India Palace, Dubai

India Palace
The Walk
JBR
Dubai
437 0279

The India Palace in Delhi is a greta restaurant that serves authentic Mughlai food. Lured by the name, we walked into this restaurant on the walk.

The interiors were beautifully done and very enticing. Sadly the food did not match up to the standards set by the decor.

It may be easy enough for the India palace to purport to be authentic Indian cuisine to the tourists pounding the sidewalk, but no self-respecting Indian would ever go back a second time.

The Thandaii - 13- almond and cardamom flavored milk based drink - was an interesting starting point which lulled us into believing that better things were to come. Unfortunately other than the stuffed aloo kulcha (7) - Indian bread stuffed with potatoes - nothing else even came close.

We ordered the tarah tarah ke kebab (an assortment of kebabs/grilled meats) - 52- hoping to enjoy a selection of tender chunks and morsels of meat. What was served was dehydrated bits of meat that did not seem to have seen the enfolding embrace of a marinade for more than a minute.

The tadka dhal - 14- yellow lentils was absolutely band without even the flavor of tomato or tempering of cumin.

The banjara kabab - 22- extolled as a cottage cheese dumpling, coated with spinach and nuts cooken in saffron flavored rich tomato and cashew gravy tasted as vegetable dumplings tossed into a generic butter chicken/butter paneer gravy.

Normally in large restaurants, different chefs manage the tandoor (where kebabs are grilled) and the main kitchen. Hoping to strike lucky with some rice, we ordered the ghosht biryani-35- lamb biryani. the rice was dry. Large pieces of mint leaves were liberally mixed into the dish and the meat was dry.

If you want to eat good Indian food in Dubai, stick to Karama. Those eateries may be basic, but they sure know how to cook food the way an Indian mom/grandmom would cook it. Lots of effort + fresh ingredients = unbeatable flavor.