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After closing briefly, following the very sad passing of the previous owner/manager, patriarch and restaurant trade icon, Bob Savania, the delightful Dehli Palace has re-opened for business on Tuesday to Saturdays for dinner only.
On a Saturday night the place was pleasantly full and buzzing — my overall impression was of lots of customers eating, drinking, laughing and chatting and generally having a good time. Unfortunately, so often these days when we go out to eat at perfectly good restaurants, the atmosphere is subdued, mainly because of the lack of other diners.
Part of the pleasure of having a meal in a restaurant is to see and meet other people — it’s no fun dining alone! The Dehli Palace certainly demonstrated its continuing great popularity with the happy crowd we found enjoying it on our arrival.
When we arrived we were offered the choice of having a pre-dinner drink at the well stocked bar, but decided to go straight to our table as we were all fairly famished. Our drinks orders were taken promptly and served quickly. A waiter soon came to our table with warm damp cloths to clean our hands. It was a little extra touch of pampering which was greatly appreciated and made us feel very welcome. We were given crispy papadums to munch on, together with a selection of dips to sample as we looked through the menu. A gentle hint of fragrant incense and soft music helped to set a good atmosphere which was further enhanced by billowing organza curtains and tasteful Indian pictures and brass ornaments.
The menu is pretty extensive and caters for a variety of tastes. Starters offered included samoosas, chilli bites and small portions of chicken tikka. We sampled all of these and were pleasantly satisfied. If you are not too hungry the papadums and starters would be enough for a small appetite as the portions are quite generous. One member of our party, who normally has a healthy appetite, found that the chicken tikka starter was quite sufficient for a full meal. Both the samoosas and the chicken tikka were excellent, but the chilli bites or bhajiyas were a little floury and a bit bland. I was expecting the chilli bites to be really hot but they were quite mild.
Main courses offered include chicken, beef and fish dishes as well as a selection of vegetarian delights, ranging in “hotness” from the mild but spicy to the very hot. I was keen to order a bottle of wine to accompany our meal but no wine list was available, a pity as the right wine would have complemented our dining experience. I decided to have the prawns masala and one of my dining partners ordered the vegetarian thali — the third partner was quite happy with just the chicken tikka starter.
The vegetarian thali was very good, a selection of vegetables and pulses lightly spiced and very tasty. It’s a great way to sample lots of different Indian flavours and textures. I always think it’s a good test of a restaurant to produce tasty vegetarian meals as the rest of their ‘carnivorous’ food usually matches up in terms of taste and preparation. My prawns masala consisted of a huge portion served on a sizzling hot cast iron plate with rice to accompany it. I was a little daunted by the enormous size of the portion, as I had already munched greedily on the papadums, naan bread and the starter. However, I gritted my teeth and tried to do justice to the dish of delectable seafood. The prawns were quite delightful, perfectly prepared, but I seemed to be suffering from a case of mistaken nationalities. I missed the ‘masala’ part and thought for a while that I was eating Portuguese prawns with lemon and garlic.
I did enjoy them and almost managed to finish the gargantuan portion but was left feeling that however good the food was, it wasn’t especially Indian. Having eaten most of the prawns with my fingers I would have liked to have had the warm damp towels again to clean my sticky fingers.
Desserts were a little disappointing as there was no selection available — only ice cream. I really like Indian kulfi — a dessert delicately flavoured with rose petals. We had tea and coffee instead.
Overall it was a satisfying dining experience with great service, but somehow seemed to lack the full punch and pleasure of the real, exotic Indian meal I was expecting. The service throughout our meal was excellent — attentive but not intrusive — but I left feeling it slightly missed the mark for a truly authentic and outstanding Indian meal. Next time, however, and there will be a next time, I’ll deliberately select some of the hotter dishes, to achieve that real taste of India.
4 Plates
Speciality Restaurant (Indian Cuisine)
Greystone Park Shopping Centre, Harare
Expect to spend $25 to $35 per head
By le connoisseur
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