Kashmir, Race Course Road

The web page of Kashmir (52 Race Course Road, tel : 6293 6003) made a very confident claim that once one has visited the restaurant, said person will add them to their personal list of best restaurants in this country and will subsequently come back for more. I thought that was a rather bold statement. In retrospect I wouldn't dispute it. This was one of those restaurants where I left happy and telling myself that I would love to come back. Definitely not the first time that I've gotten such a feel about a restaurant. But I suppose that doesn't happen in many occasions.

We started off promisingly with some really good kabargah. This were lamb ribs that were boiled in milk and spices before getting the deep fried treatment. There wasn't a lot of meat for a $12 portion, but what was available was very nicely done. The dish retained the natural aroma the lamb and was quite tender to boot. I could have finished two portions of these easily by myself.

I was very impressed with this Afghani murg. Basically chicken that was marinated in almond paste, cream, ginger and garlic before being charcoal grilled on skewers. It was marked with very nice char on the surface and was surprisingly juicy inside. That robust char could almost be described as....beautiful. The portions felt a little too small though, but I would give two thumbs up to the chef.

We ordered their chilly cheese naan for novelty's sake. Turned out to be pretty good. The crumbly cheese that they used was unexpectedly light and each mouthful of the naan was accompanied by a burst of flavours of the bits of sliced green chillis.

The malai kofta was a mixed bag. Nice sweet creamy sauce of saffron and cashew that had something described as cheese dumplings. It was a mixed bag feeling because the gravy didn't taste very nutty or had much of the saffron flavour. But it was still good in its own ways especially as a dip for their naan. Those cheese dumplings didn't taste much like cheese. This one took the cake of being the weirdest tasting one with a texture that reminded me of sweet potatoes.

Known as 'Honeymoon' on the menu, this dessert was basically a gulab jamun served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Gulab jamuns were my first introductions to Indian desserts. I have thus become little wary of them since they were mostly too sweet. Adding vanilla ice cream seems to have oddly detracted from much of the sweetness. While it was still so, this was pretty good.

This would be the phirni, which was a steamed semolina dessert. The sliced almonds didn't so much enhance the flavour than the texture. Delicious as well. Pretty happy with the desserts.