Is this the best North Indian food south of Delhi?
"The best North Indian food south of Delhi." That's how one of our dining companions described Peshawri at the ITC Maratha, and he wasn't wrong.
Its location near Mumbai's international airport is probably the only thing that has prevented Peshawri getting the same renown and international patronage as Bukhara at the ITC Maurya in Delhi – famously visited by the Clintons, Vladimir Putin and, er, Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's not to say it's not a well-worn faovurite, but the South Bombay crowd would do well to make the trip north more often. And if you're just arriving in the city, stop the cab on the way out of the airport and have dinner here before you get started.
Peshawri has enough brawn to flex as any world leader: a heavily meat-orientated showcase of some of the best tandoori food on the planet, and every cut you'll find here from the seekh and barrah kebabs to the mutton rann is of outstanding quality. Dishes you've enjoyed hundreds of times burst with unexpected flavour.
But like a KGB-trained martial arts expert who quietly becomes head of state, the restaurant's real skill lies in its deceptively lean composition. Instead of the heavy oil and butter base you'd expect from kebabs, Peshawri's cooking is all light-touch, meaning that even after a selection of kebabs (of which the outstanding barrah mutton pieces were the highlight), a rann and a paneer tikka, we found ourselves satisfied without that sinking, over-full feeling usually associated with North Indian food.
The alchemy, as the chef admitted, is simple: high-quality, locally-sourced ingredients and a whole lot of preparation time. Even the desserts take the same approach – instead of saccharine-soaked Gulab Jamuns, their version is light on sugar coating and syrup and heavy on creamy flavour. Everything is made in house, of course.
Peshawri's name precedes it, and so do the bills its diners generate – around Rs 1500-2000 for most main courses. But, given that a couple would struggle to finish most of the dishes, it's not as stately a price point as you might think. Don't be too proud to ask to take home the leftovers: you'll thank yourself the next morning, and so will your entire household.
We were not surprised to see a fellow diner (a tourist) tell the waiter that "this is the best meal I've had, possibly ever". For the unitiated in Mumbai, it's hard to beat. Tell a group of Mumbaikars that you've found top quality Indian food (and paid for it), though, and you'll probably be greeted with some derision. It's understandable: there are several neighbourhood restaurants that capture the familiarity of home food in a way that a five-star hotel can't. But, for every local gem, there's needs to be an ambassador for the whole city – and that's Peshawri.