Kebab Festival at Antique Bazaar

How are you planning on celebrating the International Kebab Day? We went all Indian with the Kebab Festival at Antique Bazaar in Four Points by Sheraton Bur Dubai. To mark this delicious day, the restaurant has planned a month long Kebab Festival which lets diners gorge on an unlimited selection of kebabs at only AED 189 for two.

While we opted for additional drinks and desserts to complete our meal, it’s really those kebabs that tickled our palates. Our choice spanned across all their signature meat options – chicken, lamb, fish and prawns – all marinated in rich spices and cooked over hot tandoor grills to tender perfection. Read on to find out more about the variety we tried and which ones I recommend the most.

Ambience

Living up to its name, the interiors of the restaurant are reminiscent of a haveli. The gorgeous traditional architecture, rich colors and use of golden embellishments and wooden swings adds a truly antique, royal feel to the restaurant.

Supporting these vibes is a center stage offering live music performance. While we were there, we enjoyed the music from a sitar player who gladly noted our requests to play some nostalgic Jagjit Sngh and Pankaj Udhas numbers throughout our dinner.

One of the oldest award winning Indian restaurants in D-town, Antique Bazaar proudly showcases their celebrity diner list on a wall of fame, with the likes of Talat Aziz, Abida Parveen, Jagjit Singh, Kavita Krishnamurthy and more adorning it.

Kebab Platter

Served sizzling hot, the kebabs at Antique Bazaar live up to the traditional recipes and bring out the most authentic flavors you can expect from quintessential Mughlai cuisine. We got to try out the best options from all their meat options, with chicken getting slightly more preference than the others.

Seekh Kebab

Gulfan Seekh was remarkably tender and delicious. In fact, it was one of the best chicken seekh I have tried. I liked how the mince was studded with capsicum, onions and coriander adding a little crunch and aroma to the meat.

Mal Malai Seekh was stuffed with malai! Wow, what could possibly get better than that right? But don’t let that deep orange hue fool you. Very tender and extremely rich, this tandoor cooked cheese and cream mince kebab offers a mild spicy flavor.

The only thing better than seekh kebab itself, is when it’s wrapped up in a roll. I would have loved these seekh kebabs with some rumali roti on the side. Highly recommend they add that option to the kebab menu.

Tikkas

Murgh Tikka was fair enough in terms of flavor, and quite tender in terms of texture. It made a nice additional chicken option, but the seekh was my favorite. We also tried the tandoori chicken tikka which was classic! The spicy flavor and burnt finish added so much authentic appeal to it, this was one that could be touted as a must have.

Jheenga Sultani was absolutely wow! Grilled to a pink perfection with a hint of burnt edges, these tandoor prawns were super juicy. It was the spicy green marinade coating that complemented the prawns just right.

The Mahi Tikka Ajwaini was not bad in terms of flavor and tender to the core, but I found the piece a little too big in size. This sort of made the marinade difficult to seep through to the center of the meat. Although it was cooked perfectly from inside, I felt the fish was missing a spicy touch which would have been better had the pieces been smaller. No fishy smell though!

Drinks

My first choice for mocktail was aab-e-bahar, a tender coconut blend with mint and honey, but that unfortunately unavailable. So instead, we opted for two of their recommended drinks – Taaza Phalon Ki Chuski – a seasonal fruit punch spiced with chaat masala and jeera powder, and Aam aur Adraki Lassi – a classic yogurt and mango mix, with a touch of ginger.

Ras Malai

Although this is my favorite dessert, I prefer the creamy dumplings in Ras Malai over the rasgulla types. These were the latter. They tasted like rasgullas soaked in milk. If you like these types, then this one’s for you, else opt for a gajar halwa or something instead.

Antique Bazaar

Location: Mezzanine Level, Four Points by Sheraton Bur Dubai, Khalid Bin Walid Street, Mankhool, Dubai
Contact: 04 3977444

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