Restaurant Review: Kareem's, Kolkata.

Nowadays everything goes viral in a matter of minutes. And specially if it is as famous a restaurant as Kareem’s opening up a branch in your neighborhood, well..that news spreads like wild fire. With Poila Boishak approaching we thought that we must check it out. Although Mumbai style food as a Bengali New Year menu might sound a little odd, but isn’t the New Year all about new things!

Lets see what Kareem's has to say about their restaurant...

So after going through the sumptuous menu, we choose Watermelon Mojito, Green Apple Fizz Cooler for drinks, Cheese Garlic Naan, Cheese Chilli naan, Murgh Lahori, Ghost Dum Biryani (Kareem’s special) and Malai Firni.

Let us talk about the drinks’ to begin it. On that hot and sultry summer evening, they were refreshing to the core. They had the exact amount of sweetness and crispiness. 

Talking about the Naans, as far as size and content is concerned, they were both good. What disappointed me was the bread itself. It was rolled out pretty thin, which is good for a tawa naan, but not for the tandoor. It was not moist and fluffy as a naan should be. The molten fat from the cheese made it rather oily on the surface, but overall, it was dry and stretchy.

The Lahori Murgh was superb. Absolutely no complains about this. The dish was adequately hot, adequately spicy and very aromatic. They claim that the dish has spices from Lahore, true or not, it was bang on the money. The chicken chunks were very juicy and unlike most restaurants where the flavors fail to penetrate the meat. Overall a 10 on 10 dish. (Sorry, we don't have better pictures, it was gone in seconds)

The Biryani..ahh..well, when we first heard the name, what we searched was the obvious Delhi or Mumbai. We were told that it was the Mumbai franchise, and we went in expecting full on Mumbai style Biryani. Totally disappointed. We have had our share of Biryanis’ in Mumbai, the common point has always been the mouthful of flavors. The meat was not tender, did not have any remarkable flavor apart from the gulaab jal/kewra jal. The rice too was very bland. For a INR 350+taxes  Biryani, it lacked everything but the portion.

Firni was good. Nice and smooth texture, good amount of sweet. I have had Firnis over the years, but Kareem’s take on this dessert cannot be totally dismissed.

Final Thoughts:-

To sum up, there were good points as well as bad. The biryani and the naan could be much much better. The rest of what we had was fulfilling to say the least. Apart from the grub, the service was very prompt and courteous. The interior was very bright, stylish and upscale; well decorated with bright lighting, chandeliers and the place has two floors, with the ground floor being for Ala carte and the 1st floor for buffet. 

I would love to go a second time because I have heard a lot about their Kebabs, but unfortunately I didn’t have the appetite to try them that day. But I promise myself to stay away from the biryani at least.

A few details:-

Contact Number: 033 30990554
(Table booking recommended)

Cuisines: Biryani, Beverages, Desserts, North Indian, Hyderabadi, Mughlai

Cost:AVERAGE
650 for two people (approx.)
VAT extra
Cash and Cards accepted

Opening hours:12 Noon to 4 PM, 7 PM to 11:30 PM

Address:-PS Srijan Corporate Park, Plot G-2, Block GP, Retail Unit 2, Tower 1, Sector 5, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700091