Visiting the Taj hotel for Iftar has been very satisfying. We had a splendid evening at Shamiana. It stood up to it’s 5 star reputation tonight for Iftar. The grand entry into the restaurant, the comfortable seating, the beautiful open views of the skyline, a great selection of appetizers, desserts, LIVE cooking stations along with LIVE oud performance on stage that kept us happy throughout our Iftar. Shamiana is a glamorous Indian restaurant, well known for producing authentic Indian cuisine including their signature thali and home style dinner. But expect the unexpected at Shamiana for Iftar, as the Iftar spread was not just limited to Indian cuisine this time but includes international cuisine as well this time, which made the Iftar here exciting. I wouldn’t call it a mega spread but carefully selected buffet that serves some amazing dishes. Iftar buffet at Shamiana Taj is from sunset till 09:00pm. You also get one complimentary Iftar for every group of 10. Shisha is also available and you also get 15% discount with Zomato Pro.
For drinks there were traditional arabic drinks such as the tamar hind, jallab, laban or one could pick a juice which was orange and lime. The cold Tamar hindi was my favourite from the lot. I then directly went to the appetizers and grabbed a plate without a blink, as anyone could simply look and get tempted seeing the hot appetizers which included Arabic favourites such as the cig boreki (a turkish special), spinach fatayers, kebabs, meat samosa, tikkas such as fish and chicken and they also had a prawn special. I just can’t remember all the names but each of them were truly amazing. Personally these appetizers were the best part of the Iftar for me. It was like gold in a corner. Even the samosa was really good, heavily stuffed with meat instead of the usual potatoes. The cig boreki was crispy and wonderful part would be the cheese stretching out with every bite. The marination on the kebabs and tikka were commendable.
The salads were plenty and too many to try. Kids loved the pasta LIVE station. You can have your pasta made just the way you want and plenty of condiments and toppings that makes the creation process interesting. You enjoy the appam the most when you have it hot out of the pan and they were making it fresh in front of your eyes, except I’d say that could improve on the appam as it didn’t have the shape or flare of the ones we get at Calicut Paragon. I guess there is a technique in creating these fragile appams. Next to the appam station they also had the suitable curries that would be a perfect match for the appam. The Live cooking station has been well planned.
Lamb Ouzi was another center attraction but after eating all those flavourful tikka and kebabs which an Indian restaurant can offer best, the lamb ouzi felt a little bland. Nevertheless, there is nothing like eating a whole cut lamb.
They then had a stretch of mains. I started with Prawns Biriyani which was really nice. You also had roti and rice available as a side with different curries available. I honestly felt the mains were the less glamorous side as opposed to other sections of the buffet or maybe I was already too full by then. But I still continued to visit the Appetizers section for the best of kebabs and grills.
They had all the necessary desserts to satisfy you from English to Arabic. There were 2 hot desserts which was cheese kunafa and Oum Ali. Rest of them were mixed bag of cakes, pastries, chocolate mousse etc. You would also find traditional arabic sweets including baklawas and biscuits. Don’t forget to try their signature Kulfi which was a delight. Overall it was a good spread of desserts which can satisfy any sweet tooth. Click here to visit the official website. Click pictures below to see them in full screen view:
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