Amaravathi in Karama, Dubai - Restaurant Reviews

Amaravathi

For all the planes that circle the globe to fly quality produce and talented chefs into Dubai, this city’s greatest asset for epicureans of all wallet sizes is the row of Indian restaurants that stretches along the Trade Centre Road between the Regent Palace and President hotels. It’s reassuring to think that if you’re ever down on your luck in Dubai, and fine-dining becomes entirely unaffordable, Dhs7 will still get you a quality thali on this spicy strip.

The latest addition to the TCR curry corridor is Amaravathi, a green neon-lit eatery that specialises in food from a handful of southern Indian states: Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, as well as from Punjab in the north. Thanks to a heavily fishtanked interior, and a twinkling dome in the ceiling that does a passable impression of the night sky, it’s a ranquil little restaurant. Hindi pop music quietly circulates around the room from wallmounted speakers, and the food is eaten on large leaves rather than plates, while colourful paintings of pastoral scenes add further colour to proceedings.

With more than a hint of apprehension – given the dish’s tiny Dhs10 price tag – we ordered the chef’s recommendation: tandoori Japanese quail. It was a small, fiddly, and not-very-meaty portion in a fennel seed-powered sauce; difficult to eat with the right hand alone (cutlery isn’t in vogue at Amaravathi) but pleasantly spicy. We preferred the mutton keema, a small portion of fried and fiery minced lamb; and the Punjabi sailana dal, a yellow lentil dish with a few threads of spinach to add bite to the smoothness. With its rather bland cashew nut sauce, the kodi koora chicken curry was disappointing, but the vegetable pilao rice was light and fruity and the kashmiri and garlic nan breads were fantastic: light, piping-hot and loaded with flavour.

Unfortunately, service was a little aggressive. As soon as it became clear that we were relatively big spenders (most people were eating Dhs7 thalis and drinking tap, rather than bottled, water) the staff tried to sell us more food every few minutes. But these annoyances aside, we were impressed. We’ll be returning for another helping well before true destitution kicks in.

By Matthew Lee