A taste all its own

Knowing Dubai is blessed with an abundance of great Indian restaurants, I dread checking out trendy new ones. The look is everything, and while some are entertaining, the food is often forgettable. But Asha's, the newly opened second restaurant of the legendary Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle, is something different — a contemporary Indian restaurant with exciting food for prices that for the most part won't set you back a month's rent for one meal.

Like the Bollywood diva herself, Asha's made the transition with typical grace and style, aiming to turn her namesake restaurant from more of a special-occasion place to an informal fixture.

As I entered the bright orange, sensually vibrant dining room, a waiter led me to a beautifully decorated table and fetched me a tray of roasted and fried poppadoms and a trio of dips: sweet pickle, mint chutney and spicy mixed pickle. The question on my mind was whether the new Asha's will evolve into something with its own vivid personality or remain merely a very good rendition of the one at Wafi.

Music is a big part of the Asha's experience, with her hit numbers playing softly in the background. As I started cracking the poppadoms, I realised here, music is the food of love. And it played on.

The menu at Asha's includes the singer's own signature dishes, including some she learnt from her late composer husband R.D. Burman.

I began with Delhi Devil, a heady concoction of lime, mint and pomegranate juice topped with ginger syrup. It has nothing devilish about it; in fact, it got us started, pushing all the right buttons.

Unforgettable

Next on the table was Burman's favourite chingli chaap (Dh65), jumbo prawns breaded and deep fried, so gossamer it's barely there. Eating chingli chaap, much like the tunes Burman produced, is unforgettable. Murgh malai kebab (Dh58), boneless chicken marinated in cashew paste and yoghurt and grilled to perfection, mushroom kukure (Dh55), mushrooms stuffed with cheese and bell peppers, battered and deep fried, and burra kebab (lamb, Dh55), just got better with every bite.

For mains, I was served baigan ka bhartha (Dh38) — slow-roasted smoky mashed eggplant cooked with green chillies, garlic and fresh coriander, it is Bhosle's personal recipe. I scooped up the tasty dish with scraps of warm naan. They say practice makes perfect, and this seems to ring true for this dish. Exhilaratingly delicious lal maans (Dh55), a Rajasthani preparation of tender lamb cooked with onion, tomato and yoghurt gravy, is a potent dish that truly shines.

But it is with dhania murgh (Dh58), the house speciality, saucy chicken cooked in coriander and cashew gravy, that you realise this cooking is more about the sauce than what the sauce accompanies. They beg to be soaked up with rice or naan.

Save the sweetness for dessert, apple jalebis (Dh38), slices of green and red apples fried and soaked in sugar syrup and served with vanilla ice cream, are enough to restore the faith of anybody who's eaten too many fancy desserts that look like Frank Gehry's rejected sketches. This one is definitely worth a try.

After recording 13,000 songs in a career spanning over six decades, Bhosle, I imagine, is now content to let her food do the talking... or singing.

Food and entertainment comes at a cost, but take the ride that Asha's brings, it does its best to make your trip worthwhile. Taxi!

ASHA'S Where: Fashion Dome, Mall of the Emirates

Tel: 04-3951231

Ambience: Airy and bustling

Décor: Comfortably stylish

Must-haves: Baigan ka bhartha, laal maans, dhania murgh, and apple jalebis