There are quite a few restaurants in South Mumbai that are known for their cult breakfast. One of them and my favourite for a typical heavy duty miya breakfast is the Nihari at Noor Mohammadi. A dish that takes around 8 hours to cook from scratch till it becomes that melt in your mouth meaty affair. Nahr / Nahar in Arabic means 'Early Morning' and if looked back into history, Nihari was indeed a breakfast dish made to be consumed after the early morning 'fajr' prayers. Later this dish trickled down from the Nawabs to the working class and still remains as an affordable power grub for the middle class at any time of the day in Muslim populated pockets across all of India.
I can blog to long extents about my introduction to the Dilli Nihari or the Lahori Nihari - Both in Muscat & Dubai during my growing up days, But we'll keep that topic away for now. The melting meat (usually beef or lamb) and dense bourbon coloured stew is taken out from the massive simmering pot / deg and served in a deep plate, garnished with juliennes of ginger and chopped green chilli and a quarter of a lemon.
Nihari for Breakfast at 7 a.m.
The Nihari at Noor Mohammadi is somewhere close to the Dilli version but with a taste of its own. One can feel a huge kick of garam masala in the first batch dished out at early morning. What is unique to their Nihari is the fact that at different time of the day, the taste gradually becomes milder and richer. The morning batch is very robust in flavour and lot clearer in texture than that afternoon or late evening batch which is more mellowed down and a lot dense in texture. It's best enjoyed by breaking roti coming fresh out of the tandoor. You can choose between regular Nihari or the Nalli Nihari, regular being served with melting boneless beef meat, while Nalli Nihari as the name suggests comes with a piece of bone marrow along with the meat.
If you're arriving for lunch then you can also relish their Shaami Kebabs (which is a must have in my books) and also the famous Chicken Sanju Baba, the recipe for which is framed right at the entrance and supposedly given by Mr. Sanjay Dutt himself. The place itself can do with a lot of tidying up in general but then again i doesn't see that happening anytime soon. It has been in that avatar since many years now and people just care about the taste of the Nihari at the end of the day.
If you're looking to digest those rich calories after your meal, then take a walk towards Moghal Masjid and sip on the fragrant Irani chai from Cafe Khushali (open only post 11 or 11:30 a.m).
Location : Next to Hotel Shalimar, Junction after Cafe Almas under JJ Flyover, Mumbai.