The Spectacular Feast at Zafran Indian Bistro

When you are planning out an evening meal on a warm holiday summer night with your family, what is the one place you think of that offers a great meal platter with an array of dishes for everyone to choose from? We think of Zafan Bistro and here is why…

Located in the bustling and the always lively Mirdif City Centre, Zafran Indian Bistro offers exotic Indian meal platters on the go. The restaurant boasts a variety of set dishes for family and friends to feast upon and this is why they are well known for their Feast Platters.

According to General Manager, Rakshak Puri, “Communal eating is a time-honored tradition in many cultures, and often a reflection of a community’s hospitality and cultural identity. In the Middle East, people eat from communal dishes, while in India it is customary to share food with one’s companions at the table.”

“The Feast is, therefore, a celebration of these shared customs and Zafran’s distinct flavors that have ensured that we remain a favorite for anyone looking for authentically prepared traditional Indian cuisine and the chance to make memories with friends and family,” he added.

Upon entering, the restaurant looks absolutely stunning – like a 1960s Bollywood movie set and it does not look like a place that should be located in a mall. The ambience and the service were very reminiscent of what one would expect in Armani Deli or a concept based eating venue.

Upon being seated in a diner style chair with a hefty table in front of us, we were offered different mocktails with a touch of Indian spices. The first one was rose lemonade and it was the best among them, it had its fair balance of sweet and sour flavours tangling our taste buds, followed by strawberry mojito, kiwi punch and the regular mint lemonade.
For starters, we were offered traditional Indian Papads with different condiments, all of them swirled in bittersweet spices and one especially tasted like marmalade. Delicious!

Finally, we were treated with the Zafran Bistro’s signature feast platters: The Chicken Platter and the Vegetarian Platter.
The chicken kebab platter was delicious – every morcel packed with flavour. The beauty of Indian cooking is that you can always expect different array of spices surprising your taste buds with their own unique flavours and textures to overwhelm your senses. This platter especially had a mix of different kebabs such as the Angar Tikka, Bhatti Tangdi, Sikandri Raan and Murgh Anari Seekh served with the exotic butter naan (flat medium round bread with a soft fusion of butter rounded in the centre).

The vegetarian kebab platter, however, could have been a bit more tantalizing but it offers great options for vegetarians including spiced grilled mushrooms, parsley coated cottage cheese, Tandoori Khumb, grilled Broccoli, potato patties, and Tandoori salad served with butter naan.
All in all, the main course was exotic and very interesting in terms of presentation, aroma, taste and portion size.

The Vegetarian Feast

The Seafood, Lamb & Chcken Feast

The desserts intrigued us further since the meal was so unusually delicious. We were served a savoury size platter of carrot halwa, gulab jamun (fried solid milk dumplings served in sugar syrup), kulfi and Ras Malai (cottage cheese dumplings served in sweetened milk). They were very well cooked and nothing seemed out of balance in terms of sweetness and flavour. What makes these desserts stand out is the portion size was small so that diners do not feel overfull yet get to enjoy a bite sized amount of the various sweets given to them in a small confectionary platter. We think it was genius on behalf of Zafran Bistro!

Our final verdict: Absolutely thrilling in terms of a wide variety of Spices and flavours. It offers spectacular service and customizable options for different food lovers.

Drawback: The vegetarian platter could not hold up to the mark of the chicken platter according to our preference, but it was still good.

Bonus: Besides the feast platter, you can enjoy different culinary experiences at Zafran and the Chef can customize your choice of food according to your preference and spice tolerance level.