Indian curry banquet @ Zaaffran, Darling Harbour

The cold Winter days are good for flavoursome and filling hotpot, the warm glow of a Korean BBQ and also spicy Indian curry!

It was my friend's 25th birthday and she wanted to try out the Indian curry and BBQ restaurant Zaaffran (a.k.a Fine Indian Cuisine) located in Harbourside, Darling Harbour. I entered from the wharf side from the sign post outside but there was some confusion as the writing on the staircase only indicated the Japanese restaurant Kamikaze. It was quite warm inside after the walk to the restaurant, even though the door to the balcony was open!

Starters:
Chicken tenderloins (Dakhni Kebab)
Crisp beetroot patty with sesame-crust (Chookundar Kay Gilavaat)

The starters arrived on the same plate with a few fresh cut vegetables and a double layered sauce. Both options were quite delicious, especially the sesame coating on the patty and I ended up having another piece from the spare plate we had. (Yum ^^) The chicken was tender and had a nice tangy flavour albeit being a bit spicy.

During the starters, we commented to the waitress that they were quite spicy so she went to the kitchen to ask the dishes to be cooked mild for us (so there may be slight differences to the menu).

Mains:

Included:
Chicken in roasted coconut, clove, cinnamon, tomato, onion (Kundapuri Koli Saaru)
Chicken simmered cardamom-bayleaf flavoured tomato sauce (Murgh Makhani)
Diced lamb braised 'rada masala' (Rada Maans)
Lentils cooked with chilli, turmeric and curry leaf (Daal Tadkewali)
Beef Vindaloo

Beef

Chicken

Butter Chicken

Lamb

Lentils

My favourites were the butter chicken and lamb curries!

There are also vegetarian options available :)

+ Assorted rice, raita, pappadam & naans

Dessert!!! ^^

Pyramid of Rose, Lychee and Pistachio Ice Cream; Caramelised Orange Reduction

The ice cream tasted great, the rose was like a creamy and softer flavoured version of turkish delight, the lychee was tangy and refreshing (my favourite one) and the pistachio was good too, not much to comment on it but it had a nice nutty flavour without the weird salty and bland bits. My friend S found the caramelised reduction a bit too much as it didn't match the ice cream... indeed the three people sitting opposite me hardly touched the fruit. More ice cream photos in the slideshow at the bottom ^^

We were also surprised with some chocolatey cupcakes baked by Tiff and her brother. The recipe they used is from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook :)

Full recipe names can be found here ^^

Notes:

• When having the banquet meal, ask for the mild menu if needed, vegetarian options also available
• For large bookings, a $20pp fee is charged for no-shows which is a common occurence in many restaurants
• The weekend is a great time to book a dinner at a Darling Harbour restaurant with the fireworks shows, at Zaaffran they even reel in the balcony cover for a better view
• FYI, the banquet cost around $50pp per person, I think it was a little less but everyone paid that much to contribute to the extra setting we had and it's hard to get change anyway!

Big thanks to Tiff, Iman and Sodalis who made this post possible :)