In a nutshell:

Bowled out by the food at naimat khana & attention to detail in each dish – some food cooked by ladies at their homes & supplied here , others cooked here from scratch by ladies, using traditional methods & wisdom.

Address & other details: naimat khana

Facebook: naimat khana

Instagram : naimat khana

Meal for 2: ₹500 onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian & 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 travelling from delhi to kolkata to experience durga pujo in October 22. We stopped over at lucknow one night & Bodhgaya on the second.

Our friends from lucknow Nishant & Vio invited us for dinner at naimatkhana. We did not pay for the meal. Our friends paid. So we do not have a copy of the bill.

As we got off our car, in a small narrow road, we saw a small campus with some open space in the front & an old building behind the open space.

There were multiple entrances to the building from the common courtyard. We walked into the one which had a signboard of naimat khana

We walked through a passage with book shelves Along the wall & photo frames on the wall, to a room which was like a typical room in someone’s house, converted to a restaurant.

The room had DC fan – rarely seen these days. For those of you wondering what it is, earlier there were two kinds of electric supplies – AC alternate current & DC direct current. I have seen DC fans in many old houses of kolkata 2 decades back

A large hand embroidered piece that hung from the wall was the centrepiece of attraction.

The seating was casual, home like & warm. Seating with Takias made a huge difference in adding to the feel of the place .

There were books in shelves for people to browse.

Food had either been cooked by ladies & sent here or it was being cooked by ladies who are a part of an NGO. So good was cooked with immense care & passion (like at home) vs. in commercial places where some people cook with passion, some others are just doing a job.

Menu card was a simple one pager.

Service was not like in a professional set up. It was like at someone’s house. Loved the interaction with the gentleman & the lady who served us food.

Food was just fabulous

We were also pleasantly surprised to meet the founder Askari Naqvi, an artist, a philanthropist & a great guy to be around. We met him after the food – by then all notes about food were finalized. So no chances of human bias in the rating of food.

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

Shami kabab was like we have had home made versions in friend’s house. The commercial ones are distinctly different. The flavours of daal & mutton complimented each other beautifully, texture of daal was clearly understandable. Loved the perfect balance of taste.

Best shammi kabab we have had in a while

Rate it 4.75/5

Mutton qorma had what an amazing gravy – perfect balance of taste, smooth mouthfeel bursting out with flavours of spices & that of meat. The meat pieces were super soft, melt in the mouth. Great cuts.

Super impressed. Rate it 4.75/5

Daal ke kabab had a really nice texture, full flavours of daal & lovely balance of taste. We had this after eating meat & still liked it as much!!! rate it 4.5/5

Chana aloo was unbelievably good – made from chote chane & potato, this vegetarian dish could beat many meat dishes from an average restaurant in delhi NCR. Wah. Perfectly cooked chana not hard, not melting off, all of the chana in shape. Rate it 4.95/5

Ande ka halwa – eggs halwa!!! Yes, you heard it right. Low on sweet, high on intensity of taste & flavour, Cooked to perfection. A tinge if salt made a sea of difference. Rate it 4.75/5

Rarely everything in a long list of dishes in a meal comes out to be great. This meal was one such exception.

Will remember the meal for long.

Overall rating averages out to 4.74/5 …..

This place gets into our repeat must visit list, when in lucknow.