In a nutshell:

Fairly Enjoyable mughlai beef & other meaty dishes in a small, good looking & very well maintained, dining hall, excellent service.

Address & other details: Zamzam

Instagram : Zamzam

Facebook: Zamzam

Meal for 2: ₹200 onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian also, predominantly 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.

YUMMRAJ rates all the food items & then gives 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 were in kolkata & we had decided to explore beef dishes at different eateries in kolkata – from roadside to 5 star & mughlai to continental. Read about our continental experience here – the Oberoi grand

So we checked with our friend, Indrajit Lahiri , popularly known as foodka & he suggested Zamzam old restaurant. He also mentioned beef malai & beef biryani as specialities.

So on a pre planned day we started from somewhere near rashbehari avenue to go to old zam zam in the car, seeing google map. Suddenly we realized there was no updating of our movement in google map. Then we realized internet was off. In next few minutes we realized that both of our Airtel phones were just not working.

Imagine the state that we have reached in our lives where everything is dependent on smart phones. Those 10 minutes, in absence of phone, everything seemed to turn topsy turvy:

1. We did not know how to reach the destination as google map was not working. Our driver had not heard of the place. So we had no choice but had to rather go to new Zamzam restaurant, whose location we knew.

2. We had asked two of our friends to meet us at Zamzam old directly. We had to inform them now to instead meet us at new Zamzam opposite quest mall.

So after a brief panic cum ‘creativity in crisis’ situation, we managed to call them from our driver’s number & ask them to come to new Zamzam.

All the while we were belwildered as to what happened to our phone – there was an Airtel outage in kolkata on that day at that time as we got an SMS from Airtel later.

As we entered the restaurant, we realized we had been here. But we knew we had not been to Zamzam. So when we asked we got to know that there was another mughlai food restaurant at the same spot & zam zam took over from them few years back.

The restaurant is maintained very well.

The huge mirror near the entrance makes the space look bigger than what it is.

The gentleman who took care of us was middle aged, extremely courteous & super warm. A rare species in today’s day.

The menu card was fairly simple. It had No description of the dishes, no pictures of food. The number of items was Not too less, not too many.

We searched for beef biryani & other beef items. They were not there on the printed menu.

So we asked the gentleman serving us. He said there are 4 beef items – malai beef, beef biryani, beef bhuna & beef ishtew. We eventually ended up ordering all of these.

We also ordered a mutton biryani to compare with the other Mughalai restaurants.

Food (read gravies & biryani rice) was very good in general – the meats (beef) could have been way better cooked. Mutton was perfect.

I have had some memorable curried beef in different parts of the world. Sharing some of those memories in italics:

One of the best was at my friend jamil’s cousin’s house in Rajshahi, bangladesh. It was proof that beef can be cooked as well & soft as mutton.

The memory of eating a fabulous oxtail curry at a South American restaurant in Miami USA is still fresh.

The best of Curried beef that I had in Malaysia & Thailand have also been very soft & had great texture.

Jama Masjid delhi restaurants like kallu nihariwale, haji shabrati nihariwale & others took curried beef to a different level.

Beef curry at or friend, Dr. Salim’s home in Park Circus has been insanely good every time.

Even my memory of beef biryani & beef Bhuna at aafreen Metiabruz kolkata was better when it comes to softness of meat.

So I do Not agree with some people who say that beef will be a bit tougher than mutton.

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

Murg zaffrani kabab was succulent & excellent. Loved the way the edges were charred & how the kababs were soft & juicy within. Very well spiced & well seasoned. Rate it 4.5/5

Malai beef was sweet at first bite & was shocking to the senses. By the third bite, the expectations got set & it got addictive. The meat was soft, good & flavorful. The gravy was pale in color & reminded us visually of rezala. Rate it 4.5/5

Beef biryani had excellent long grained, aromatic, soft yet independent grains of rice. Loved it. There was a bit of hot aftertaste. Rate the rice 4.5/5

In terms beef pieces, they were not soft. The one piece I got was quite fibrous. Taste was good & so were the meaty flavors. Rate it 2/5.

Overall rating of the biryani averages out to 3.25/5

Unlike mutton biryani, all pieces on the plate were boneless.

Beef Bhuna had a dark, reddish, fiery looking gravy but as the gravy hit the anxious taste buds, we realized it was just the color. It was not as hot as it looked. Infact it was moderately hot. Loved the flavors of the gravy. Rate it 3.5/5

Meat again was moderately soft. Rate it 2.5/5

Rating of beef Bhuna averages out to 3/5

Beef stew had a Thick, creamy gravy that was very good to taste. Surely not what the British would have thought as a simple stew. Spices & fats galore, this gravy had quite a character. Rate the gravy 4/5.

The meat was moderately soft. Not as much as would have been nice. Good to taste. Rate it 3/5

Overall rating of the dish averages out to 3.5/5

Mutton biryani was a bit sweetish. It had a perfectly cooked aloo in it. Loved the succulent pieces of mutton & perfectly cooked long grain, aromatic rice that tasted just right. The sweetish ness mentioned above however was balanced with the salt.

Unlike the beef biryani, this did not have a hot aftertaste.

Rate it 4.5/5

Burhani / ghol was a great balancing agent among so much of carbs, fat & meats. Rate it 4/5

Firni was quite good. Rate it 3/5. No comparison to the rockstar firni that we have got used to at kitchen of awadh, gurgaon.

Overall rating of food at zamzam averages out to 3.8/5

Am Unlikely to revisit this restaurant but still will look forward to go to the old one some day.