Recently I was invited to review a new Indian restaurant Zafran Indian Bistro, that has opened its doors at the Mall of Qatar, after having their presence in Dubai and Kuwait. The cuisine served there, is North-West Indian and if you like Indian food, I will tell you what I would recommend having there.So on a weekday evening, we walked into the restaurant (which is situated on the ground floor of Mall of Qatar), and we were seated at our table. Since I was invited, I asked them to serve small portions of what they would recommend from their menu (so the pictures in this post, DO NOT represent the actual serving size.. these are small sampling versions).

The restaurant has a cozy ambience, and whislt inside the restaurant you will not feel that you are in a mall.The team is led by Head Chef Zaki Mohammad, who paid us a visit at our table during and after our meal. Chef Zaki has vast experience in India and the Middle East and has lots of feathers in his cap. For all the Bollywood fans out there, this might interest you…. He was one of the Chefs at Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad at Salman Khan‘s sister’s big fat Indian celebrity studded wedding.

Chef Zaki belongs to Dehli and shared some really interesting stories with us. Whenever we (being Pakistanis) talk to an Indian, we always end up talking about our roots.. where we originally came from… and end up finding so many common links. The conversation after the meal was definitely the yummiest of it all! Back to food, we ordered what the waiter recommended and while we waited for our food, he brought us some chutneys and papads to munch on.The (unusual) chutney that I enjoyed the most was the Papaya Chutney (pictured below), for its sweet and tangy flavor.

For our drinks, I ordered the Watermelon & Mint Smash while my husband ordered the Very Berry and we were both happy with our drinks.Next came the starters Dahee Kabab (Deep fried yogurt and coriander dumplings) and Aloo Tikia(Potato cutlets served with some chickpeas and chutneys). I really enjoyed the Dahee Kabab.. it was something that I had never tasted before and it was certainly one of my favorites of the evening. This was followed by the Kebab Platter (Mix of Chicken Malai Tikka, Chiken Tikka, Bhatti Chicken and Rampuri Seekh Kabab) and Tandoori King Prawn with some Garlic Naan.The grilled chicken was beautifully done.. tender, juicy and flavorful. I would recommend trying their Chicken Malai Tikka, Chicken Tikka and their Tandoori King Prawns.I was pretty stuffed by this time but then came more food! For Main course, there was Aaloo Masala (sauteed potato in spices) , Palak Paneer(Cottage cheese with Spinach) , Daal Zafran (slow cooked black lentils) and Chicken Zafran Biryani (boneless chicken cooked with saffron basmati rice). I enjoyed the Biryani and found it closer to my own palette while my husband loved the Daal Zafran.There was absolutely no space left for dessert, but they insisted we try the Dessert Platter (which includes Ras malai, Gulab Jamun,  Gajar Ka Halwa and Zafrani Kulfi), so we picked one each (to avoid food wastage) – the Kulfi and the Gajar Ka Halwa and we gobbled down the halwa!

Service:

The service was very nice, of course (and that probably has to be because I was a guest ), so I won’t give you any judgments there 🙂

Price:

Dahee Kebab (6 pieces) – QAR 28

Tandoori King Prawns (3 huge pieces) – QAR 110

Kebab Platter -QAR 89

Daal Zafran -QAR 29

Chicken Zafran Biryani – QAR 57

Note: The serving sizes pictured are not the actual size, but a smaller sampling size at our request.

The restaurant is open to guests for lunch as well as dinner from 11 am – 11 pm on weekdays and 11am – 12 am on weekends. To make a reservation please call 50248181.

Disclaimer: I was a guest at the restaurant but the opinions and pictures are very much my own.