Nawab No More

Zaffarani Zaika
Yashwant Place Shopping Complex, Floor One, Satya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi - 110021
Ph.: 011 2412 1520
Meal for two (without alcohol): Rs 1,100

he idea of an Awadhi dinner carries with it a promise of blatant opulence that drips straight off the walls and onto your food. The interiors of Zaffarani Zaika, however, do little to conjure a Nawabi durbar. The blue and green lights remind you more of those garish eateries in Kanpur, where neon is needed to convince you that the city is urban. Zaffarani’s instrumental piano music is undoubtedly borrowed from the nearby Dum Pukht in ITC’s Maurya Sheraton, where mouthing Raj Kapoor lyrics is something you instinctively do while letting those kakori kababs literally melt in your mouth.

Though there is no kakori on the menu here, the restaurant’s Murgh Parcha Kabab is novel. You can clearly taste the almond as you bite into the chicken, and their Shahjahani Shikampur stuffs yoghurt into lamb in precisely the right places. The main course, though, kills the anticipation that the appetisers bring. The oil-rich Ghosht Beliram and chicken Dilli ka Korma can only be differentiated by the colour of the meat. The Hyderabadi Ghosht Biriyani tastes more like plain rice, and it is only the Zaffarani Phirnee that finally impresses you with its consistency. You just end up wishing that the restaurant could too.