We heard it through the grapevine that Royal Biryani serves close to 20 variations of the dish. And nothing sets our curry-loving tongues wagging like a pot of flavourful, fragrant grains of rice, with just enough masala and meat to cover a few different food groups. We let out a painful cry when we discover there are in fact only five biryanis on the menu – chicken, lamb, vegetable, prawns and a signature version.
We order the platter, that gets you small portions of the lamb, chicken and prawn varieties. As we wait for it, our waiter brings over the starters. Fried fish fingers, coated in a corn-vegetable mixture and galouti kebabs. The corn mixture that coats the fish is tasty, but the sticks of fish in the centre are barely there. They are thin and over in two bites. Hoping for more, we move to the minced meat kebabs. Galouti translates to “melt in the mouth”, and these do. However, they lack that much-needed oomph one expects from these famous Lucknow exports.
Seeing our dismayed look, the waiter lays down our trio of biryani and a pea and mushroom curry, hoping we’ll crack a smile. We dive straight in to the biryani. Once again, it’s a hit and miss affair. The prawn offering stands out of the three. There’s enough masala in its little bowl and a generous amount of shellfish, too. The lamb is next and we find tender meat well in proportion to the aromatic rice. The chicken, however, is a bit of a let-down. The rice is on the drier side and lacks zing, while the curry has an uncooked spice taste that brings us no joy.
With Indian being such a popular cuisine, this newbie needs to go back to the masala board and sort out those little kinks, because it has what it takes to be a favourite.
The bill (for two)
1x Royal Biryani trio Dhs150
1x Corn coated fish fingers Dhs45
1x Mushroom and pea curry Dhs50
1x Galouti Kebabs Dhs69
1x Water Dhs12
Total Dhs326
The bottom line
It’s still early days. A few minor tweaks will set it on its way.
