Recipes

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Kakori - Kebabs & Curries, J.P.Nagar, Bangalore : Restaurant Review


Never judge a book by the cover. That is what I learnt from Kakori - a restaurant that boasts of a slightly over-the-top exterior complete with glittery blue serial lights (I first thought the place was dressed up for Diwali), and a forced gaudy Mughlai look with arches! While the ambiance inside is pretty decent, the lighting is extremely dim (you can see that in the images below - so please excuse me for the image quality).

Moving on, lets look at the most important part - the food. The vegetable kebab platter is a good assortment of paneer, vegetables, mushrooms and baby corn. Crunchy and grilled just right, the kebabs have a strong aroma of charcoal making them all the more delicious. On the spice quotient, I think they can tone down a bit as the alu tikki kebab and paneer were very spicy - and this is coming from someone who has a pretty high threshold for spice. Also
there is too much of food coloring, very tiranga looking but it wasn't independence day! :)

Eating only veggies in a kebab place is just not done - snickered my chicken devouring brother Shashank (nicknamed koli - for obvious reasons if you understand Kannada). So here is his bit. This place boasts of a wide variety of Kebabs. Tender, fresh meat cooked to perfection with the right amount of flavor and spices is what you can look forward to. The dishes are served with spiced onion rings and chutney. I tried the Kakori Kebab and the Achari Kebab. Both of them were fantastic and the quantity is just right (one dish serves two people).


Kakori Kebab

Tomato shorba is satisfactory but very mildly spiced. Some coriander garnishing would have helped.

Tomato Shorba

Spiced Onion Rings

I always wanted to have a good kofta curry but restrained myself as almost always the koftas are like a sweet dish. However, Nargisi Kofta was unlike any other kofta I have had before. It is medium spicy and tomato based. Most importantly, it is not one of those sweet koftas stuffed with dry fruits. Of course there are a few if you look really hard, but they are mashed very well with the paneer and potato. So people who dislike sweet koftas, visit Kakori for Nargisi kofta!

Kadai Vegetable was another pleasant surprise. The regular assorted veggies are used but leaves a nice tandoor after flavor.

Rotis, kulchas and naans are satisfactory.


Nargisi Kofta and Rotis

Portions are generous, the spiced onion side dish served with kebabs is a very good idea. We asked for more and the courteous staff willingly obliged. Service was quick - probably because it was a weekday evening and not very crowded.

Kakori is ideally a non vegetarians' delight. The menu boasts of various kebabs that my non vegetarian brother was drooling over. However, there are decent options for us vegetarians too. Serves alcohol. Priced moderately.

A much - needed kebab - curry - roti place in south Bangalore. Stands out amongst the cluster of 'multi-cuisine' type restaurants that are mushrooming in every corner as Kakori is sticking to serve only one kind of cuisine.

Visit recommended.

Verdict: 3.5/5

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