Long Chim, Perth, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Of all the restaurant openings in the recently refurbished State Buildings, none has been as highly anticipated and hyped as Long Chim. And with good reason - it has been 20 years since Australian born Chef David Thompson last had a restaurant in Australia. During those 2 decades, Thompson has gone from strength to strength - his Nahm in London became the first Thai restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star. Although the London branch is now closed, Nahm in Bangkok was ranked the #1 restaurant in Asia on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants List in 2014, and continues to be highly placed. Additionally, Thompson's uncompromising authenticity and encyclopedic knowledge of Thai cuisine has made him an international authority on Thai cooking; his book Thai Food is the Larousse Gastronomique of this most complex of Asian cuisines. Throw in his much loved SBS food series Thai Street Food and its beautiful companion book, and its easy to understand why the fact Thompson chose Perth for the location of his next restaurant is such a big deal. Having dined at Nahm late last year and being massive fans of his cookbooks, Alissa and I invited my parents Alan and Maya to join us for dinner to see if Long Chim lived up to our lofty expectations.

Err Rustic Thai, Bangkok, Thailand (Alissa and Don Eat Asia)

When planning for our trip to Bangkok and Hong Kong, Bo.Lan was one of the restaurants high on our list of places to check out. Unfortunately, the poor Aussie Dollar vs Hong Kong's pegged currency meant our time in Hong Kong was set to be much more expensive than we had initially planned, so cuts had to be made to our initially more extravagant plans for both countries. Bo.Lan was one of the restaurants that was unfortunately cut, however we were alerted to the existence of Err - a new 'urban rustic' Thai restaurant from chefs Bo and Dylan of Bo.Lan. Excited by the chance of trying their food (albeit in a more casual setting), Alissa an I quickly added it as a last minute addition to our itinerary.

Nomad, Surry Hills, New South Wales (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Nomad at Surry Hills was one of those unexpected finds that pop up when your search for one thing on the internet leads you to something seemingly unrelated. While planning for our upcoming Bangkok trip, I was looking for a travel write up published a few years back where a journalist was taken on a food tour of Bangkok by David Thompson (some people have all the luck!). I found the article in question, but also found a short interview with Thompson where he nominated Nomad as his current favourite place to eat in Sydney. As we just so happened to have a Sydney trip planned before our adventures in Bangkok, this was a very serendipitous tip, and after reading about Nomad's wood fire-focused cooking and the restaurant's hyper artisanal approach to everything from polenta to charcuterie, it was settled - we had to booked a table for two at Nomad.

Print Hall (Dining Room), Perth, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

It's hard to believe that Print Hall - the multi-storey, multi venue centrepiece of Brookfield Place  - has been brightening up the previously dead night life of St. George's Terrace for two and a half years. In spite of Alissa and I having kept abreast of many of the new restaurants that have opened up around the future Perth City Link and having dined at many of the West Australian Good Food Guide's former and current 1 and 2 Star restaurants, we've neglected the many wonders of Brookfield Place. It's not for want of trying; there were the odd false starts and failed gatherings at the Apple Daily and the Trustee that never came to be, and there have been many wistful walks through the precinct on a Sunday as we planned for future meals. After initial plans for our first wedding anniversary in November were changed to a meal at Co-Op Dining, the celebration of Alissa's birthday seemed like as good a reason as any to finally dine in the precinct, and we decided to go all out with a reservation at the Print Hall Dining Room - the Good Food Guide's Restaurant and Wine List of the Year.

Cape Lodge, Yallingup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Outside of the towns and regional centres, dining out in the South West is a largely daytime affair. It makes sense - driving around the Australian bush at night with little to no phone coverage over great distances can be a bit unnerving if you aren't used to it, especially with the risk of kangaroo collisions increasing at sundown and sunset. It was surprising then to discover Cape Lodge - one of the top rated restaurants in the Margaret River Region - did not open for lunch, and that it was their fine dining dinner service that was most celebrated. With the recent arrival of a new head chef in Michael Elfwing and a recently updated dining room that has been described as the region's most fancy, Alissa and I decided to make dinner at Cape Lodge one of our two fine dining destinations during our 2015 Down South trip.

Wills Domain, Yallingup, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

When it comes to restaurant reservations, I like to make them as far ahead of time as possible. In planning our January 2015 road trip through the South West, reservations at Laundry 43, Wills Domain and Cape Lodge were booked by August to avoid the mad scramble for a table over the high demand first weekend of the New Year. When double checking our bookings and collating our confirmation emails for our files, I discovered that I'd made a serious error - I'd booked Wills Domain for our first day instead of our second, meaning we'd have to drive past Busselton to Yallingup, double back to Busselton for our dinner at Laundry 43 and then double back even further the next day to cover the things we'd planned for Day 1 in Geographe. With Wills Domain once again announced as the West Australian Good Food Guide's Regional Restaurant of the Year in the interim, changing our booking was not going to be possible  - especially since we booked an extended sitting for the degustation - so we decided to drive the extra distance and enjoy our meal and the winery's stunning views a day ahead of schedule.

Riesling Rocks! Sunday Lunch - Burnt Ends x Restaurant Amusé, East Perth, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Alissa and I are big fans of Riesling. In spite of being a Noble Grape, its far less popular with the average Australian consumer than Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc; a real shame when you consider the quality of Australian Riesling and its flexibility in being able to produce wines that can range from deliciously crisp and dry to an excellent late harvest wine when under the influence of botrytis' noble rot.

Dear Friends (Last Supper Degustation), Caversham, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Earlier this year Alissa and I visited Co-op Dining, the East Perth restaurant owned and operated by chef Kiren Mainwaring and his wife Kelli. Impressed by their sustainable Farm to Table and Foraging-focused philosophy even before visiting the restaurant, the Tuesday special 5 Course Vegetarian Experimental Menu we went for remains one of the best vegetarian meals Alissa and I have eaten, and one that I frequent recommend to vegetarian and vegan friends due to the creativity of the menu; it changes every week (being drastically different when visited by friends a few months later) and the $69 per person asking price is excellent value for food of this calibre. As omnivores, Alissa and I have been meaning to visit Co-op again to experience their full 10 Course Menu, and with regular themed event dinners hosted by the restaurant, Alissa and I would have booked for their recent Canadian Roots dinner if not for a clash with Alissa's schedule and a decision to book 1907's Truffle Degustation meaning our fine dining budget was already allocated for the month.

Being on the Co-op mailing list, I received an email informing of Kiren and Kelli's decision to close Co-op Dining's sister restaurant Dear Friends in Caversham so as to focus their full attention on the East Perth restaurant. With their final service on July 19th themed as a 'greatest hits' Last Supper of their 7 years as a Swan Valley mainstay, this was both our last chance to visit Dear Friends and an opportunity to try Mainwaring's food again. Having already booked 1907 for earlier that same week, two degustations in such a short length of time was the kind of splurge we hadn't quite figured into our monthly budget, however given the limited nature of both menus we decided to make August a more frugal month to make the most of July's opportunities.

1907 (Truffle Degustation), Perth, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Winter is one of the best times of the year. Sure, its cold and rainy, but it is also a season overflowing with opportunity. Unlike the oppressive searing summers of Perth, the cooler weather is conducive to dressing up to go out - instead of sweating even in t-shirts and shorts, it's time to step out comfortably in jackets and collared shirts, and to accept the warm embrace of jumpers and knitwear. During the season, I find myself increasingly drawn to the outdoors; rather than worrying about the rain I'm more likely to get excited about being able to push it on a bike without even breaking a sweat, and there is something about the cold air that fills me with nostalgia for childhood holidays in the forests of WA's south west.

For a foodie, wintertime in WA also holds one of the great seasonal gifts - Truffle Season. With the increasing global recognition of the Manjimup truffle industry, the unique flavour of the black truffle (tuber melanosporum) has well and truly cast its spell on Perth restaurants and diners, with truffle being featured on seasonal menus by everyone from Must Wine Bar, Lalla Rookh and even shaved on top of the barbecued meat of Old Faithful Bar! One could not have imagined this prized ingredient being used so liberally even 5 years ago, and as a self-confessed truffle pig its like Christmas in July for us antipodean gourmands.

Cutler & Co, Fitzroy, Victoria (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

With degustations booked at Vue de Monde and Attica for our Easter Melbourne trip, a visit to Cutler & Co. - or any other expensive fine diner for that matter - was not originally part of the plan. While the $130 asking price for their dinner degustation (excluding the inevitable wine and tea) is far and away the cheapest of the three, I was thinking a more upper-middle priced restaurant like Hell of the North's $65 'Let Us Feed You' would be more economically sensible as a third premium meal for the trip. That was before Melbourne resident friends Tash and Lloyd hipped us to Cutler & Co's Sunday Lunch - a casual four course meal, with the first two courses consisting of multiple share plates and a selection of main and dessert options for $75. Convinced that this was a great opportunity for us to fit a Cutler & Co. meal into our schedule without totally blowing the budget, the initial plan was for all four of us to share the meal together, however with Tash busy with the tail end of Melbourne Comedy Festival, I ended up making a Sunday Lunch reservation for two.

The flagship restaurant of chef and prolific restaurateur Andrew McConnell's restaurant empire that includes the wildly popular and successful Cumulus Inc, Cutler & Co's adamantly non-descript exterior belies its interior's elegant mise en scene by McConnell's wife Pascale Gomes-McNabb, whose design aesthetic is very sympathetic to the unfussy but refined quality that is the hallmark of McConnell's cooking.

Gelato Messina, Fitzroy, Victoria (Alissa and Donovan Eat Australia)

In the culinary battle for Australia's best foodie city, I've always felt that Gelato Messina was a massive feather in Sydney's cap, and one that Melbourne just did not have as good an answer to. For those who have not been fortunate enough to try Messina's exceptional gelato, their aesthetic is best exemplified by the process that goes into the making of their famous Apple Pie Gelato, where pie pastry and apple pie filling are made from scratch, giving their gelato a reality of flavour that simply cannot be found in lesser, essence/extract based ice cream. With an artistic, almost Heston Blumenthalesque drive to discover new wild and wonderful flavours, Messina are probably the best gelateria in Australia, and the opening of a Fitzroy branch in 2013 gave serious leg up in the Sydney/Melbourne intercity rivalry.

Co-op Dining (Vegetarian Experimental Menu), East Perth, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

In Heston at Home, Heston Blumenthal says 'meat is one of the most exciting ingredients to cook, because it's a real technical challenge, but when you get it right the results can be sublime'. As a cook, I strongly agree; there is something really satisfying about cooking chicken breast that isn't dry, or a sous vide salmon that is perfect medium rare from top to bottom. I enjoy a meal with good protein content and the challenge of cooking it right, however I'd contend an even greater challenge is to make a vegetarian multi-course meal that is so good that an omnivore won't miss the fact that the protein content is either absent or limited to non-meat sources.

Of course having a preference for pesto (its the king of pasta sauces) and cooking from Ottolenghi's cookbooks has meant I've had many wonderful vegetarian meals. But a vegetarian degustation? That's something else. And it's not just my perception - when you look at a list of 'best vegetarian restaurants in Perth' or 'best vegan-friendly restaurants', there is a distinct lack of fine dining degustation options that immediately pop up alongside the stereotypical hippie cafes, and if they do they charge the same as their omnivore degustations that features waygu and expensive seafood items. There is often a misconception that all vegetarians and vegans mustn't like food due to their dietary restrictions, but that's simply not true - I have many friends who have made moral decisions against meat eating who are undeniably passionate foodies. Surely fine dining restaurants can do better than the token mushroom risotto and, unless its heavy on the truffles or other particularly expensive ingredients, offer a vegetarian degustation for a lower price?

Kiren and Kelli Mainwaring's Co-op Dining is not strictly a vegetarian restaurant, however due to their strong seasonal/regional farm-to-table and foraging ethos the restaurant's dishes feature a plethora of quality locally sourced vegetables, and their regular 5 or 10 course degustations feature inventive vegetarian courses. There is good news for those who have a strictly vegetarian diet - every Tuesday Co-op Dining offer an experimental 5-course vegetarian degustation menu using 'Tuesday's fresh from the farm produce' for a very reasonable $69, cheaper than the usual $95 asking price for the degustation with meat. They are also happy to tailor your meal to you dietary requirements should you require gluten free or vegan.

Keeping with the sustainable theme, Alissa and I decided to use public transport and our bikes to get to the restaurant's location in the fine dining mecca that is East Perth. We were greeted by our very friendly waiter and sommelier, Eric and David respectively, and ushered to our very comfortable booth table in the corner. The unstuffy and comfortable atmosphere was very welcoming, complete with a very modern soundtrack of hip-hop, reggae and soul playing in the background.

We were struck by David's sheer passion for wine, and after discovering we were Pinot drinkers suggested a lovely Monomeith Estate Pinot Noir by Lucy Margaux Vineywards to accompany our meal. This was a lovely wine, with all the wonderful cherry and raspberry notes I expect in a good example of this varietal.

The obligatory bread was brought out, with a choice between a white roll and the seed bread Alissa and I decided to go with. The bread was a good seeded multigrain but nothing overly special.

What elevated the bread to a memorable dish was the mushroom butter. On the table it looked like mustard, and it was only after we'd already spread it on that Eric explained what it was. Mixed with what I'm guessing is porcini powder, this butter had a wonderful unexpected umami kick. Co-op were off to a good start.

The first course was a fairly simple dish of watermelon topped with a ginger granita. This dish was all clean, fresh summer flavours; the sweetness of the watermelon and the contrast of ginger zing in the refreshingly cold form of a granita worked to cleanse or palates and cool us down after the uncomfortable heat of a hot Perth day. It made me almost wish I had gone for the wine pairing, as a nice dry riesling or similar would have been a great accompaniment.

I'm not a fan of celery, so when our next dish was brought out I was a bit worried that I hadn't mentioned this to the staff. This second course was a salad of shredded fennel & celery, radish, avocado puree, tomato powder and ingredient I recognised and have long wanted to try - samphire. One taste of the salad, and all my fears of hating this course were quickly allayed. Just as I like cucumber only when finely sliced, the overpowering flavour of celery was tempered by the fine slicing and being mixed with the equally powerful (though more agreeable) flavour of fennel. With a nice tangy dressing, this was a gorgeous, crisp salad. Dipping it into the avocado puree added a lovely creaminess, and the savouriness of the tomato powder only added more interest to the dish. Radishes were again nice and crisp, but the star of the dish was the samphire. Having never eaten it before, Alissa and I didn't know what to expect however we found its pleasing saltiness and intensity of flavour to be very delicious. I saved mine for the last mouthful to end on a high. I could have easily eaten more of these.

Noting that we were enjoying the wine, David admitted that it would be nicer in a varietal specific glass. When I said we had some Riedel pinot glasses back home, David said we should bring them with us next time! Though not perfect, he found us another wider glass and decanted the Pinot for us to try, and it did indeed taste different - more open and with a stronger bouquet.

The next dish of grilled corn, capsicum and broccoli florets came served in the kind of asymmetrical white bowls I'ma sucker for.

As a bit of tableside theatre, a sweet corn puree/soup was poured over the dish in front of us by the chef.

Owing largely to the corn, this course was wonderfully sweet. Grilled corn and capsicum may seem like a fairly simple dish, but prepared here so expertly and with such quality ingredients it was exquisite. The slight char flavour and the bursting juiciness of the corn had Alissa and I both saying 'mmmm'.

Just one look at the next dish as it arrived at our table, and we knew the egg was sous vide. Eric confirmed that it was indeed sous vide egg cooked for an hour, served with fried shallots & kale, balls of scooped potato, cauliflower, courgettes, straw mushrooms, pumpkin puree, mushroom powder and the surprising incorporation of native sandalwood nuts. This was even more delicious than the previous course, with the cauliflower, courgettes and potato being cooked to a level where they were softer than raw by not soggy and overcooked - just perfect. The fried shallots and kale were addictively good and provided a lot of the flavour, as did the sweetness of the pumpkin puree. Even if the egg were not included, the nuts did the neat trick I've seen in many an Ottolenghi salad of providing protein content and beefing up the dish. This was our first time eating sandalwood nuts, and they tasted similar to hazelnuts but with a subtle sandalwood aroma about them. Very interesting. And of course the sous vide egg was perfectly cooked, with the combination of  runny yolk and mushroom powder acting like an additional sauce. Alissa really liked this course, and was very tempted to lick the plate clean (for etiquette's sake, she settled on scraping the plate instead).

Alissa's favourite course of the evening was the dessert course of honey and vanilla ice cream, figs, nectarines poached with kaffir lime, pistachio crumble, and powdery clumps of fennel prepared in a manner I couldn't quite discern. This was truly top notch, easily up there with some of the best fine dining dessert courses we've had. The components all complemented each other; the ice cream had a wonderfully smooth texture and relatively neutral flavour, the poached nectarines imparted a sweet tartness made all the better by the addition of kaffir lime, the fresh figs a summery sweetness, the pistachio crumble textural interest and the fennel an aniseed kick. Just the kind of summery, fresh dessert I was hoping for. 

This was the end of the five courses, however we were offered an additional cheese course if we wanted. Knowing that they make their own cheese, we decided to partake in this extra course. David suggested a Margaret River Gewürztraminer to go with the cheese. We went with a glass each however I forgot to take down its name. This was partially due to David's enthusiasm, as he brought out a complimentary tasting of Irvine MV Meslier Brut to try.

The cheese was guernsey rolled in paprika, served with sweet onions and olive. It has a similar crumbly-soft texture to goat's cheese. Neither of us has been served a cheese course in this fashion, as it's generally served as a share plate. Earlier in the evening I'd asked Alissa if this was the best vegetarian meal she'd had, and after a bit of thought said, 'no, the best would probably have been something with some cheese'.
As we were eating this course I said, 'so, you got your cheese. Best vegetarian meal?'
Alissa nodded as she ate another mouthful of the cheese. Yes, definitely.

To finish our meal, a palate cleanser of kombucha with sparkling water was served. Neither of us have had kombucha before, and we found it to be very refreshing.

The Verdict: Exceptional
Co-op Dining definitely met the challenge of vegetarian fine dining, and left both of us very impressed with the high quality of the local produce and the skill of the chef. This was the best vegetarian meal either of us have had, and this Tuesday special would be an excellent choice for vegetarians and vegans looking for a special meal at a good price. Regardless of the vegetarian qualifier, this was an exceptional meal. Service was very friendly and attentive, with David giving us some excellent suggestions for a return visit such as asking for the wine to be decanted ahead of time and bringing our own glassware if we so wished. Alissa and I are by no means small eaters, so I'm not sure what some of the negative reviewers on Urbanspoon were expecting as we left feeling satisfied with the quality and quantity of food we had eaten. Co-op left us very impressed, and we will definitely be back for their full 10 course degustation in the near future.

Metropole Le Club Chocolate Buffet, Hanoi, Vietnam (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 29, Part 2)

Given a choice between a kilo of raspberries and a kilo of chocolate, I'll always choose raspberries. Not that I don't like chocolate, but I just don't have the chocoholics desire to eat copious amounts of the stuff. Sure, chocolate can be truly great, but I'm much more of a fan of fruity desserts as they don't tend to overwhelm with richness the way that chocolate can.

That being said, when I heard that the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi did a daily chocolate buffet afternoon tea I knew Alissa and I had to go. A favourite of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (to the extent they named one of their restaurants after her), the 100+ year old Metropole's French colonial architecture is immediately charming.

Having arrived a little before the 3pm opening of the buffet in the hotel's luxurious Le Club Bar, we could basically choose to sit anywhere we wanted. The decision was an easy one however, as the sun room located at the rear was easily the nicest area of the bar - easily as pretty as the Tiffin Room in the Raffles.

The spread on offer was simply incredible - you could not criticise the chocolate buffet for having a limited amount of options.

There were 8 'chocolate bonbons' alone...

...plus chocolate truffles, various chocolate cakes, mousse and macarons...

... chocolate ice creams, chocolate fondue and even a chocolate crepe station!

Plus, just in case you had too much chocolate, they had fresh fruits, fruit juice and a lovely selection of afternoon tea sandwiches.

Being a savoury fan, I went with the sandwiches first. Where the sandwiches at the Raffles really disappointed me in their plainness, the same could not be said about these. In particular the ham and cheese sandwich was incredibly addictive, featuring a Jarlsberg-like swiss cheese and very good quality ham. Once again, the sandwiches here proved to me that Vietnamese are truly the masters of the sandwich, with the eggplant and zucchini vegetarian banh mi also being very nice.

Unsurprisingly, Alissa went straight into the chocolate. Having eaten some amazing chocolate in high end restaurants and gourmet chocolateries, we had high expectations and these chocolates did not disappoint - this was very well made chocolate that was neither overly rich or wanting for flavour. The various chocolate bonbons were all delicious,with my favourites being white chocolate and passionfruit, white chocolate and ginger, and milk chocolate and green tea.

Needless to say, we went back for more to try as many of the different options as we could.

Accompanied by some lovely tea.

Alissa and I finished up on our favourite desserts. In my case, it was a bowl of their chocolate ice cream (with some more of those amazing ham and cheese sandwiches).

As someone who has been an ice cream enthusiast all my life and an ice cream maker since I was 10, I was very impressed with both their milk and white chocolate ice creams - the perfect way for me to finish the meal.

Being the pancake fiend that she is Alissa had to finish on the crepe, and she was very happy with the white chocolate crepe she ordered - nice and thin with a good texture and creamy white chocolate filling.

The Verdict: Exceptional
It takes a lot for me to be impressed by chocolate desserts, but the Metropole's chocolate buffet was a phenomenal success that thoroughly blew the very limited and unexciting offerings at the Raffles Tiffin Room out of the water. And at roughly $35 AUD a head, this was a fraction of the Raffle's steep asking price. This is a Hanoi must do.

Dum Pukht, Mumbai, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 18, Part 2)

Flying back into Mumbai from Cochin I was dreading the inevitably annoying taxi experience we would have. We were headed to the hotel ITC Maratha for our dinner at Dum Pukht, a restaurant that specialises in the eponymous refined style of cooking food at low temperatures and longer durations in containers sealed with dough. Even though we went with the safe route of the prepaid counter, dealing with the taxi driver was reliably frustrating as they initially put our suitcase on the roof rack without tying it up, and then the driver had a friend come along for 'baggage' service - aka getting a tip for doing nothing.

Arriving in our beat up yellow and black taxi at the luxury hotel was a comically out of place juxtaposition that you may find in a Wes Anderson movie In spite of probably looking a bit out of place next to all the private cars, the hotel staff were lovely, and after scanning our bags through their strict security assisted us as we headed to Dum Pukht for our meal. When we arrived it seemed that in spite of a confirmation email that my reservation had not been recorded, however given that they were not particularly busy we were seated immediately in the restaurant's opulent dining room. Having eaten here 4 years ago, the restaurant had had a serious refit in the interim and really looked like a restaurant fit for Indian royalty from a bygone era. By far, Dum Pukht had the best décor of any restaurant we ate at in India.

Our waiter Ashok initially gave us the a la carte menu, but also gave us the option of a complimentary meal if we bought a very expensive bottle of wine (not something I was interested in) and also a set dinner featuring many of their signature dishes. Seeing their famous Dum Biryani on the menu, we decided that the non-veg multi-course set dinner was the way to go, along with a bottle of French Syrah.

Instead of the obligatory bread of other more European fine dining establishments, we were served some tube shaped papads. Though the presentation was very interesting it was not exactly surprising in terms of flavour – about what I would expect for a good papad.

Our starter was a kabab taster consisting of Murgh Chandi Tikka (chicken) and Dum Pukht Kakori (lamb). The chicken was delicious and incredibly soft – completely different to the spicier style more commonly encountered. This tikka used a 'royal' cumin marinade resulting in a lighter, more refined dish. Still, as good as this was, it was no where near as amazing as the lamb. A signature dish of the restaurant's, the lamb was described as 'melt in your mouth' - though this was an understatement. Just touching the kabab with a knife was enough to cut it, and it was easily the smoothest lamb mince I've ever eaten, spiced wonderfully with cloves, cinnamon and saffron. We wondered how on earth they managed to remove the meat from the skewers as the softness would have been a difficult challenge even for the most careful of chefs. Ashok explained that once there was a king who loved eating lamb kababs, however as he had no teeth he commanded his royal kitchen to make lamb mince so soft he could eat it without chewing. This was the dish they created. After our excellent lunch at East Indies, it seemed like we'd struck gold yet again.

Our main was served in two courses. The first was a trio of curries – the dum cooked Murgh Khushk Purdah (chicken), Shahi Nehari (lamb) and Maash Qaliya (moong bean). 

All three were excellent in their own right but the real standout was again the amazing lamb. Cooked overnight, the lamb curry was 'assimilated' (whatever that means) with extract of basmatti in milk with almond paste.

It was so smooth it looked like the smoothest gravy known to man, with most refined spiciness. This was served with a a basket of roti. The naan was more restrained than the over the top variety at Trishna, and though it would have been inappropriate in this setting we felt we preferred Trishna's naan. The paratha on the other hand was easily the best paratha we had in our trip – lovely layers of cooked dough that outclassed every parotta we had in Kerala. Possibly the best I've ever had.

There was so much curry, that even with an additional scoop of chicken and lamb to our bowls there would have been over half a bowl of each curry left when we decided to move onto the rice, so if you're a bigger eater than we are you can really fill up at this stage of the evening. But please please please leave some space for what would have to be one of the best biryanis you'll ever eat. Due to the slow cooking method and the more restrained spiciness of the dum pukht cooking method, the rice in the signature Dum Biryani has a very different texture to any other biryani I've ever had. Where most rice holds together in clumps to some extent, each grain could almost been eaten one by one – this is the most perfectly cooked rice. Having been basically slowly steamed in its own juices while sealed in its cooking vessel, the rice is incredibly flavoursome while maintaining the refined elegance of fine dining. I'd usually choose naan over biryani, but I'll make an exception for this Dum Biryani.

We took a bit of a break after the rice, and then moved onto dessert. We were served a quartet of Indian sweets – Gulab Jamun, Ras Malai, Saffron Falooda noodles and Saffron and Pistachio Kulfi. All we perfect examples of these Indian sweets, with the Gulab Jamun and Ras Malai being very traditional and the other two dishes being opulent versions of the classics thanks to the addition of saffron.

To finish, we were served a tray of non-tobacco paan as a freshener.

The Verdict: Exceptional

If you're not staying at ITC Maratha, getting to Dum Pukht can be a little inconvenient – especially if you're staying in the Fort area. That means the best time to go is on the way to or from the airport, and we found going to Fort from ITC was expensively jacked up in price because of the assumption we must have had some money to have eaten there. Still, in spite of all the inconvenience I can thoroughly recommend the food at Dum Pukht as being truly exceptional examples of Indian cuisine at its more refined, elegant and opulent. There is another Dum Pukht in Delhi that I have on good authority is even better than in Mumbai, being the best restaurant in India on the S. Pellegrino list. Regardless, if you're in either city Dum Pukht should be required eating.