Restaurant Review: Takht Jamsheed, Gulf Hotel
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Author: Kyle Pakka
Released 10 May 2004
Takht Jamsheed's Musicians
Photograph by Gulf Hotel
We’ve never been to Iran, but we’ve come close: we feasted at Takht Jamsheed, the new Persian restaurant in the Gulf Hotel in Manama.
The latest addition to the hotel’s roster of eight specialty restaurants, Takht Jamsheed serves traditional Persian cuisine in a setting worthy of the kings of the ancient Achaemenid Empire. In fact, the setting is inspired by the royal palace of Takht Jamsheed, which means “Throne of Jamshid,” the modern name of Parsa, also known as Persepolis.
The restaurant’s interior transports diners back to the classical age and the court of the Persian kings. Winged lions carved in relief decorate the walls and Persian craftwork is everywhere: metalwork, including highly decorated shields, swords and sconces, and ceramic vases and urns lend an imperial air. The walls are cream-colored faux stone and feature carved lintels. Chandeliers of golden glass bathe the sumptuous scene in honeyed light.
The room is lined with privacy-conducing alcoves and nooks and against the wall opposite the grand entrance is a large alcove, like an altar, and on the raised platform inside are the musicians. Not just any musicians: one plays the violin and one plays the santour, similar to a dulcimer. They were later joined by a smoky-eyed, dark-haired Iranian female singer and the classical Persian songs they performed cast an enchanting spell.
The haunting, lyrical tapestry of music they wove throughout the evening is a perfect example of how the right music can contribute so much to a memorable atmosphere. Combined with the décor and the smell of bread baking in the brick oven, we thought we were guests in the court of Darius the Great – and all this before we had tasted a bite.
Our waiter brought us hot, perfumed towels as soon as we sat down and the feeling of the warm cloth and the sensuous aroma issuing from it heightened our senses immediately, as did the orchids on the table and the bright colors of the woven tablecloths. Throughout the night, the service was prompt and professional – in short, we felt pampered.
Persian food, in addition to indigenous dishes, borrows from the subcontinent and from the Levant. Diners familiar with Lebanese foods will recognize some dishes; even some of the words are similar: zeytoon (olive), turshi (pickles), and zaferooni (saffron), for example. The cuisine of Iran isn’t spicy, but rather herb-y, with saffron, cinnamon, parsley and limes prominent, along with onion, garlic, nuts and fruits such as pomegranates, plums, prunes, and raisins.
Takht Jamsheed
Photograph by Gulf Hotel
An all-Iranian team, headed by Chef Mahmood Jalali, mans the kitchen. Chef Jalali helped open two Iranian restaurants in Dubai: Zaitoon and Absar. Before that, he worked for five years at the Shabestan Persian Restaurant at the Intercontinental Dubai.
The menu at Takht Jamsheed includes over 40 dishes, with an emphasis on lamb, chicken and fish with rice, in several varieties, as the unifying thread in the flavorful Persian carpet of flavors. There is also a good wine list with offerings from France, Australia, California, South Africa, Chile, and Portugal. A nice touch, not always seen in Arabian Gulf establishments, is the roster of Lebanese wine. The restaurant serves seven wines from Lebanon and two kinds of Lebanese araq.
To whet our appetites even further, we were given a platter of walnuts, green onions and feta cheese served on a bed of mint and basil leaves and a basket of fresh hot triangles of sesame-seed pita bread, straight from the brick oven. We grazed on this while we perused the lengthy and handsome menu.
We were tempted to make a meal out of the starters alone. Choices include Iranian caviar and kashk bademjan (eggplant, tomato, garlic, buttermilk, and fried onion); olivie (potato, chicken, eggs, salted cucumber with mayonnaise and lemon); ash reshteh, a favorite of the ancient kings (fried noodles, fresh vegetables and grains with buttermilk); and ash sholeh galm kar (lamb, peas, beans and rice). Soups include two traditional choices: jo (cream of barley) and addas, or lentil. Salad Shirazi is cucumber, onion and lemon; mast khiyar is yogurt, cucumber and herbs; and parvardeh contains olives, walnuts, Iranian herbs and pomegranate juice.
Main dishes are divided into chelo kababs, charcoal grilled foods and Persian banquet items.
Five charcoal-grilled lamb dishes make up the chelo kabab choices: pishnehade sar ashpaz (minced lamb and filet of lamb with rice and tomato); bary mumtaz (marinated lamb filet); kubiceh zaferooni (minced lamb with onion, saffron, rice and tomato); soltani (minced kebab and filet of chicken).
Nine dishes compose the charcoal grilled offerings: five chicken, one shrimp, one fish, and two lamb. One example is joojeh kabab bedone ostokhan, boneless baby chicken with three kinds of rice.
The original Persian banquet has lamb, chicken, turkey and fish dishes. Samples include baghalah polo ba mahicheh, leg of lamb with rice and broad beans; and chelo khoresht fesenjan, turkey in pomegranate syrup and walnuts.
Just reading the menu made our mouths water and made us realize a series of return visits was seriously in order.
We began with the kashk bademjan and the olivie. The former dish was a creamy dip of eggplant enlivened by sharp garlic and crisp fried onions. The eggplant was smooth but with a good, rough texture caused by the small chunks of the smoky eggplant. It was fantastic scooped up with the hot bread.
Olivie is a sort of Persian potato salad, but, as with much Persian food, a simple dish is rendered more complex and sophisticated by the addition of herbs and the attention to quality and preparation. Grated carrot and sharp, crunchy salted cucumbers – the best pickles we’ve had in the region – complemented the creamy and zesty salad.
For our main dish, we had the mixed kebab for two. When it arrived in its aromatic splendor, I thought the menu should have said mixed kebab for twenty: a big oval platter filled to the brim with a beautiful arrangement of minced lamb, big squares of hammour and chicken, curlicues of white onion, grilled tomato and three kinds of rice. With my face hovering over the platter, I savored a steam bath of herbs and succulent meats.
The lamb was absolutely delicious, tender and flavorful, but the hammour was outstanding: the charcoal grill had given it a crisp outer layer and the fish inside was juicy and sweet. The boneless, skinless chicken was cooked just as wonderfully and we had a hard time deciding which item to eat.
We also had a bowl of red, mildly spicy sumar to sprinkle on our food and it imparted an extra zing to the superbly prepared meats.
The heart of any Persian dish is the rice and all three were terrific. They were all steamed perfectly and the rice with broad beans was especially nice, with its earthy, more substantial tones. A real surprise was the rice with barberries. The smallish berries are vivid red, taste a bit like sour cherries and impart a bright, sharp taste to the rice.
For dessert, we tried faloodeh, traditional Iranian ice cream. Faloodeh is creamy and crunchy at the same time, the crunch coming from starchy noodles mixed in the dish. The generous scoops were slathered in rose water – the vanilla of the Middle East – and with lemon juice. Like most Persian dishes, it sought a balance of flavors and textures: in this case, tart and sweet, creamy and crunchy – an exotic end to an exotic evening.
Other desserts on the menu include pistachio ice cream, Iranian baklava and fruit salad.
Numerous cups of tea were dispensed in little glasses. The tea was a home-made version of Iranian tea: saffron, rose water and mint with rough-hewn sugar cubes from Iran. The tea was light and flowery: “Like what you would expect tea in an old Persian painting to taste like,” my wife said.
Just before we left, an extended Iranian family sat at a long table, and as they took in the furnishings, the music and the smells emanating from the oven and the kitchen, their delighted faces clearly said “We’re home.” Their reaction confirmed what we had learned that night: Takht Jamsheed is a wonder to behold and we knew their joy would only increase when their food arrived.