours of both meat and spices. Rustic I would say. Rate it 4.5/5

Barrah kabab was outstanding too. Juicy inside, charred on the outside, most parts falling off the bones, perfect seasoning an just too good. Rate it 4.5/5

Nalli ka salan was a thick brown gravy with Nalli (calf muscles of goat). Nalli as a piece is usually super soft, melt in the mouth, if cooked well. So was this – excellent meat pieces. The way it was served was very nice. Loved the texture of the meat. The gravy was good. Rate the dish 4/5

We were given khameeri roti – excellent. The fermented feel was still intact. Loved it. Rate it 4.5/5

Then came the ‘Asli dum biryani’. Must say we loved it. Hyderabadi style biryani. Much better than my memory of paradise biryani at hyderabad. The rice was aromatic, super soft, had independent grains and was very YUMM to taste. The rice just by itself was slightly suboptimally salted.

It was perfectly spiced, unlike some overspiced versions of Hyderabadi biryani. The meat was juicy, soft and super tasty. Rate the biryani 4.25/5

For dessert we had Kulfi with rabdi. Our server said great things about it. When the dish came we realized it was a Parsi fairy kulfi topped with Rabri that they Wud hv made in the kitchen. Pretty standard dessert – very good. The rabdi was good. Rate it 3.75/5

Overall rating of food at khiva averages out to 4.2/5

Wud revisit to try out some other kababs and curries. Wud expect the management to be more serious in writing the menu content. While I described the whole matter in jest, it is not a good experience at all.