25 Degrees North – Al Barsha, Tecom

And so here I am at 25 Degrees North. I’d say this indian restaurant has got the coolest indian restaurant name. Different from the typical Indian restaurant names that we hear. The name tries to reflect itself as a modern Indian restaurant. I am sure some of you smart ones would have already guessed their focus is on authentic north indian cuisine. I can never get tired of Indian food and nothing like north indian 😉

It’s a decent sized restaurant but not a big one. This restaurant faces the main road but it’s on a tricky side of the road which can confuse most of you if you don’t often drive to greens. To my luck it’s located close to my office so it was easy for me to locate. I was recommended by few of my colleagues who have been visiting this restaurant. Surely it’s an indian restaurant you can add to your list of Indian restaurants that you need to visit. Their menu was cheaper last year and prices have been increased along with the rising cost of Dubai 🙁

As expected like most indian restaurants they gave us the pappads and chutney to begin with. Interestingly they had a welcome drink too which was mango and mint which I did enjoy. But ofcourse that was too little to suffice so we did order few other drinks. Out of the 3 drinks Jal Jeera was the special here. It’s a cumin and mint flavored drink that’s get you tuned for your meal. It’s the right drink at the right time.

We then tried some of their kebabs. Some of the characters in the kebab plate would be as below:

Murgh Saffrani Tikka – Boneless chunks of chicken delicately marinated in saffron flavored yoghurt.
Barrah Kebab – Pieces of lamb marinated with special lucknowi spices cooked in tandoor.
Mutton Seekh Kebab – Minced mutton marinated in North Indian spices and herbs
Noorani Tikka – Fillet of Hammour marinated in green chilli, mint and coriander paste
Paneer Makhmali Seek kebab – Marinated cottage cheese skewered and grilled over charcoal.

If I were to pick just two of them I’d say it was the Murg Saffrani tikka and the Noorani Tikka(fish) that was one level up of the others when it came to taste. The Paneer makmali seek kebab was a little different from my expectation. I mean I’ve always been having the tandoor version of paneer and it was the first time I was getting served a paneer grill as pearl white. To me always the sweetness of paneer and the tandoori masala was a lovely combination so this was a little different. But if you enjoy paneer generally you should have it with no complaints.

The Dum Pukht mutton biriyani was really good. Dum cooking meaning aromatic basmati rice cooked with layers of meat in a heavy bottomed pan, sealed with a dough on a low heat. The juices and steam allows all spices and herbs to nicely infuse with meat and rice. I could really taste the flavor in the biriyani. I normally don’t eat much biriyani but here I did eat quite a bit so I would surely recommend you guyz to try their biriyani. I love the mutton in it was well. Juicy and tendor.

Some of the curries we tried were:

Dal Makhani – Black lentil and kidney beans cooked with assorted indian spices and creamy butter sauce.
Butter Chicken – Boneless chicken pieces cooked in butter, coriander, tomato and ginger.
Dum Nariali Prawns – Juicy marinated prawns cooked in a blend of spices and coconut milk served in tender coconut.

Their butter chicken was yummy. If you like chicken and you plan to order a curry then I think you should try this curry. Dal Makhani even though it looked very appealing, it tasted ordinary to me. Nothing really outstanding about it. The curry that really stole the show was the chef special which was Dum Nariali Prawns curry. It also arrived on our table very differently. The server would then tear open the tender coconut for us to reach the curry inside it. As soon as it’s cut open there is steam rushing out with nice sized prawns popping out of the curry. Once I tried a spoon, this curry was my favorite for the day. The fact this curry is a little different and not something that you see elsewhere I’d recommend you order this one specially if you have any special guest on the table to impress 🙂

They’ve got a big collection of roti. You can pick any four for your Roti basket. One of my favourite was the Onion Kulca as well was as the butter naan. The crisp and thin naan was the peshawari Naan which I thought came out very well.

Some of the desserts we tried were:

Firni – Rice pudding flavoured with cardamom and saffron. Topped with pistachio and almonds.
Shahi Tukda – Fried bread soaked with syrup of milk cooked with sugar, cream and rose water topped with nuts.
Rasmalai – Sugar cream-colored balls of dough and a creamy sweet malai.

Shahi tukda needed some improvement. It has a nice malai on top but that fried bread was not very appealing to me. Firni was my little ones favourite and rasmalai was taken over by me 🙂

To know more about their restaurant you could visit their website: http://www.25degreesnorth.com. Telephone: 04-4527779