Leela Bangalore Jamavar

Jamavar is the main restaurant of the Leela Palace Hotel. The restaurant has two joint head chefs. Chef Sahadevan from Kerala oversees the South Indian dishes on the menu, and chef Jasbir, from an area near Kashmir, looks after the North Indian dishes. You can eat either in the smartly appointed dining room or on the terrace, which looks out over the hotel gardens. Eating outdoors is entirely feasible even in January in Bangalore, with the evening temperature being typically around 22C.

There is a wine list, but it doesn’t deign to list vintages, and there are some errors on the printed list e.g. Alois Legeder from Alto Adige makes several red wines in addition to his better-known white wines, but none of them are made with the grape tempranillo, which was the section that this was listed under on the list. Taxes on wine in India are high and ratcheted up further by state taxes, which in Karnataka are particularly egregious, so buying wine here is not much fun. For example, Billecart Salmon NV Brut was INR 51,000 (£446) for a bottle that retails in the UK for £54. I drank Kingfisher beer instead. We ate here a few times during our stay, so there are more dishes described below than at a typical meal.

Murgh abeer was a type of chicken tikka flavoured with cumin. This had four generous pieces of chicken that had been marinated before being cooked in the tandoor. The meat was tender and the cumin flavour in the marinade came through well (15/20). Kasoondi prawns are a Bengali dish, the prawns marinated in a mustard sauce along with yoghurt, ginger, garlic and spices before being cooked. The prawns were carefully cooked and the mustard flavoured marinade was excellent (15/20). A paratha was very well made, not at all greasy but not too crumbly either: just the right texture (15/20). Also excellent was a romali roti, which had a lovely soft texture, very thin bread rolled up into a little layered package (15/20).

At another meal, papdi chaat was pleasant, with quite large chunks of potato compared to versions I am used to in the UK, and with a little less yoghurt and tamarind than the version at, say, Diwana Bhel Poori(14/20). Methi chicken was good, with quite generous pieces of chicken and plenty of fenugreek flavour (14/20). Kashmiri morels with peas was a very good dish, the morels having good flavour, the peas being nicely cooked and there being a good sauce to bring these flavours together (15/20). Aloo posto had nicely cooked potato pieces but was curiously bland (13/20). However, a garlic naan had excellent texture (15/20).

At a further meal, aloo tikki had a different presentation style to the ones I am used to in Southall. These came as neat little spheres, with a vegetable filling and a coating of tamarind chutney. They were very pleasant, the chutney not too sweet (14/20).

A vegetable curry subz, (which just means a dish made of vegetables) involved green beans, bell peppers, peas, onions and broccoli in a mildly spiced sauce (14/20). Chicken biryani was lovely. There was no display of the pastry top being cut open, but the cooking of the rice was top-notch. Each grain was distinct, with very aromatic rice and tender pieces of chicken that avoided being in any way dried out, which is a common issue in less good biryanis than this. There was also a pleasingly subtle but distinct level of spice (16/20). On the side, palak with mushrooms had plenty of spinach flavour and was nicely cooked. (14/20). As ever, the breads here were good, both romali roti and garlic naan (15/20).

Service was good across the meals that we ate here. To give an idea of prices, a simple lunch was 9,044 rupees (£37) for two, so just £18.50 each. At dinner, a longer meal was 13,233 rupees (£109.51) so £55 each for dinner, with beer to drink.  Jamavar is an excellent restaurant serving consistently good food.

Further reviews: 15th Dec 2019 | 25th Jan 2012