Persian Cat

Meal for two:

f all our memories of a long-ago trip to Iran, the one that lingers most deliciously through the years is the chelo kababs at Tehran’s legendary 4-storeyed Shamshiri restaurant. The Iranians call chelo kabab the ‘Queen of kababs’: you’re served a pyramid of steaming buttered rice, with smoky lamb kababs marinated in onion juice.

We’ve sometimes wondered why chelo kabab has never caught on in India. With its theme of rice, kababs and lashings of butter, it would seem to have—allowing for a masala tweak for the Indian palate—a great formula for success. A couple of Mumbai’s Irani joints have served it half-heartedly, but only Peter Cat, this dimly-lit, old-world Park Street eatery has made a success of it. They’ve fine-tuned their chelo kabab to create a new, spiced up, saffrony Indo-Persian fusion, and even have a kind of patent on it (a "Protected Regional Product" registration to be precise). If you like, they’ll pop a fried egg on top, in place of the raw yolk the Iranians sometimes flash-cook in the scalding rice. Peter Cat also serves the usual Park Street fare, from Beckti Meuniere to tandoori chicken, but please don’t get side-tracked by that.