shahnama - jehan numa palace

the 4 star is a rating given mainly because of the desichickenkorma which was ordered and devoured with some naans... loved the korma which was well braised , creamy with a lovely balance of spices infused... the rest was food as usual ... not an exceptional variety kind. i would suggest to stick to bhopali specialities when visiting this place.

shanama serves the best buffet in the city.if we come to the starters,from soups to the all veg/nonveg kebabs are mouths watering. the taste ofchickenis quite different here .the quality of food is too high.in the main course i like the veg over nonveg .the desets are the best part of buffet. i loved the variety of halwa , the mousse,the puddings all are scrumptious.the ambiance is so soothing .in one line worth visiting over and over again !

don't get me wrong for saying this but for a five star hotel, this restaurant is just above average. english south indian and continental breakfast options are what they offer and the usual suspects such as sauted vegetables, sisages, salami, veg cutlets, fried potatoes, idli, vada, poori, pan cakes, poha are all there. their egg quiche was a disappointment and they had mincedchickenfor breakfast , something that i thought was unusual
the tea served was good and so were their juices.
the staff all except one were super nice and they had a good service too .
ambience 4/5
food 3/5
quality 4/5
service 3.5/5
price 3.5/5
variety 3/5

you will get the royal feeling here, i went for dinner, they serve buffet for dinner with veriety of veg- nonveg food. they have variety of salads soups and starters, my friend had great time he is non vegetarian so he liked the fishchickenmutton and lamb. they have live music.
this is a heritage hotel. and they have that level of service.
over all nice place for couples for dinner.

so a decent enough place... an ala carte withchickenkofta zaffran n khasta roti... v finely made with a fine aroma too..courteous staff and service.... clean n live ghazals.. sure visit !

the next visit is a buffet deal for my birthday treat.. spread is decent enough but there can be additions to the delicacies to make it more grand. starters and main course or desserts.. all was cooked nice and fine on taste.. welcome drink along with starters on table - mutton kebab, achari chicken, fish kebab, grilled fish live counter, pasta live counter, veg kebab, paneer tikka and chaats etc.

along with breads (focacia and multi grain) plus soup.. cold salads which i hardly pick though !

main course was a decent look -chickenrazala, mutton korma,chickenstroganoff along with paneer n veg dishes.. rice and dal being signature add on! the section with thai food - padthai noodles, curry, kung paochickenwas also placed but nowhere close to thai taste.

desserts was the spread with quite good options on indian desserts plus bakery desserts. moong dal halwa, rice pudding in jaggery, rasmalai, gulabjamun, shahi tukda, coffee brulee along with lot of cup puddings n pastries plus fruits and ice-cream. good to palette !!

chef also served us fried fish on just asking if it was on menu though it wasn't. a nice gesture quite famous with good buffet now a days.

this is a good visit indeed.

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)- thechickencurry. it was something new, the flavours were very well balanced,chickenwas 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.

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, roastedchickensalad which was scrumptious to the core. thechickenpieces 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.chickenlehsuni tikka was good but not something i haven't tasted before. it did taste quite common.chickenmethi tikka was extremely tasty. the best i have had till date. thechickenpieces 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.

review of shah nama. hotel jehan numa

having been accustomed to the hotels & restaurants of south mumbai and club culture of delhi the jehan nama hotel was a revelation

• inspite of making a booking resvn on 29/11/2015 we had to wait, even though tables were empty

• as senior citizens were asked to wait in a bar with high decibel deafening music

• table only made available after making a noise, politeness didn’t work

• for a five star hotel basics, were lacking,

 1] table wasn’t laid properly

 2] had to ask for water

 3] waiters were untrained: unattentive; lack of know how to clear & clean tables

 4] no table cleaning brush

 5] waiter/table ratio low

• went to the restaurant after seeing news reports of the food festival

• most of the dishes publicised were not available eg; lasoon ki kheer, ghosht ka halwa,chickencooked in earth

• quality of the dishes was poor:

  rizzala was dry, so was the mutton gravy dish;

  fish kebabs were dry and tasteless,

  alu tikka were tasteless,

 galouti kebabs were too spicy no difference in taste between veg & non veg varieties

rotis were supposed to come to the table but did not arrive in time, so either the rotis were cold or the man course, no rumali rotis

• the dessert station was a let down;

festival dishes were by and large absent;

red velvet was an insult to elmas [of hauz khas, delhi] signature dish;

gulab kheer was tolerable;

coffee brulee was coffeeless;

for a star hotel ice creams were tasteless;

pastry chef needs to go back to cookery school;

• for buffet coffee was extra

• p.s. : washrooms were leaking and flooded

visited this place many a times. the wonderful memories i used to have at this place is now totally gone.

shahnama used to serve wonderful variety of salads (indian, mughal, continental, etc.). this whole scrumptious variety has totally gone as they stopped serving it the way they previously used to.

secondly the taste has also gone hell down and they also serve you leftover dishes of previous buffet which i caught them while having the devilled eggs salad &chickennoodle salad which was so dry and stinky. when i pushed them to serve me fresh the difference was drastically visible.

in short, if someone really want to ruin their special day this is the perfect place for it.

final say, "apne pet pe kulhadi maarni hai to zaroor jaaye."

♡peace♡

ok so let me start with the entrance which was ethnic now the ambiance was ok only nothing much special except for the music n songs on demand to start with the food v first ordered mocktail dranquil litchi and goodies kiwi which were yummy then the veg sizzler which was yukk not at all tasty having boiled brinjal i mean bolied brinjal sersly..:| coming over to mains v orderedchickenrogan josh and prawns schezwan sauce along with gobi paneer bhurji paneer butter masala veg chinese manchurian and triple schezwan noodles sauce tossed of all tastiest were the prawnss then rogan josh and chinese take my advice and never go for the veg sizzler there cant forget the slowest service v found there overall the final verdict that high priced and less tasty foods not worth the money my experience was ok wil think twice to visit shahnama again:(

had dinner yesterday breakfast here today. the restaurant seems to hold the best restaurant tag in bhopal.
it can accommodate about 60-70 people and the interiors are good.
the restaurant serves up delectablechickenand mutton dishes true to the nawabi taste. their dal tadka is very tasty. the ruhai baingan is a masala loaded super tasty dry curry. thechickenbutter masala is a thick gravy style item which is also tasty.
shahnama's food overall is very good. they serve alcohol and the restaurant is hotel jehanuma's flagship eatery.
must visit good place in bhopal.

went with my family to have dinner there. the ambience and atmosphere there is just amazing. the royal appearance of the hotel is just breathtakingly beautiful. orderedchickentikka and fish tikka for appetizers. thechickentikka was just amazing, the preparation was unlike i ever had before. the fish tikka was good too. for main course we had ordered paneer and chicken. both were fantastic. the best dish was theirchickenbiryani. it was just superb and you can really taste all the spices. had a really great time there. will definitely visit again.

walked in for dinner with a friend on a chilly winter evening here...what followed was nothing short of an experience of a lifetime...hogging on delicious kebabs & mouthwatering mughlai for 45-50 minutes nonstop accompanied by pin-drop silence does explain the impact the food leaves on u!!! the warmth and desire to attend to each & every guest does make the hospitality department purely world-class!!! don't forget the shammi kebabs & yes,the succulentchickencooked in kali mirch...the post dinner walk in the premises with a pleasant nip in the air wrapped up in pashmina does make this place a must-visit if you are in the city of lakes!!!