We had a delightfully spicy dinner delivered by Al-Madina and then visited to try their simple $20…read morep/p buffet. They also have a full menu including kabobs, biryani, chicken, shrimp, goat and bean entrees.
Al-Madina serves huge naan, it's true. I've only had the plain naan basket. I would like to try the garlic and kabuli naan with sesame seeds.
Love the Yogurt Salad here. It's a gigantic bowl of yogurt, cucumbers, onion, tomato, mint, cilantro, and lemon. It's bountiful and delicious.
We tried the samosas with potato, coriander, mint, cumin seed and red chili's. Very good.
We enjoyed the Butter Chicken but it was not like any butter chicken I've had before. There was very little butter and cream present. The sauce was red and spicy. I ordered it as a mild version for the person eating with us. Maybe one could request extra cream if they are looking for a traditional, Amercan-ized, Indian Butter Chicken dish? It was flavorful, for me, though.
We also enjoyed the Chicken Tandoori. It is moist, very well-seasoned and delicious. Zero complaints!
We really liked the Chana Masala which is great for vegetarians. This is a chickpea dish with spices, and you can tell they have been marinated for a very long time. We tried this on the buffet.
The Kabuli Palaw is a very mild and lovely rice dish. It comez with bone-in beef (so if you are serving children or seniors, pull this meat out for them), basmati rice, raisins and carrots. The raisins make it sweet and great.
The Chicken Biryani is good and spicy but I enjoyed that it wasn't a fire-spice level. We ate this at the buffet so it was on the medium-spicy side vs. other wildly, spicy biryani's.
The Kheer is super-delicious! It's a rice pudding with milk, heavy cream, almonds and pistachios. We also had this in the buffet and loved it. Especially the cardamom notes.
The Chai is served very quickly here, so I'm wondering if they have a large soup pot of it in the back. It's nice but add sugar if you like it sweet. I liked that I didn't have to wait forever for it. The spices are just right and I ordered a second one!
The service here was very friendly. Most of the staff spoke to us when I requested things and it is like an all-hands-on-board approach. This is why they describe themselves as fast-casual: you can just go to the front and ask for what you need when you are eating at the buffet.
Things on this menu which pique my interest: White Lassi (dogh). I looked it up and it's plain yogurt and sugar with aromatics such as cardamom or rose water. They have the following fresh fruit juices: banana, mango, apple, orange, lemon, and watermelon. You can also mix two fruits. I wonder if you can add yogurt because I've and never had banana juice. The Afghani Sheryakh with milk, cream, sugar, cardamom, crushed almonds, saffron, and pistachio also looks delicious. The lentil soup looks delicious, as well as the lentil entrees.
When they say it's fast-casual Indian and Pakistani, this is helpful because I've seen words, "Afghan," in titles and Kabuli in a dish name mentioned on the menu so it's a bit confusing. But a woman I was speaking with said the cooks are Indian and Pakistani. Madina is the name of 'the' holy city in Dubai. Maybe it's a similar concept to Jerusalem for us Christians. So there is this whole menangerie of countries mentioned in the menu, basically. The cooking here is the least closest to American Indian that I am used to eating.
We really liked the flavors here. I saw jalapeños in a few of the buffet dishes and for me, all that was missing was beer to tamp the spice! Ah well, Coke and Pepsi did the trick for now. Would come back to Al Madina again. It's probably the closest I'll get to the real city of Madina in Dubai.