Darjeeling Express, London

Darjeeling Express
Top Floor
Kingly Court
London W1B 5PW

020 7287 2828

Absolutely fantastic and authentic home style Bengali & Hyderabadi cooking with a few dishes from the rest of India.

I rarely rave about Indian restaurants in London, but Darjeeling Express is absolutely brilliant.

Run by the lovely Asma Khan who started out with Supper Clubs at her home and has recently moved to this permanent location in Kingly Court. The food on the menu reflects her background from Calcutta, Hyderabad and UP. So don't go here looking for tandoori chicken, paneer tikka, butter chicken and rotis. Indian food is much more than just that. What you will find on the menu are dishes that you would get if you were lucky enough to be invited for a home cooked meal at an Indian friends home.

None of the cooks in the kitchen are professional chefs, they are all talented home cooks who take pride in their cooking. And its an all woman kitchen where the the food tastes like "Maa ke haath ka khaana" - mum's cooking. When we had a quick chat with Asma, she told us that her chefs, only have to put in half a shift either for the noon or the evening sitting. 4-5pm is sacrosanct so that they can either go home to pick up their kids from school or pick them up before coming over for the evening shift. What a wonderful concept! This option gives opportunity to a lot of women who otherwise are unable to work and restricted by work timings and home responsibilities.

The menu itself keeps changing every 8 weeks, so I'm not sure you will find the same food when you visit.

The puchkas/paani puri/golgappas were better than any that we have had at a London restaurant. Husband loved the tangra chilli garlic prawns which he said were extremely fresh and very delicately flavoured.

We had absolutely outstanding shikampuri kebabs with luchchis/puris. We had FIVE plates of the shikampuri kebab! 3 to takeaway, but even then...

The Degh Ghosht - beef stew was brilliant and the gobhi, gajar, aloo - cauliflower with carrot and potato tastes like my best friends mum makes it. The mains all come with a very light pulao. But we also ordered a side of luchchis (Bengali style puris) to go along with it.


They serve India's favourite sodas - Limca and ThumsUp, but they also have a licence to serve cocktails, beer and wine.

Sundays are for biriyani and I look forward to making a booking there very soon.

We loved the food so much that we wanted to order some more to take away. They aren't really equipped for that, but when they heard us gushing over the food, they did their very best to pack it all up for us and I'm happy to report that every single item that we packed reached home in perfectly pristine condition!

Go, go, go. Don’t miss out on this amazing experience.

Rating : 5 / 5

Pista House, Hyderabad

Pista House,
Opposite Esra Hospital,
Shalibanda Road,
Charminar
Hyderabad
+91 9966022786, +91 8686753064

THE Best Haleem in Hyderabad. This is the place to head to if Haleem cravings hit you. Situated in the old city, in the midst of a maze of roads, but believe me, its worth the effort to reach here.

Its quite clean and fancy, compared to other restaurants in the area (that serve good food, but cleanliness and hygiene are average at best)

They have a reasonably extensive menu these days including pizzas and stuff. but our order is normally biryani, haleem, and chicken 65.

Rating : 4 / 5

Hotel Shadab, Hyderabad

Hotel Shadab,
21, Opposite Madina Building,
High Court Road,
Ghansi Bazaar
Hyderabad
040 24565949

If you are the from the category who thinks Paradise makes the best biryani in Hyderabad, then don't bother coming here. For me, Shadab serves the best Hyderabadi Biryani in the city.

You can get every kind of offal here : paya, nihari, gurda, bheja, zabaan, and jabda.

The special Shikampuri kebabs that they make only on Fridays, is worth braving the jumma crowds of the old city for.

If you aren't into crowds and atmosphere, then head to the air conditioned section. Its not "fancy", but it has less crowd and you can beat the heat and won't have people staring at you while you eat.

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Cinnamon, Jai Mahal Palace, Jaipur

Cinnamon,
Jai Mahal Palace,
Jacob Road,
Civil Lines
Jaipur
0141 2223636

 

Cinnamon at the Jai Mahal Palace Jaipur is situated on the mezzanine level, accessible from the Marigold Bar. It was supposed to be the private dining room of the Prime Minister. Its well decorated and normally much quieter than the Marble Arch and cosier than the Frangipani - Grills & Barbecue in the garden.

Cinnamon offers a variety of "Royal" cuisines - Rajasthani, Awadhi, Hyderabadi and Kashmiri with about 5 starters and 5 main course options from each cuisine. We ate here twice when we last visited Jaipur. The first time was just the 2 of us on a quiet evening and the service was excellent. The second time was a group of 12 in the afternoon. And they took over an hour to get us our lunch. Even then, the serving and the arrival of dishes was pretty chaotic, starters, rotis, dhal, rice - everything arrived together, but 3 biryanis appeared and the 4th didn't make an appearance for another half an hour.

The restaurant is beautiful. Very romantic for an evening dinner. While most of the tables are the proper sit down variety, you can choose to book a little nook with floor seating. However, do note that Cinnamon overlooks the Marble Arch Coffee shop (its the mezzanine level), so you may want to choose your table away from the windows. The decor is beautiful with old Rajasthani tribal jewelry and rich fabrics on the seats and tables.

The standard complimentary starters of Poppadums and green salad, came in a beautiful arrangement. It looked so pretty, we didn't feel like breaking it up and devouring it.

The food was excellent. We did get to sample lots of different things (given the size of our group) Portion size is on the smaller side, but the taste is lovely. We loved the Dum Biryani (both chicken 1100/- and lamb 1200/- variants were excellent).

On the Servers recommendation, we ordered the  Kashmiri Lahabi kebabs (850/) - minced lamb kebabs poached in tomato and Kashmiri spices. It was outstanding. In comparison, the Galawat kebabs (850/-) were extremely mild and delicate in flavour. While it was good, no 5 Star has yet got the art of making the perfect Galaouti kebabs that are sold on the streets of Lucknow. The Gushtaba was again very mildly spiced, but still quite flavourful, however it wasn't as good as the gushtaba you get from an authentic Kashmiri house / restaurant / chef.

They do serve an excellent selection of vegetarian food too. The Shekhawati Ker Sangri (750/-) and the dals - Lasooni Tadka (750/-) and Dal Cinnamon (750/-) and gatte ki sabji were all excellent.

We were on a no sugar phase, when we visited this restaurant, so I can't comment on the desserts.

All in all, it is an expensive dining option, but perfect for a Romantic evening, when you don't want to shell out for the Ram Bagh.


Rating : 4 / 5

Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, Delhi

Andhra Pradesh Bhavan
Jaswant Singh Road
Just off Ashoka Road
Delhi
011 2338 7499
7:30am-10am, 12pm-3pm, 7:30pm-10pm

This is one of the most reasonable places in Delhi to get a filling meal - unlimited servings for the Andhra thali at only 80Rs. The Andhra Pradesh Bhavan canteen is always full, because not only is their thali meal filling, its nutritious, healthy and hygenic too.

When the basic thali is placed on the table, it will have a katori of curd and one sweet, with a scoop of flavoured rice of some kind. These are normally served in limited quantities.

Rasam and Sambhar katoris are served next with papad.

The next server comes with his special 4 drum vessel with 4 different vegetarian dishes in them. Normally there will be a dhal and at least 2 fresh vegetable dishes.

You can choose to have puris or rice (or both) as your choice of carbohydrates. Just motion to one of the servers and they will send the respective serving bowls over.

The table has pickle (gongura), gunpowder (chutney powder) and ghee which go really well with the rice.

They also have a limited menu of other items which include a few fiery non vegetarian ones. The Chicken fry at 80Rs is a large portion and can be split between 2 people.

The chicken biryani at Sunday lunch is so famous, that we have sometimes waited over an hour for a table, inspite of their turnover being so fast.

Service is quick and efficient. While they don't pressurise you to vacate quickly, there is a general sense of urgency that pervades and you may find yourself eating faster than normal.

Its a canteen run by the State Government, so don't go there looking for ambience. But if you want an authentic Andhra meal or a reasonable yet tasty and balanced meal, this is the place to head to.

Ambience : 2
Food  : 7
Service : 7 (fast and efficient)

Note: Pictures were taken on my cell phone, hence the low resolution.

Edited on 28 Jan 2011 to Add:
We visited again a week ago for their famous chicken biryani which is only served on Sundays. The Biryani is 120Rs with a substantial amount of chicken and a raita and gravy. So its a complete meal for one.

 I did take my camera along this time. So here are some pictures of the chicken fry, thali and pickles.

However I must warn you that Sunday is a day which sees the maximum rush at Andhra Bhavan. Everyone wants their share of the VFM biryanis and thalis.

Viva Hyderabad, Gurgaon

Viva Hyderabad
MGF Megacity Mall
Gurgaon

While shopping at Spencers Hypermarket the other day, was hit by the hunger pangs. Not suprising, given that I had spent over 3 hours in the store.

The main mall above did not have any eating options other than Costa (I'v e had an overdose of Costa in Egypt as it was one of the few places we could eat at, so I refuse to step near one in India or a McDonalds for that matter, 2 food carts - chaat and hot dogs and a pub. The pub was ruled out. As a single woman I wasn't about to enter a pub in Gurgaon.

So it was a huge relief to see that tucked in the corner of the basement were a few more eating options. Cafe Coffee Day was easily dismissed, the South East Asian counter had an overpowering smell of burning soya sauce (from the grilling) which made me semi nauseous, the Moets counter wasnt looking very appetising, so Viva Hyderabad it was. Although it may not have been my first choice, it was definitely the right choice.

The menu in this outlet is very limited.6 types of biryani, 3 starters, 4 curries and some small stuff. Since it was Hyderabadi food, I asked the guy at the counter if he could make my biryani really spicy. He said that everything was pre-packed so he couldn't change anything. But he promised me that it would be medium spicy.

What an understatement! I had the Qabooli Mutton Biryani (Rs 142) which is split yellow gram with mutton Biryani. It was spicy! The right spicy - to explode in my mouth, yet not enough to cause tears to roll down my cheeks.

The flavors were exquisite but the rice was a little dry. The accompanying sherva (gravy) helped moisten it a little, but the taste of the sherva was interfering with the taste of the biriyani for me.

I did like their biryani though and will try it from some of their other outlets where I may be more likely to find fresher versions rather than reheated packs.

Nandini Restaurant, Dubai

Nandini Restaurant
Karama
Dubai
04 335 4389

We were both huge fans of the Nandini chain of restaurants in Bangalore. This was also one of my husbands key accounts when he worked with Pepsi. He has eaten here so often that every biryani that he eats is compared against the Nandini biriyani.

The Nandini biryani is more of an Andhra style pulao (unfortunately I never found an equivalent even in 2 years of being based in Hyderabad!) which goes excellently with the Andhra style chicken chilli. The second dish is not for those with weak taste buds. With my love of chillis, I'm normally leaking out of my eyes and nose and have smoke coming out of my ears, but the dynamite taste is worth it.

After missing these dishes for so long, it was such a pleasure to discover that they have a couple of branches in the UAE. The biryani here costs 15 Dhs. You can ask for extra rice (without the meat) after ordering the biryani for 10 dhs (this concept of being able to order dish B only after ordering dish A is a uniquely South Indian restaurant concept.) The chicken chilly (not to be confused with the Chinese Chilly chicken that is also on their menu) is 13dhs.

As is usual with most Indian restaurants (outside Egypt), the biryani is served with a small bowl each of raita and a side curry.

Watching us relish the sauce with the chicken chilli, the waiter obligingly got us more sauce when we had polished the original plate off. :)

We normally supplement this biryani fest with a side dish of baby corn chilli or ladiesfinger (bhindi) 65 or carrot french fry or something like that in the 11 to 15 dhs range.

A large bottle of water, essential with the chillies is 2.5 dhs.

They do provide complementary pappadums and melted ghee (which goes very well even with the biriyani). The table normally has 4 basic condiments. Chutney pudi (better known as Andhra gun powder) gongura (a kind of green leafy vegetable found only in Andhra) chutney, a lime or mixed pickle and another pickle or chutney depending on the season.

Wonderful value for money with excellent taste.

I heard this restaurant had recently moved locations, will update the address once I find the updated one.