shahnama - jehan numa palace

always skeptical about multi-cuisine restaurants - shahnama has always been a pleasant surprise probably because the hotel's base kitchens (both indian and european) are so good. that local aristocratic families and not just tourists come there for meals is a great testimony for the place. try it in the afternoons for lunch or even for breakfast and you would not regret it. stick to the indian (mughlai or hyderabadi) fare would be my suggestion.the best haleem i have ever had outside of hyderabad. the polite and highly helpful staff makes for all the more pleasant dining experience.

had the breakfast buffet here. overall was nice but there was no variety in non veg section and veg was okayish..... expected more when compared with the lunch and dinner buffet.
i'll say avoid breakfast. but visit for lunch and dinner.

was staying in jehan numa palace hotel for my brothers wedding and got a chance to have breakfast n lunch buffets at shahnama. the breakfast buffet was elaborate and the items on the menu were well thought of. however it did not leave me spellbound; so the breakfast buffet gets a 4/5 .
coming to their lunch buffet; it was truly impressive with some mouth-watering food!! they had so much variety (whatever you can think of was there in the buffet - be it the main course, salad, starters, soup, dessert). it was arranged perfectly and tasted amazing; so this certainly deserves a 5/5! ambience wise the place makes you feels warm and comfortable, overall a fine dining experience.

went to shahnama with lot of hopes. however, the entire experience was just above average on a relative scale.
ambience: 9/10 (overlooking the lawns of jehan numa, the restaurant is shinning bright with natural daylight. there was a group of semi-classical singers which just made the overall atmosphere lively. shahnama gets a thumbs up for a family friendly relaxing ambience)
service: 6/10 (service gets a low score on relative scale for shahnama. generally, from a restaurant of this repute, you expect a personalised and smiling service. however, that's not the case with shahnama. servers were just courteous enough to take your order, there was some bit of confusion also with respect to table numbers and nobody bothered to serve food into our plates. well, not expected from shahnama. still, there's nothing so negative about service, it's just that, shahnama wasn't up to rather high expectations on this front.)
food: 9/10 (we decided to go for a la carte and straightaway ordered paneer pasanda and punjabi channa with stuffed naan and curd. the paneer was so rich with dry fruits and flavourful thick gravy. it was sufficient for two of us and we really enjoyed our meal. similarly, the chole were well cooked with delightful aroma. the naan was also well cooked and was good piping hot. so the food totally overshadowed the not so good service experience and earns the points for shahnama)
price: approx 2000rs for two including taxes. this is for a la carte limited lunch

jehanuma is one of the best restaurants in town and the food is quite good but that day the food was not at all good. the pastries and cupcakes were not soft and smooth, i feel like they were not fresh. salads were not good either. sayaji's salads are very delicious.

this truly north indian eatery is part of the large addition to the old palace i first stayed in thirty years ago when i maintained an offie in arera colony! this was the only hide-a-way in a crowded city. the city has transformed and so has the hotel !
the shahnama serves lovely shammi and seekh kababs; rashmi murgh and murgh malai tikka. and, for those of us who a panjabi at heart and deep in our stomachs, there is baingan ka bharta, nalli gosht and achari murgh- - - yummy!

i so love this place and the food here .
amazing presentation makes ur mouth water😋
staff is very well mannered and the serving time is very quick.
desert section here drools me .
a must visit for the foodie ppl.

royal ambience, nice food, plenty of tasty veg dishes to have.
before order, check your wallet :p

#goforit #royal #worth 

regards,
sameer singhai

had visited only once. amazing food . if you have a sweet tooth, deserts are just awesome. the property is good though some areas are not well maintained. a lot of variety of food is a available. the only issue is that to use an american express card you have to go all the way to the reception. firni is amazing.

this review is regarding the oriental food festival held hosted by shahnama in the beginning of august 2016. i had high expectations from this food fest as everyone seemed to rave on about it but i was pretty disappointed by the food over all. i went there for dinner on the last day of the festival.
appetizers: fried and deep fried was the extent of the dishes offered. the lamb starter was the saving grace,
momos were nothing special- i get the same quality from rice bowl and 10no. momos.
sushi: the veg sushi was horrible, seemed like the cook forgot to cook the rice as the grains were like stones. 

main course: same old, same old. only one dish stood out for me out of the 10-12 that were offered (yes, i tried them all)- the chicken curry. it was something new, the flavours were very well balanced, chicken was cooked well and it paired well with the rice and noodles. other than that, the fish was horrible- it was hard and chewy. fish is not supposed to be hard and chewy.

desserts: i was excited about the huge spread of desserts and i decided to eat all of them. big mistake. the blueberry cheesecake was falling all over and it tasted a day old, the sago dessert was just sabudana in sugar syrup, and the vanilla yoghurt was basically vanilla extract in dahi. how can one mess up vanilla yoghurt? i don't even remember the other desserts because, yes, they were that forgettable.

ambience: great. i expect that from jehan numa. 

service: good. welcoming and polite staff who whisked away plates faster than i can say, "momo".

the service and ambience are consistently good at jehan numa, they should extend the same consistency to the quality of their food.

when we ate at shahnama a year ago, the food was average. we were disappointed. pleasantly surprised to see that the food has vastly improved now. had the dinner buffet with friends and family earlier this week.

great salad counter, imaginatively presented. loved the shot glasses with achaari mooli!

one of the nice things about the buffet is that the chinese/thai station was not just an 'also ran' but provides a good alternative to the indian counter with starters and main courses. much appreciated!

chef at live roti/naan station turned out a very good aloo kulcha on request.

dessert counter had great choices: baked yogurt and papita halwa standing out.

the restaurant was soon packed by 9 pm so good idea to reserve a table. just one suggestion: might be a good idea to lay out cutlery (dessert and other spoons) at a couple of places so we didn't have to keep asking and waiting for the (busy) staff to give us fresh ones.

my rating is: the best buffet in town just now. a tad expensive at rs 1200/ per head (including taxes) but your go to place for a celebration definitely!

the challenge would be to keep this up, team jehanuma!

breakfast marks the beginning of the day.. what way to start with a royal treatment.. wide variety of options..
ambience 👍👍
food 👌
services 💐💐
overall a nice place

shahnama, as the name suggests definitely gives you a "shaahi" (royal) treatment. this is a part of jehan numa palace hotel which serves you a grand stretch of buffet all year round. breakfast buffet, lunch buffet and dinner buffet.
i chose to go for a lunch buffet today. as soon as we entered the place, must say the staff is highly courteous. they make you feel welcomed, warm and extremely comfortable. hospitality is what honestly makes jehan numa stand out from all the other hotels in this city.
ambience is royal and again very different from that of others. their buffet stretch was huge - from soups to various kinds of bread, a cheese platter, salads, deviled eggs, dahi badas, veg and non veg kebabs, veg and non veg tikkas, chinese and thai section of gravies and noodles, baked counter, pasta counter, two kinds of rice, veg and non veg gravy vegetables, types of naans and rotis and a dessert counter.
presentation is really good. it tempts you to eat.
well, i tried eating the maximum dishes so that i could give a proper review.
hot & sour soup was actually brilliant. why did i say so? it's because mostly when served hot and sour the soup is way too hot. the black pepper used is way too much and gives ones throat a bad time. rather here one could taste the hotness of the soup with the sweetness of the veggies and gave peace to ones throat. moving on to the salad counter had watermelon and feta which was brilliant, corn salad which was accompanied with green bell peppers and lemon juice, tomato and red chilly powder and did taste good, homegrown lettuce salad and this is one of the best, juiciest, fresh lettuce i have had, roasted chicken salad which was scrumptious to the core. the chicken pieces were roasted to perfection with little spices and brilliant. moving to the main course their dal fry was finger licking good, with perfect amount of tadka. tomato rice was average, nothing different or special about it. paneer laziz had soft and tender pieces of paneer cooked in tomato, cream and cashew gravy which was extremely rich in taste. kele ki subzi was something unique, which generally people fear cooking is because if not cooked well, the combination of spices and bananas give an extremely bad taste. it wasn't bad, quite bland and highly plain in taste still couldn't make me love this vegetable and add on to my favorite list. junglee maas was something i had for the first time and was quite spicy, so people who love spicy food-it should be your pick. babycorn cigars were dipped in batter and deep fried and gave sweet and sour taste all together and was one of the good starters. mushroom stronganoff was something which took my heart. creamy and rich in taste, the mushrooms were covered in thick creamy red gravy. chicken lehsuni tikka was good but not something i haven't tasted before. it did taste quite common. chicken methi tikka was extremely tasty. the best i have had till date. the chicken pieces were marinated well in spices and methi leaves and they were juicy and tender enough to melt in your mouth. simply loved it.
one should have a developed taste/taste buds for fishes and various kinds of cheese. i tried the hunan fish and smoked cheese for the first time. the fish even after being cooked had a very strong smell. the smoked cheese had a pungent taste and gave a hint of bitterness as soon as you swallow it. so, go for these two only if you wish to build your taste buds or already have developed ones.
let's move on and satiate our sweet tooth-
chocolate mousse- soft, perfect, melting and brilliant.
brownie- filled with dates, nuts and a base of crumbs was one of the best.
cookie dough pastry- dressed with chocolate and baked with chocolate chips was again tasty.
baked curd- baked curd had a little sour taste with
sweetness of fruits, something different and nice.
moong dal halwa- it was nice.
caramel custard- well, they never go wrong with it.
by the way, the lunch buffet is rs. 899/- + 16% taxes on weekdays and rs. 999/- + 16% taxes on weekends.
it's totally worth it.

i love this place. the ambience is soothing but not dead, it's alive with the decor. the food is to die for. it is the place if you want awesome food guaranteed. the sunday buffet is a must have as the desserts are lovely and you'll never feel like you've had enough of them. the range of items is exquisite and varied, making it one of the best places to eat in bhopal.

yesterday read about punjabi food festival going at shahnama, with dishes by masterchef sweety singh. i must say it was a grand buffet, welcome drinks till desserts it all had the punjabi touch lassi , sugarcane juice, starters were awesome salads were all desi flavor. they prepared some varieties of pickles n special chole. over all it was a treat to taste buds. a must go place.