Khyber Restaurant Mumbai

Summary

Located in Fort, the heritage district of Mumbai on Mahatma Gandhi Road, Khyber Restaurant is a fine-dining restaurant catering to the upper class section of the Mumbai society. Established in 1958, it began as a small restaurant capable of serving 50 people; now it can cover 300 people under its roof.

Khyber Restaurant Mumbai

 

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Khyber Restaurant is located in Fort, the heritage district of Mumbai on Mahatma Gandhi Road. Established in 1958, it began as a small restaurant capable of serving 50 people; now it can cover 300 people under its roof. This is clear when you walk into the restaurant and are taken through several different dining rooms to your choice of dining area.

Khyber Restaurant is a fine-dining restaurant catering to the upper class section of the Mumbai society. As a result, it is often visited by royalty, International celebrities and distinguished personalities such as the Prince of Luxembourg, the Kuwait royal family, Sir Richard Branson, Sir Paul McCartney, Amitabh Bachhan, Goldie Hawn, Richard Gere, Demi Moore and the list goes on…

 

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Khyber Restaurant has a unique ambiance surrounded by huge urns and ancient Mughal royalties on the walls. The brown/orange tinted, Afghan-inspired interiors are a multi-tiered and cavernous maze of dining rooms whose walls are embellished with Mughal royalty art, exposed brick, tasteful antique oil lanterns and urns.

Khyber specialises in North and West Indian cuisine with an emphasis on Punjabi/North Indian kebabs, biryanis and curries. Their signature dishes are the Raan, a whole leg of slow-cooked lamb, and the Reshmi Kebab Masala, a chicken dish marinated in cream, yoghurt and the restaurant’s red masala.

 

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Upon entrance into this iconic restaurant, we were taken to the top level and seated at a dining room at the back. The atmosphere in each of the dining areas is different as each dining room has a different setting with different table layouts. The dining room we were seated in had a more relaxed ambiance and seemed to be the busiest area in the restaurant. Other dining rooms had tables for bigger groups of diners, private parties and functions.

 

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Even though this is a fine dining restaurant, the service here is under par. This is one area where the restaurant falls down in our opinion. There were several waiting staff milling around however it was hard to get their attention. Finally, we got someone to take our order, however every time we needed something we had to wait for a long time. It seemed that the staff were more occupied with getting tips rather than focusing on their actual job of being attentive to the needs of the diners.

For our entree, we ordered Keema Naan; for mains, we ordered the signature dish of the restaurant, Khyber Raan, with a selection of Butter and Garlic Naans.

 

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Our entree was Keema Naan which is Indian bread stuffed with a mixture of minced lamb with onions, spices and herbs. The naan was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside just as naans should be. It was bursting with flavour from the minced filling. The minced lamb was moist and spiced enough not to overpower the taste of the lamb but enough to give it a lovely flavour.

The keema naan was one of the best naans we had during our trip in India. Khyber does naans very well and this one should definitely be on everyone’s list.

 

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Our main meal was Khyber Raan which is a slowly cooked leg of lamb. It was noted in the menu that the leg of lamb had been slow cooked overnight in a spice mixture of red masala.

The meat was beautifully flavoured, marinated overnight and slow cooked over six hours in a deliciously spicy masala creating a dish fit for royalty and that melts away in the mouth. The lamb was richly flavoured, succulent lamb that had obviously been slowly roasted which allowed the flesh to slowly disintegrate. The flavours that were used to spice the lamb weren’t too strong; they made the lamb taste rich and really enhanced its natural flavour.

The red masala sauce was thick, rich and full flavoured. It went really well with both the lamb and the naan breads we ordered.

The serving size at this restaurant is large for Indian standards. One dish is more than enough for two people and any more will surely go to waste. So a word of advice for future restaurateurs – go with as many people as you can find so you can sample more than one dish at this restaurant.

 

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To go with the Raan, we got some Garlic Naans and Butter Naans. The texture of the naan breads was lovely – it was flaky, crispy and soft. When we ate it, it melted in the mouth. The butter naan were particular lovely as they have a stronger flavour compared to the garlic naan. The butter flavour was strong and made the butter naan taste beautiful, whereas the flavour of the garlic naan would have been emphasised if they had put more garlic on it.

Nevertheless, the naan breads at Khyber were the stand out for us and we would recommend everyone try their naan breads when ordering dinner.

 

Khyber Restaurant is clearly one of the top restaurants in Mumbai for their delicious food and lovely ambiance, however, they need to work on their customer service standards. While the Khyber Raan was a tad expensive at Rs 700, the value for our meal was quite good given the quantity and top quality of the dishes. Not only will we recommend this restaurant to everyone, we will surely visit Khyber again the next time we’re in town.