Bright and brassy,
with a bewildering choice of authentic Indian food, in the heart of Kuala
Lumpur.
There’s a brassy opulence about Delhi Royale, the Indian
fine-dining restaurant on busy Jalan Yap Kwan Seng in KL. The entrance, with rippling water and dry ice
effects, leads into a lush interior, with diffuse lighting from a large overhead
light panel. There’s an island of
patterned carpeting surrounded by tiles, and textured walls. The far wall is in
pale stone-block relief, echoing the opposite wall in wood block relief, with
the other two side walls covered in a block pattern in colourful fabric.
Tables are covered in black tablecloths, highlighted by
yellow napkins, waiters being attired in black with yellow neckties. Screens on either side of the entrance wall
off private dining areas, while a large private dining room is hidden from
sight. There’s little doubt about the
restaurant’s contemporary luxury credentials, even if the décor is too busy.
The waiters and the restaurant manager Dev Kaphle, were
immediately friendly and familiar, reeling off recommendations from the menu,
which was a good thing, since it was bewilderingly dense, a multi-page affair further
embellished with pictures and narratives of famous Delhi historical
places.
The restaurant’s home base is in Chandigarh, India, where most,
if not all of the staff, come from. The restaurant specializes in Punjabi
cuisine, with a free narrative thrown in by our waiter of how fine a place
Chandigarh is, and had I been there? He was
fond of his hometown, shaking his head with modest pride when it was mentioned
that it had been designed by the famous French architect, Le Corbusier.
After taking our orders, Dev offered a complimentary
starter, a Golgappa, a snack comprising hollow deep fried puris filled with
flavoured water and good for a single, appetising mouthful each.
From an equally comprehensive drinks menu, we selected
several. The Mango Lassi (Rm19) was excellent,
while the Spicy Lemonade (Rm15), a lime juice flavoured with chat masala and
tabasco, was, erm, different. The Masala
Martini (Rm26.50), with Indian spices livening up a mixture of vodka, guava and
lime juices, was described by my dining companion as a ‘cold pepper soup’, but
the drinks were certainly original, and well worth the try.
Our appetizer, the Paneer Pakhora (Rm14) looked like, and
had the texture of, tauhu bakar, although
it was cottage cheese with mint chutney within.
I am sure Dev would have cringed at my comparison of his restaurant’s home-made
cottage cheese.
Our mains were the Paneer Tikka Masala (Rm24), the Chicken
Takka Tak (Rm31), the Mutton Yakhi (Rm39) and an off-menu Chili Fish (Rm36).
The Chilli Fish, which had chunks of white fish fried in a
thick dark sauce with various vegetables, seemed more Chinese than Indian. It
was an example of “Indian Chinese”, that genre of cooking found only in India,
where Chinese cooking has been localized to the extent that no self-respecting
Chinese would own up to it being his country’s native cuisine. It was a faint facsimile of Chinese cooking,
rather thick in sauce as Indian dishes tend to be, strong tasting, a little
spicy, sweet and not bad at all with the bread if you accepted it for what it
was.
The Paneer Tikka Masala was all Indian; cubes of cottage
cheese and vegetables in a beautifully smoky tomato based paste with spices,
rendering it rich and thick, and a beguilingly filling proposition with bread.
Indian food has that sneaky quality of being so appetizing that you usually
consume more than you intended, a result only apparent when you try to stand up
at the end of the evening.
The Chicken Takka Tak featured a tomato and onion paste as a
base, onion being so crucial to Indian cooking that big social problems can
erupt with a shortage of onions, which happens periodically in India. The thick
orange coloured sauce was nicely balanced with a concoction of spices, so that
it was not overwhelming in any single flavour. There were tasty, well-marinated
boneless pieces of chicken within the paste.
The Mutton Yakhi had a pale creamy appearance, with meaty
and lean mutton meatballs. It was the sauce that carried the day, being mild-tempered
and slightly sweet, with a nutty texture from ground cashew nuts, making for a
welcome departure from the usual spicy, sour flavour of many Indian dishes. 
For a truly sweet ending, we shared a trio of desserts, each
with its own character. A traditional favourite, the diabetes-inducing Gulab
Jamun (Rm15) was fragrant with cardamom mixed into deep fried milk dumplings
with a crumbly, soft texture, bathed in syrup.
The Mango Kulfi (Rm15) which is
Indian ice cream, was luxuriously creamy with the fragrance of fresh mango,
although more coarsely textured than its Western counterpart. Finally, the Moong Dal Halwa, (Rm15), less
sweet compared to the others, was nutty and rough textured but an excellent
foil to the heaviness of the meal.
The restaurant, open since mid-2014, has a banquet hall and
the fine dining restaurant. The banquet hall only serves buffets and seems
popular with tour groups. If you’re in
the mood for authentic Indian food with a vast selection of choices, and are
nostalgic for the mood and décor of a good restaurant in India, you could do a
lot worse than dine at Delhi Royale.
Delhi
Royale,
No 33,
Ground Floor, Wisma Longrich,
Jalan Yap
Kwan Seng,
50450 Kuala
Lumpur.
Tel:
03-21651555, Fax: 03-21649555
Email: info@delhiroyale.com
Business
Hours: Open Daily from 11am-3pm, 6pm-12am
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