Venue: Crowne Plaze, Okhla
Date: 26 November, 2016

Awadhi cuisine is native to the city of Lucknow. The Awadh region has been greatly influenced by Mughal cooking techniques, and the cuisine of Lucknow bears similarities to those of Central Asia, Kashmir, Punjab and Hyderabad. No wonder Lucknow is the hotspot for Nawabi food.

Kebabs are an integral part of Awadhi cuisine. There are several varieties of popular kebabs in Awadhi cuisine viz. Kakori Kebabs, Galawat ke Kebabs, Shami Kebabs, etc. The kebabs of Awadhi cuisine are distinct from the kebabs of Punjab insofar as Awadhi kebabs are grilled on a chula and sometimes in a skillet while in Punjab, kebabs are grilled in a tandoor in Punjab.

Edesia at Crowne Plaza is having an Awadh food festival. We said hello to the weekend by going for this food festival on this fine Friday evening. The approach to the hotel is pretty straightforward. Crown Plaza is located on Kalkaji Road where NSIC grounds are located and we frequently attend Amazon Fashion Week, India Art Fair and so on here.

Edesia is their all day buffet multi-cuisine restaurant and this time they had a separate counter for Awadh food other than the usual North Indian, continental, salads, dessert counters and sushi as well! The dinner started on a good note with galouti kebabs and paratha. This was melt in the mouth good. Paratha with slight sweetness balanced the super tender kebabs.

We also tried veg/non veg shami kebabs, paneer tikka and liked most of it. We helped ourselves to a mix of Continental and Mediterranean salads to go along with our scotch and beer.

Main course comprised of nihari, kaju aloo, palak mushrooms, biryani, awadh panchmel daal and garlic naan. We had a pomfret from their tawa section. Biryani was delicious and totally devoid of mirchi – just the way we like it. Pomfret wasn’t as good as we liked it to be. It lacked freshness and taste. To balance, daal and paneer were very good and had homely warmth to it. These were very soul satisfying simple dishes.

From desserts we had a slice of red velvet, panacotta and tiramisu cakes. But in tune with the theme of the dinner we liked the Indian desserts much more. Dal halwa and Jalebi Rabri outshown all other western desserts.

We finished this dinner with lattes and Americanos. We highly recommend Crown Plaza’s Edesia for kebab lovers and people who love Awadhi food along with elaborate buffet spreads with a difference.