Please note: This review was done on an invitation from the restaurant to taste their food, and no bill was presented to the author. While the author assures you of objectivity, the review may be influenced by the personalized attention the author got.

SP Sharma is a veteran of the hospitality industry with many years spent with leading brands like Westin and Olive. Being a quick learner, he took full advantage of working with expat chefs and became a master in middle eastern and continental cuisine. Himself a foodie from Mandi in Himachal, he loves to cook some real hearty and earthy Himachali dishes too. The combination of these seemingly unconnected cuisines comes together in the intriguingly named Farmer’s kitchen with an eclectic breadth of dishes from Tehran to Shimla via Lahore. And going by what I tasted, he pulls it off.

The first thing that one notices when one enters the restaurant is a surfeit of the colour aquamarine blue with some middle eastern lattice work, somehow incongruous with the name of the restaurant and the warm, gregarious personality of the owner.

A few moments after I am seated, an enticing freshly introduced platter called Koobideh Platter (Rs 999), overflowing with five types of mouth-watering kababs lands up on my table, along with mint and coriander dip, tzatziki sauce,  hummus  and peri peri hummus. The first kabab I taste is the melt-in-mouth Iranian classic Mutton Chelo Kebab with a prominent taste of sumac and an undertone of saffron. Equally enticing is the Turkish Adana Shish Kabob with paprika, bell peppers and parsley mixed with finely ground goat meat.

A word about the next kabob I taste – the famous Iranian koobideh. I first tasted it at a restaurant called Hatam in Dubai. I fell in love with it over the first bite and since then that has been the benchmark of how I judge seeks. An ideal seekh kabab or shish kabob should be juicy, melt in mouth and yet having a bite with great flavours. Here, even though the koobideh is made of chicken, it is still very good. Jujeh kebab is the next one I try. It is a firangi cousin of our own chicken tikka and it is wow. The fifth kabab is the chef’s own creation called Rooh a Chicken – an Indo-Iranian joint venture with the format of a Koobideh but with Indian spices. Maybe one should not mess around with perfection because though the kabab is competent it is a bit too dry compared to the other kababs. Mr Singh says he will fix that.

We now come to his Himachali food. First dish to be served is what is called home cooked mutton curry (Rs 695) which is a robust dish indeed, well blessed with oodles of rogan. The dish is certainly tasty though for me a bit heavy to make a meal out of. Thank god for the next dish – a divine akkha palak saag (Rs 225), which wows with its simplicity. It is the owner’s mom recipe of chopped palak simply sauteed on iron griddle. 

It goes perfectly with the technical sounding OCGC 99 naan – baked with oregano, chilies, coriander and garlic. I end the meal with a simple taste-of-home kheer.

What is unique about this restaurant is the mastery of its chef over middle eastern kababs. They are not easy to make and that is why not too many places serve it. Whatever you order, do not forget to order the humble yet unforgettable palak.

Ratings (Out of 5)

Food: 4.0 | Ambience: 3.5 | Service: NA | Value: 3.5| Overall: 4.0

Meal for two: Rs 1600 | Alcohol: No | Credit Card: Yes | Wheelchair friendly: Yes

Address: Shop 210, 2nd Floor, DLF City Court, Sikandarpur, Gurgaon.

Tel: 0124 420 9342