Bowled over by Kebab Connection

There are very few occasions that you're likely to find yourself eating alone in a successful restaurant. One of those is booking a table at an Indian restaurant without realising it is Cricket World Cup final night, as I did at the Kebab Connection.

Despite the lack of company, the place is cosy.

And no matter how desperate the staff were to get away and watch the cricket, it didn't show. In fact the one thing that stood clear was that even clumsy slips in service had a certain charm.

As the name suggests, kebabs were the speciality on the menu, and there were plenty to choose from. Failing that (and curious to check them all out), my dining partner and I opted for the kebab set menus (Dh92), vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Each consists of six kinds of kebabs, in addition to unlimited salad bar, biryani, naan and four kinds of dessert.

Highlights

The non-vegetarian menu had lamb, chicken, fish and prawns each complemented with Indian spices. All were a success to different degrees, but the highlights were the lamb galouti, minced lamb spiced perfectly, and the murg pudinawala, a tender mint-marinated chicken leg which felt surprisingly light.

However, although the concept of having a whole vegetarian kebab menu is interesting, it didn't have the instant hit feel that the more familiar meat kebabs had. It did feel a little like they were stretching the term kebab a little in order to get enough variety for the tasting menu.

The kebabs themselves were a hit and miss. The chief complaint was the dryness of the aloo in nazakat (potato) and disappointingly the paneer ajwaini tikka (cottage cheese), which was rescued slightly by the excellent accompanying dahl.

On the vegetarian side, the highlight was the mushroom kebab, which deserves more than one course on the menu.

While the portions were actually small, the volume and variety filled us up completely.

Yes, the Dh92 gives you unlimited kebabs. Probably one of the best value for money offers I've seen in a Dubai restaurant.

Bloated, and after a short rest to watch India's march to World Cup glory, we sat back down at our table. The night wasn't over yet as there was still dessert to tackle and luckily we found something light in the form of a perfect kulfi and a chocolate coconut burfi, which was so nice we still found room for a second helping.

While the food was mostly a hit, the bigger hit was the live music band, who started playing in time for dessert, just after the match was over and India had won. Since we were one of only two tables at that time, it was up to us to pick the requests for the band to play.

Requests

Since I am no expert in Indian music and Bollywood hits, I had some help from the friendly attendant who normally goes around and takes requests from the tables. They even smiled and helped with our embarrassing attempts to remember the names of songs we've seen in Bollywood films.

I'm guessing they were equally surprised that we knew the English chorus parts to Om Shanti Om too.

Overall, we left the Kebab Connection full in stomach, and still heavy in wallet. India emerged triumphant and I'm pretty sure the atmosphere in the restaurant ramped up a notch or ten a couple of hours after our badly timed visit.

The Kebab Connection
Gold Swiss-Belhotel Dubai
Mina Road, Bur Dubai Call 04-3459992
Must-haves: Mushroom kebab, murg pudinawala
Decor: Wooden, cosy
Atmosphere: Warm, friendly
Rating: 3.5