Jyran

Rest : Jyran

Meal : Dinner
Loc : Sofitel, BKC

The Sofitel, opened a little while ago and i had heard interesting things about the place, they have been quite audacious in setting up an all vegetarian/jain restaurant which is quite a first for a Five star property, however i am pretty sure its doing well, when i swung by to have a look at the menu they had been taken over for a private party. 

In any case, Jyran their North Indian/Frontier/Afghani cuisine restaurant is where i wanted to dine and is where we went. The chef in charge is from the famed Qureshi clan which works at most fine dine North Indian restaurants and are actually the force behind Dum/Awadh/Lucknowi cuisine. 

I found the decor most interesting, a sort of high end Dhaba imagined by a Frenchwoman, is the vibe, very earthy yet quite posh, along the lines of Veda however far, FAR more restrained. 

a tall glass of peached ice tea, very nice and quite appropriate for the hot food coming up. 

We got them to give us a piece of each appetizer instead of a platter of the same and boy was that a smart move (the price is the same for all) The Tandoori Bharwan Aloo was as delicious as it was simple, fantastic. The paneer was good, the rajma tikki too was pretty amazing, and the shammi filled with cheese was like nothing i had tasted before. Very different. Thankfully we shared the portions or we would have been dead in the water. 

For the mains we had the paneer which was okayish, felt foolish getting more paneer, should have gone for the chana or something else all together. the kadhai paneer is turning into a bete noire. The other dish we had was amazing and i feel foolish that i cannot recall the name now. it was aloo something but it was a creamy curry with soft dumplings which were not potato based. amazing. 

the black dal was disappointing. 

the naan was good, also had a mughlai paratha which is cream aand ghee but actually quite light to taste. 

the Biryani was quite Dum Pukthesque which is to say it was pretty good. 

The Raita was light minty but not in the ITC Burhani Raita league, a tad garlic and a little sweetness would go a long way.

The Kulfi was the appropriate dessert and pretty good. 

A special mention for Farzana who was managing the restaurant, this woman knows her food and her hospitality. On a lark i asked her how was the mughlai paratha different from the shirmal and she went into an explanation almost immediately. Kudos.

Overall, the ambience and layout of the space is very interesting, good to see they have not gone Indian ethnic out of a pre-ordered kit as some hotels tend to. The food too has potential, the appetizers were just stupendous, in the mains i seemed to have ordered the wrong thing with the paneer, the dal though was weak. A little more finesse and they can cross into the Dum Pukth league.

The pricing is on the easier side when compared to an ITC or a Taj so it does feel relatively more value for money. They also do rather large set menus from 2500-4000 pp.

Food : 8/10
Service : 9/10
Damage : 4500 for two with a glass of wine.