Railway cuisine at Sahib Sindh Sultan

I will go miles for a melting kakori kebab. But I’ve been getting a tad tired of my usual Mughlai haunts, which dish out the usual butter-chicken, rogan-josh, malai kofta.

So when I heard that the popular Bangalorean eatery Sahib Sindh Sultan had come to town, I hotfooted it to Gurgaon . And it was as if I had stepped right on to the platform where the first Indian locomotives Sahib, Sindh, and Sultan must have stood back in 1853. Back in the modern world, the restaurant has two eating areas, the platform and the train carriage. I plumped for the carriage — decorated with antique lamps, old world leather bound seats, gleaming woodwork.

The menu was quite exhaustive — a blend of frontier food, north Indian cuisine and Anglo Indian fare, each dish harking back to the people or events of that era. My culinary journey began with the Sahib Ka Panna, a cooler made from roasted ripe pineapple pulp. The blend of tangy and sweet tastes really whetted the appetite. Chugged on to a superb medley of dishes — the Karara Palak Chaat, crispy batter fried spinach in tangy chaat flavours, the mild Sahibi Fish Tikka, and the tastebud-tingler Lauhpathgamini Bhatti Ka Tikka.

Then came the signature Sahib Sindh Sultan dish — the Thompson’s Atta Chicken — a melt-in-the-mouth dish baked under a thick layer of dough, after which I moved on to the fresh and fragrant Daal Palak Double Tadka and Aloo Bari Ki Tehri. I could only halt after tasting everything from the outstanding dessert sampler, which had a Lychee ki Tehari, Pineapple Halwa and Choco Kulfi — something I had never had before.

Am I glad Sahib Sindh Sultan has made a stop here.

Sahib Sindh Sultan, 3rd floor, Ambience Mall, NH8 Highway, Gurgaon. Ph no. 0124- 3058802. Meal for two Rs 1,200. Alcohol served.