I’d heard about this place from several folks, mixed reviews since it opened in Dallas about 2 months ago, but a recent review from another foodie friend got us intrigued enough to venture out Friday night for dinner. Located in the heart of North Dallas, this is a fine dining Indian restaurant, and Dallas has had its share of fine dining Indian restaurants that have unfortunately been short-lived so we didn’t have a lot of expectations to begin with.
The ambiance was quite contemporary and modern, with a full bar and an atypical decor for Indian restaurants which also didn’t really go with the name . Interestingly, the greeters and the waiters were all non-Indian as well, and from what we heard from the owner later, most hailed from London. We started off with some “Nimbu Paani” or fresh lime juice, and ordered samosa for appetizer. Samosa arrived before the Nimbu Paani which was good as we were famished. I have to say it was a pretty good start. The samosas were not re-heated in the microwave, seemed to have been fresh out of the frying pan, and were quite crisp and spiced right. The waiter came by to let us know that the Nimbu Paani was taking some time as it was being “freshly made”. We joked that they had probably gone to buy the fresh limes, but when the Nimbu Paani arrived, we had to eat our words, it was truly fresh and refreshing. So a good start to our dinner.
The menu was a pretty typical, traditional Indian restaurant menu, the usual vegetarian dishes, Dal Makhni, Bhindi fry, and non vegetarian dishes with chicken, lamb and goat. I have to say that when I saw that they had a lunch buffet, I had a biased opinion about what was to come. When a specialty restaurant introduces lunch buffets, I’ve noticed that it somewhat “cheapens” the menu. It’s probably the idea of “big batch” cooking that makes it lose it’s specialty charm. But most Indian restaurants tend to thrive on the concept of lunch buffets which is probably what sustains them.
Anyway back to the food. We ordered pindi chana, bhindi fry, and balti dal along with Laccha Paratha and Alu Kulcha. They asked for spice level of mild, medium, spicy and “Indian hot”. Of course we picked Indian hot and the servers were quite knowledgeable to gauge what we would have liked anyway. The owner soon came by to greet all his guests which also added a nice touch. We learned from him that this was their first restaurant in Dallas though they had been open in New York and New Jersey for a couple of years with the namesake (Mughal in New York and in Edison, NJ). He left us with the comment that he wanted feedback on what he could do to improve on the food . I liked that he was being genuine and open to feedback and criticism – something you don’t find often with restaurant owners and chefs, who are rightfully opinionated. So I was all ready with my food critic hat before the food arrived:). And of course, Girish, who has been to quite a few Indian restaurants in the US, thanks to all his travelling, was all set too to chime in. So we thought he was in for some pretty serious feedback all right:)
To our surprise – and I say that probably because of our low expectations to begin with – our experience was quite good. At the end of it, we would give the food 3 1/2 stars out of 5, 4 for the service and ambiance.
Now on to each of the dishes. I thought the pindi chana and the laccha paratha were the best items of what we ordered. The Balti dal needed some more “kick” to it but was tasty and the Bhindi could have been sauted a little longer. The best part was when we actually provided this feedback to the owner at the end of our meal. He ordered the kitchen to re-do those dishes and sent us a “to go bag” with the bhindi, dal and a made to order kulcha for us to try at home. And he did take our feedback seriously which we gathered from our lunch the next day.
So overall, I’d say Mughlai was a good experience and we will go back again to try it. Hopefully the restaurant will survive unlike some others in the area. If they continue to strive for improvement like the owner’s mantra seems to be, I think they are here to stay.