Around Town: Inside Mumbais Cafe Nur, where home-style Mughlai food meets Sufi-inspired design in historic Fort

Go post sunset, once the working crowd that fills this neighbourhood by day has headed home, and the street settles into something closer to another era. Surrounded by the Neoclassical and Victorian-Gothic buildings that define this pocket of the city, Cafe Nur sits inside the historic Botawala Building.Dhool Design Studio has turned a 156-year-old arched shopfront into a neighbourhood of its own, spilling across three premises and the alley connecting them. On the walls are graffiti depicting Bombay — a taxi being hailed outside the Taj in the rain, a local train pulling in, the Gateway, a cobbler bent over his last. Past them are three rooms, each with its own design language but a shared old-world restraint. You are soaking it all in by the time you’re seated. Pro tip: Book ahead, by phone or on Zomato.

Express Photo by Akash PatilThe place is owned and run by first-time restaurateurs Saud Hussain and Rahil Khan. “My partner Rahil is a true foodie, and I also love desi food. However, every new place seemed to be serving matcha or coffee but not Mughlai cuisine that we personally enjoyed. So we thought of bringing the food that we grew up eating to a restaurant,” said Hussain, who previously had a candy manufacturing unit in Ethiopia, adding that they were behind this location for nearly three years. “We picked it because it is a historical location. Other areas, whether Bandra or Lower Parel, more or less look the same. It is Fort that retains the old history, old memories of Bombay. Our food is something like that.” The menu is only a single page featuring signature kebabs and rolls, Nur dum biryani (available in mutton and chicken), nihari, keema, dal ghost, mutton rosh, nalli barra, chai, coffee, bun maska, malai parantha, tandoori roti, and a khimri naan baked soft with a light polish of ghee, perfect to mop up every bit of the gravy. To drink, there’s a gud sherbat that leans sweet, a litchi rose sherbat where the litchi wins out, and the usual sodas. For dessert: phirni, sewaiyan, kulfi, Pashtun halwa.

Express Photo by Akash PatilWe went to send off a colleague and ordered fairly widely. The mutton and chicken seekh kebabs were soft and juicy; the chicken malai tikka was well-flavoured too. The nihari didn’t have the spice or the layering you would find at a dedicated nihari joint, but the mutton was cooked through and the gravy did its job soaking into the khimiri roti. The mutton rosh, made with white chana, had a nice bit of crunch from the birista on top — dal-like in texture, and seasoned the way it would be at home rather than in a restaurant. “The entire menu is oil-free, we use only ghee,” said Hussain, adding that most dishes are made using home recipes. “There is my nani’s slow-cooked nihari, and dal ghost made using three kinds of dals. It was a staple at home every Friday, post prayer. Unlike restaurants, it is not very heavy, and is mildly spiced. There’s Rahil’s mother-in-law’s Nur Special Biryani made during Ramzan. It is a yakhni-like preparation that has dum rice and plain rice, and uses dahi and malai both.” The food, they insist, is not overtly spiced or made heavy. “We don’t want guest to feel that they are eating restaurant food with a lot of masala, we wanted to keep it as homely as possible.”Story continues below this ad

Express Photo by Akash PatilThe menu is also intentionally kept smaller so that they can give their hundred per cent to every dish. On the vegetarian side — and this is not really a vegetarian menu — the paneer tikka was let down by paneer that was hard and chewy, though the paneer in the paneer tikka gravy was much better. Aatishi aloo was well spiced, and the dal khichdi, finished with ghee and birista, was simple and wholesome. A biryani for non-meat eaters would have been welcome. It is a request they get often. “People