The atmosphere inside the restaurant was very pleasant - light music, good clean linen on the table, nice upholstery for the chairs, and a menu that wouldn't disappoint even a vegetarian, and would certainly make a carnivore's mouth water. I'm not too much into the ambiance and music, so I didn't mind the Jagjit Singh ghazals in the background, but some of the guests did, although not to the point where they started throwing tantrums.
The food was great. I didn't care too much for the Punjabi section - don't get me wrong, they were nice - I just liked the dishes from the other two sections better (and so did the guests). Also, to the credit of this restaurant, the lamb dishes that were served among the starters were wonderfully cooked. Very often, the mutton in a biryani is tender and drops off the bone and this is because it is 'pressure' cooked (may not be in a pressure cooker, but you know what I mean). However, starters usually aren't, and these are slow cooked in a tandoor, and very often the meat is still a little chewy. This often spoils the experience. However, the lamb at Sultans of Spice didn't suffer from that and came off the bone quite easily. Kudos to the chef.
The ?favourite? tag was a toss-up between the meat-dropping-off-the-bone ?gosh quburghah?, or lamb chops, in a wonderful red marinade, and the chicken legs stuffed with methi and mince meat ?Matiya Road bharwan tange?.
Unless you have an endless appetite, and/or are a sucker for Punjabi food, you?d do well to order from the Afghani and/or Delhi section of the menu. Not that the Punjabi food is bad; au contraire, what we had was good, but the others were just better.
Our orders here revolved around the Karim?s zaffrani mutton biryani, which was colourful and aromatic, and the mutton was extremely tender. Another dish bearing the Karim?s tag was the Karim?s keema mutter fry, which was a perfect accompaniment for our breads, among which the Kabuli naan was something unique, topped with a lot of dry fruits. Knowing full well that the mutton dishes are usually the best way to judge the mettle of the chef, we attacked the one that had a chef?s hat next to it on the menu, indicating it was a special. So we settled for a ?Burrah Kaliyan?, which was a dish of lamb chops in a green gravy. Delicious isn?t saying nearly enough, but I wish they?d figure out a way of serving it with the bones cut down to size so as to not overwhelm the diners.
For dessert, we had chickoo kulfi, stuffed gulab jamuns in a mango nectar, and a classic jalebi-rabdi. Suffice to say, they were mouth watering delicious. Overall, a very good meal, and I just wish the Punjabi section was as good as the other two.
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