Review: Culinary journey at Itihaas

Indian cuisine has always been the most popular in my household and a good curry is my go-to dish, whether it be curled up on the sofa on a Friday evening or out with friends celebrating an occasion. So when I headed to Itihaas on Fleet Street in Birmingham city centre one evening, I was fully expecting to settle down to my usual bhuna or pasanda, but instead, I was taken on a culinary journey.

The cuisine at Itihaas originates from the Moghul era when Indian dining was incredibly extravagant and full of delicate spices and essences. The restaurant serves its cuisine as it was served in Hindustan, which is modern day India and Pakistan. However, the flavours often travelled as far as Mumbai and Kenya in many of the dishes available.

It took me by surprise when I couldn’t find my usual favourites on the menu, but the workers at the restaurant were incredibly friendly and talked me through the menu, explaining its history and even suggesting what dishes I would like based on what I would normally go for. However, I am always keen to try something new, so I ordered a range of starters before even looking at the main menu.

After enjoying a basket of mixed poppadoms, which included plain with cumin seeds and black pepper poppadoms, we ordered the samosa channa chaat, which is potato samosa braised with spiced chickpeas, cool minted yoghurt and tamarind chutney. We also ordered mirchi murgh, which is chicken with ginger and garlic and the lamb tikka. After thoroughly enjoying the starters, I realised just how spicy the food on offer was in comparison to a standard curry house and each dish had a real kick to it.

We soon headed onto our main dishes. I opted for the makhani murgh, which is chicken blended into smoke tomato sauce with cream and yoghurt. The dish was incredible and very refreshing with generous helpings of yoghurt, which cooled me down for the spicy starters. My colleague chose the jingha (prawns) biryani and found it very enjoyable too. The servings were incredibly generous and very filling, after the starters and mains we were both incredibly full, but there is always room for pudding, right?

I went for the rasmali, which is a sponge pudding in a rich milk and pistachio base. However, this just wasn’t my cup of tea at all and the sponge was almost drowning in the milk, which made its texture very odd. However, my colleague ordered the burnt orange chocolate cake, which was absolutely gorgeous, so we both enjoyed that instead.

Itihaas was full of surprises, from start to end. The restaurant was incredibly busy by the time we left around 8.30pm, which shows that it is clearly very popular within the city centre. The staff also just couldn’t do enough for us and even treated us to refreshing drinks that a new worker had been practicing behind the bar all day. Although the restaurant has an almost elite feel to it, it also feels very comfortable and the staff make a good amount of effort with you.

My experience at Itihaas made me realise that there is more to Indian cuisine than just kormas and tikka masalas and for that I am incredibly grateful.

Itihaas rating: 7.5/10