Plan
We have not been travelling for more than 2 years now and there was a family event and we managed to travel to Lucknow. We didn’t had lot of time at our hand and our three year old daughter didn’t allow us lot of flexibility.
Limited time there but the city is very intriguing.
City
The city has two sides, the Old Lucknow that is on one side of the Gomti River which is stuck in time. Then there is another side which is very much like any other growing city in India today with Apartment Complexes and Malls (Phoenix Market City and Lulu Mall). Since most of modern city is similar I wouldn’t talk about that. I think its very aspirational for cities and its citizen to grow into their modern avatars.
I didn’t really research this time and didn’t really plan to go out anywhere. I was meeting most of the relatives in a long time and many for the first time in my life 🙂
Outing
Lucknow is famous for “khane wala chicken and pehenne wala chikan” and after the event on first day with couple of my younger cousins we planned to go out to find something to eat and we started very late. Like any other old city the traffic is quite bad and going out in odd hour made sense.
So we started at after midnight and went towards the old town. Unfortunately we didn’t know much and thought of going to Tunday Kababi but were not sure if that open this late. We found “Wow Momo” and were ordering momo and one of the cousin asked if the Tunday Kababi is open this time. He said on the Aminanad will be open. So we cancelled Momo, bought some drinks and left to Tunday Kababi and it was open. Right at the entry one can find the snaps of owner with many celebrity from Salman Khan to Amitabh Bachhan to many more.
Anyways the place was buzzing and we were asked to order whatever we need in one order as the kitchen was closing. There was their Mutton Kababs and Korma and I have not had mutton for years now. We got the food and maybe all of already had some food we kind ate a little Kebab and Korma. I didn’t find anything special with the taste but that maybe because I am no “foodie”
And then the next we went to “Idris Biryani” which was an experience. When we were in engineering we have seen all kinds of places to eat (not talking about fine-dine stuff but exactly opposite) and Idris was close to that. It was small shop with food being prepared right at the entry. One needs to go through the hot pots of Biryani to the one single table in the room which was full
We waited for about 10 minutes and found the place. All the bones that were left by previous round of patrons was both on the table and on the floor. Half mutton biryani came in after lot of request from others. I managed to finish it quite fast as people were standing for their place to eat and again did not find the Biryani that amazing.
Now there is a chance that people start cursing me for saying this about both Tunday Kababi or Idris Biryani but maybe my taste pallets are underdeveloped to really find the difference.
Generally my wife has a FOMO whenever I do something myself 🙂 and I knew for sure she won’t really these places as she doesn’t eat mutton or beef. But the next day morning I had to take her to Tunday Kababi but it was closed and we have chicken biryani right in front of Tunday Kababi at 10 O’ Clock in the morning. This was a first in my life. You can get Briyani whenever you want in Aminabad in Lucknow 🙂
But Why
Why do such places are etched in people’s memory? Why people never forget to visit such places? Is it more about nostalgia or word of mouth? Or is it more like tick mark for people to have visited that city? Maybe its the iconic status? Its the collective imagination of all who have visited and all that yearn to visit 🙂
I am not sure how many Lucknowi population would go to these places
I still missed the famous Sharma Ji ki Band Chai and also the Imambara. So maybe some other day
Best Practice
Tunday Kababi is open from 12PM to 1:30AM and if you can do it late night you can escape both crowd and traffic.
Idris Biryani is much smaller place and packing the Biryani is a better choice if you want right out of the container and want the dum to intact eating there is also okay
You should atleast eat Mutton.