Mumbai’s Khyber comes to Dubai
The storied Mumbai celebrity haunt Khyber opened a branch in Dubai this week, but can it replicate success hewed over 60 years? Owner Sudheer Bahl thinks so
“You’ve seen the interiors and the magic is over. After that, the food has to deliver every single time. That’s what we’re hoping to achieve.” SUDHEER BAHL | Owner, Khyber Dubai
UAE residents who still refer to Mumbai by its old name, Bombay, are drooling at the news that Khyber restaurant opened a branch in Dubai last week. “I love their Afghan chicken curry — they break an egg into the gravy,” a friend screeched down the phone at me on Monday in response to the news. Another regaled me with tales of long evenings spent solving the world’s problems over an endless succession of tender kebabs in one of the legendary restaurant’s cavelike private rooms. My own memories are of the elusive raan, a complex recipe of spiced, roasted mutton leg that Khyber more often than not ran out of well before the evening was through, and of the way one casually bumped into local socialites and international celebrities over dinner before heading to the city’s nearby watering holes.
The UAE restaurant, on the top floor of the Palm Jumeirah’s Dukes Dubai hotel, is the brand’s first international venture, despite 60 years in the business. In spirit and style, it channels the original without cloning it. “We’ve recreated the arches,” owner Sudheer Bahl tells
tabloid! proudly, running his hands over the dividers that partition the space. “Back in the day they were carved by hand, but now of course everything is computerised.”
Bahl, who took over Khyber from his father Om Prakash, has franchised the concept to Seven Tides International, the hotel’s owners, as part of a nine-year deal. “I’ve had literally hundreds of offers over the years, but this one I accepted in five minutes,” he says, elaborating how Seven Tides CEO Abdullah Bin Sulayem outlined his proposition over a dinner 18 months ago. “I’ve always been looking for someone who had the big vision and the pockets to develop that vision and Abdullah has done just that. He’s gone to town with every nuance.”
Having been burnt by problems with franchisees in the past, Bahl says he and his team were involved in developing the menu and the interiors, as well as in recruiting and training key staff, but took a hands-off approach to the regulations and legal aspects, “because we don’t know anything about that, Dubai being a new market for us.”
Eight staff from the Mumbai flagship — including head chef Amol Patil and general manager Gerard Baptista — will be in Dubai for the next few weeks, he says.
CLASSIC FARE
For now, Bahl expects Khyber Dubai will draw equal parts Emirati nationals, Indian residents and Western expats. They’ll have to be satisfied with the 70 items on his menu, as compared to the 250-odd choices in Mumbai. “We’ve brought all the star performers here, because it’s very difficult to implement that breadth in a short time. Plus it gives us the chance to launch new dishes in a few months.”
Expect to find North Indian classics such as Paya shorba, a comforting
consomme made from lamb trotters, Tandoori lobster, Reshmi kebab (cream-marinated grilled chicken), Dum ka murgh (chicken breast in almond and cashew gravy), Rara gosht (mutton in a fiery red almond gravy), a selection of kebab rolls (grilled meats wrapped in parathas), four different types of biryanis, and a strong range of vegetarian fare. And of course, the classic Khyber raan — which, at Dh225, is probably the most expensive thing on the menu.
Finding the ingredients to recreate the recipes here in Dubai has been relatively easy so far, Patil shrugs during a brief moment of quiet in the kitchen at the restaurant’s launch party. “The only ingredient we had trouble finding was real Kashmiri chillies. But our suppliers sorted that out,” he says.
Thankfully, there’ll be none of the progressive modern fare that seems de rigueur at Indian restaurants in the city.
“People from India, anybody from Bombay especially, has been to Khyber at some point in his life. So if we drop a few dishes from the menu, then a whole bunch of people will complain because those were their favourites! We can’t suddenly tell people that after all these years we’re changing, we’re suddenly doing smart cooking,” Bahl says.
But what works in Mumbai may not work in Dubai. Khyber Dubai is presently the only signature restaurant at the hotel, besides an all-day dining outlet. Its kitchen takes up 1,850 square feet and there are 162 covers.
On the other hand, given Seven Tides’ multi-year deal, and the longevity of the brand, Khyber could emulate the success of its Mumbai forebear. “We have worked closely with the Bahl family to ensure the new Khyber restaurant captures the true essence of the concept and we look forward to welcoming our first guests for dinner when the restaurant opens this month,” said Bin Sulayem said in a media handout last week.
CELEBRITY APPEAL
Equal parts restaurant and tourist magnet, Khyber Mumbai has drawn the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Richard Gere, Demi Moore and GCC ruling families, all of whom come for the North Indian food that has become the de- fault culinary association with the subcontinent. As he prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary next year, Bahl says the restaurant is having its best year.
Some of that appeal is down to its interiors which, like its food, is inspired by the Northwest Frontier province of undivided India (now in present-day Pakistan), with its name taken from the Silk Road pass linking Central and South Asia.
After it was famously gutted by a fire in 1985, Khyber, which sits in Mumbai’s most prominent art district, was redesigned by the socialite and interior designer Parmeshwar Godrej, and features works by M.F. Husain and Anjolie Ela Menon, two of independent India’s most expensive artists. “Anjolie painted on the walls, and afterwards Parmeshwar took a chisel to the murals and started chipping away because she wanted to make them look a hundred years old,” Bahl laughs.
With both Husain and Godrej now partying at that giant dining table in the skies, Bahl turned to Mumbai-based architect Ayaz Basrai, who’s worked on some 75 restaurants over the past 10 years including his son’s 145 chain of lounges, to recreate the look and feel of the original here in the emirates.
“We’ve got the same colour, the colour of Khyber,” Bahl says, as we debate whether to call it ochre, or beige, “but we wanted to build on the spirit rather than copy it block by block.” So the food will have to speak for itself. “It had better,” he says. “You can look at a pretty thing and say, yes it’s pretty but it’s the food that’s going to bring you back. You’ve seen the interiors and the magic is over. After that, the food has to deliver every single time. That’s what we’re hoping to achieve.”