Middle Eastern cuisine for us has always been limited to takeout orders of hummus and pita bread when on a diet so when we visited Bayroute, it was an epic delight to enjoy truly delicious middle eastern cuisine.

While there are several Bayroute outlets in Mumbai, from Powai to Cuffe Parade, we went to the one in Palladium Mall in Lower Parel. We figured we’ll do a bit of shopping and work up an appetite and that’s what we did!

Being a mall restaurant, the place was a little smaller than I would have liked and rather dimly lit. We got a table after waiting for about 15 minutes. I always make it a point to talk about the service when I am talking about a restaurant since service is a big part of the dining experience and unfortunately, the service was quite slow here.

Flavourful kebabs

However, what they lacked in decor and service, they amply made up with their food. We started with a LIIT and “Drink like an Egyptian”. The LIIT was very unusual and tasted very rose-like and looked pretty as a picture. Drink like an Egyptian was made with sugarcane juice and dark rum and was very tasty.

We can’t come to a middle eastern joint and not order the hummus, can we? So we ordered the hummus Bayroute which was a very elevated form of hummus. It was creamy and delicious and had all sorts of aromatics like zaatar, parsley and roasted pine nuts. We also ordered the Harissa chicken which was skewered harissa glazed chicken infursed with date and jaggery. The combination of the chicken and hummus came together beautifully and it was a great start to our meal.

Bayroute Hummus

For mains, we had the Lavash Crust Chicken Kabsa, and let me tell you, it is as intimidating as it sounds. The dish, when brought to you, looks like a cake. The server tapped on it and this “cake” cracked open revealing the dish underneath. This entire theater was splendid and made for a good show. The food was simply superb and flavoursome – rice cooked with saffron and a whole lot of nuts and middle eastern spices. It reminded us of a biryani but with middle eastern flavours. We also ordered the Escalope Al Dijaj which we packed to have later.

By this time, we were stuffed with just enough space for the dessert. The dessert was Baklava, which is an age-old phyllo pastry served with ice cream and rose petals. There is a little drama here with the rose petals and you’ll be awed by the amount of effort that goes into it.

Bayroute was a wonderful experience all in all. The bill came to about 6k for 3 people and it is considered to be a more up-market chain of restaurants. We have heard a lot of rave reviews about the other branches, especially in Powai and BKC and we’ll check them out soon!