In a NUtshell:
A restaurant located in a building of the raj era, having the decor and ambience straight out of a period movie, located at mumbai golf course, serves good food
Address & other details: gallops
Meal for 2: ₹500 onwards
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:
Two years back when we shifted to mumbai my colleague kinner told me about this place.
Last weekend when we decided to go there, we realized it was inside the race course campus. As we reached the restaurant, we saw the colonial building with high ceiling and inverted V shaped roof.
The outside wall had creepers on it. The windows were large and they had curtains put up the old fashioned way.
From some of the seats adjacent to windows, the race course is fully visible.
Great retro place for a gathering with family, Select friends.
There were quite a bit of equine touch in many things , starting from the menu card, the stirrer, a 1 foot tall chess ‘horse’ and more.
The menu card had a continental as well as Indian section. We opted for the Indian section.
Service was old fashioned, efficient and good.
Food ranged from good to outstanding
Detailed description- in case u hv the time to njoy reading:
Mutton Dori kabab was better than the best I have ever had. Always loved the dori kababs on the streets of Purani dilli – Babu Bhai and also Adams at kolkata. This was directionally same but came out to be even better than the original due to sheer quality of meats and spices. Needless to say, taste and flavor of Buffalo meat (which is now served, post beef ban) is no match to mutton. Real beef ones can however give this mutton ones great competition.
For the uninitiated, dori kabab is made from a paste of meat and spices. Traditionally the paste used to be hand made. Of late some people machine paste the meat which is no match to the original lumpy paste.
The paste is put around a metal skewer but the consistency is such that it does not stay. It tends to fall off into the angeethi. To avoid that, the meat paste is wrapped with a super thin cotton thread, so that it stays on the skewer. Before eating, the thread is thrown away.
The dori kabab served here was lumpy, uneven, had thick juices flowing, had a super intense, rustic and robust taste and flavor – so good that we were speechless for a while. The greatness of this dish was the way it cud retain the original flavours of meat inspite of adding spices. Needless to say it was very soft.
Rate it 4.95/5
Chicken pahadi kabab was unusual, not run of the mill, not too spicy on the face yet nowhere close to being bland. Loved the charred ends and soft n juicy kababs. Dahi and spice marination gave it a bit of sourness that was well balanced with the salt. Rate it 4.5/5
Mah ki daal inspite of having cream strewn on top , this daal was very addictive. We just cud not stop having more. The beauty of the dish was that all the different kind of daal retained their respective shape and the texture was just perfect. Rate it 4/5
Nalli Nihari was a mutton curry with excellent gravy. Just the gravy I Wud RAte 4.25/5. The meat was super soft and was falling from the bones but the intensity of meat and flavours were less. It seemed to b separately cooked and plonked into the gravy. It was not like either the delhi gharana or Lucknow gharana Nihari. In short it did not seem that meat and spices and herbs were slow cooked in low fire for long time. Rate meat 2/5. Overall dish averages out to 3.25/5
For dessert we went for flambé d malpua with rabdi. The Malpua was flambé d in front of us on the table. I am not sure whether it was a good idea – I hv a feeling that the Malpua was very good as it is. It had a good balance of sweet and salt, had layers in the body and crisp corners. Post flambé it was enjoyable as well.
The rabdi was thick, had a thick liquid part and a solidified reduced milk part. The sweetness was optimum – loved it.
Rate it 4.25/5.
Overall rating of food at gallops averages out to
Wud revisit to try out other options from the super long menu.