Amaravathi in Karama, Dubai - Restaurant Reviews

Tel: 04 337 7077
Travel: Near President Hotel

Amaravathi

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 the spicy strip of Indian restaurants along Trade Centre Road. Amaravathi sits bang on the TCR curry corridor; 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 fish-tanked interior, and a twinkling dome in the ceiling that does a passable impression of the night sky, it’s a tranquil little restaurant. Hindi pop music quietly circulates around the room, and the food is eaten on large leaves rather than plates, while colourful paintings of pastoral scenes add further colour to proceedings.

The tandoori Japanese quail – for a tiny Dhs10 – is 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. You may prefer 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 is disappointing, but the vegetable pilao rice is light and fruity and the kashmiri and garlic nan breads are fantastic: light, piping-hot and loaded with flavour.