Ballimaran Dilli, Dubai UAE

Away from Dubai’s fancy and high end restaurants, you will find a few restaurants dishing out hardcore Indian and Pakistani foods like a Mutton Nihari, Bheja Masala, Payas amongst other spicy flavourful dishes.

We were recommended to try out Ballimaran Dilli specializing in Indian Lucknowi cuisine, in Dubai’s Karama area and which was pretty difficult to find at first. Its located on 6A street but better to call and take directions, tel.no. is 04-3972224.

We were eager to try out the Sheermal and the Lucknowi Galouti Kebabs and that was the main reason for our trip. The waiter who attended on us was an old chap with pretty good experience of the stuff available and recommended we go for the Mutton Nihari and with it some Kulchas plus our choice, which was Sheermal topped with Galouti Kebabs and a Lucknowi Dumwala Mutton Biryani.

We were absolutely disappointed with the Sheermal Bread topped with the Galouti kebabs as the Sheermal was a very flat tasteless bread with a kind off rubbery texture without any flavour. The kebab was soft, smooth and mildly spiced but the texture was too soft and pasty for our liking.

However the star of the show was the Kulchas which was one of the best breads I have ever eaten. It had a golden brown crispy crusty top with buttery soft layers of goodness. The Nihari was excellent and nicely spiced and the kulchas were absolutely divine when dipped in the Nihari. 

This was the saving grace of our lunch outing as the Lucknowi Dum Biryani was disappointing as it lacked any flavour and as is the case, biryanis made in restaurants rarely qualify to make the list of recommendations.

We didn’t have space for anything more to experiment but I would definitely recommend the Kulchas and Nihari.

German Doner Kebab, Salmiya, Kuwait

For those who want to try a different type of Shawerma in Kuwait should make a trip to German Doner kebab which is on Food street (Mataam Street) in Salmiya. No idea why it is called so but the street is lined with quite a few restaurants, mostly takeaways. This restaurant is also in Dubai and which has a seating area unlike the joint in Kuwait is only a takeaway.

Shawermas and Felafel sandwiches are a staple in Kuwait and a quick snack on the go whenever you are hungry. It can be had for breakfast lunch or dinner.

  

However the Doner Kebab is something different and full meal by itself and is priced equally high if you compare it to the simple Shawerma. Having said that, it is something you need to try out atleast once as the quality of the meat and the sandwich by itself is way superior than your normal Shawerma. It comes loaded with meat/chicken. However we prefer the veal/beef sandwich and always go in for a topping of extra meat.

 

The meat is grilled on the stick as in a normal Shawerma, however it’s a bloody huge stick. The meat once grilled is shaved with a shaver and not a knife as is usually the case in your regular Shawerma shops. This gives you the thinnest of tender meat slices, which is loaded onto the sandwich. The quality of meat is so good that although it is well grilled, the meat still melts in the mouth. The staff are very friendly and one of them even posed for pictures. This time we managed a video for those who would like to see how it’s done.

The sandwich is huge and is more than sufficient for a good eater for either lunch or dinner. We always share it as it gives the opportunity to try out a few more things. Highly recommended.