SAAR
Another day, another disappointing indian meal in nyc. Sigh.
I had friends in town who wanted to eat Indian food (why, I always wonder, I never suggest it among the many ideas I provide).
I proposed Baazi and Saar, heavily leaning in the direction of Baazi, but Saar was close to their hotel and the online reviews are stellar, so that’s where we ended up.
The kababs are praised (and I love kababs) so we chose the lasooni chicken kababs and the Saar lamb kababs (which were described to me as galauti kabab).
We also ordered the lamb kofta, the Cochin pepper chicken, and the Goat biryani. The server suggested we skip the kofta because it would be too similar to the lamb kabab (what? Why did I even listen).
The chicken kababs were well-flavored but over cooked. The lamb kababs were under-seasoned and definitely NOT galauti (that’s a melt-in-your mouth kabab, these were tough patties, and for some mysterious reason 1 of the 3 was half the size of the other 2 — see pic).
The naan was very good.
The chicken was… odd. With a name like Cochin pepper chicken I fully expected a South Indian flavor profile. What arrived was a standard North Indian tomato-onion gravy with the only nod to south India being two small rolled dosas and a dab of chutney alongside. Utterly bizarre.
The biryani was flavored fine, but not a repeat. At least they didn’t have the fake drama of a dough lid over curry + rice. It was very dry, which remains a mystery of most New York biryanis. Served with burrani raita — yogurt with dried mint.
Maybe I chose wrong with the chicken, but I expected a lot better of the kababs and the biryani given the chef (who was parked in the back).
