Indian (Mughlai) restaurant group in Sharq, Kuwait

Mughal Mahal

Guest Is God on Jaber Al-Mubarak Street

4 of 5

Mughal Mahal opened on Jaber Al-Mubarak Street in Sharq in December 1985. The restaurant says it changed how Kuwait thought about Indian fine dining, and four decades of family tables suggest it is not bragging. The original room is still on the same street, now sitting in the shadow of the Al Hamra Tower, the tallest building in the country. It has hosted a long parade of dignitaries. It will still feed anyone who walks in hungry.

The management runs on an old Sanskrit line, atithi devo bhava, the guest is god. Any Punjabi grandmother would approve. The kitchen's calling card is the dum-cooked handi biryani, sealed and cooked individually for each order rather than ladled from a vat that has been sulking since noon. Around it sit Mughlai dishes, a Chinese section adapted for local palates, and enough vegetarian cooking to keep the whole subcontinent at the table happy. The restaurant describes its food as halal.

Pick your branch by mood. Sharq is the original and the one with the stories. Haveli, on the first floor of the Lulu Al Watan Complex on Beirut Street in Hawally, has been open since 2005 and goes full Rajasthan, with hand-painted panels, beaded curtains, marble railings and carved wooden jharokhas, plus one of the better Indian buffets in town. Fahaheel is the biggest room. Order the biryani wherever you land.

Order this

Dum-cooked handi biryani, made to order, The house Mughlai signatures, The Indian buffet at Haveli in Hawally, Something from the long vegetarian side of the menu

The damage

$$

Go

Evenings at the Sharq original for the history; the Haveli branch in Hawally when you want the buffet

Find it

Jaber Al-Mubarak Street, Sharq, Kuwait City

Website

mughalmahal.com