Behind the Biryani: 14 Hours From Pot to Plate
From the overnight marinade to the dum seal — a day in the life of our most-ordered dish
28 Jul 2026 · 7 min read · By Chef Imran Qureshi
The biryani service starts at 5:30pm, but the biryani day starts at 6am the day before. If you're eating it on Saturday, we started on Friday.
Day one — 6:00am
Lamb from the Tonk farm is trimmed — not too lean, we want the fat to baste the rice — and marinated in curd, ginger-garlic, fried onions, chilli and a little raw papaya. The papaya isn't for flavour; it's for tenderness. Twelve hours is the minimum. Sixteen is better.
Day two — 8:00am
Basmati is washed seven times — literally — until the water runs clear. Then soaked 45 minutes. The ghee is clarified in-house from Kukas village butter. The onions are sliced pole-to-pole and fried low and slow until they are the colour of jaggery. If they darken past that, we start again.
2:00pm — the dum
Par-cooked rice goes on top of the marinated lamb, then the fried onions, mint, saffron milk and a dot of ghee every inch. The lid is sealed with a strip of dough — the "dum" — and the pot goes on a coal sigri at a whisper of heat. Ninety minutes. We don't open the lid. Ever. Steam does the work.
"The best compliment is when someone taps the lid before we break the seal and says, it smells like a wedding." — Imran
7:00pm — service
The pot arrives at the table still sealed. The server breaks the dough, lifts the lid and the entire table goes quiet for a second while the steam escapes. That's the moment we cook for.
Order tip: The biryani is cooked once per day and portioned until it runs out. Weekends it sells out by 9:30pm. Reserve early and mention biryani in the notes — we hold a portion for you.