Around Town: From 500 sq ft cold drink house to 15,000 sq ft empire, inside Mohammad Ali Road’s Shalimar

In the late 1970s or early 1980s, adjacent shops were purchased and Shalimar became a restaurant serving hearty Mughlai food — Nalli Nihari, Mutton Biryani, Korma, Kadhai Gosht, Do Pyaaza among others.

The restaurant expanded to a 400-seater under Omaer’s father Shahabuddin Sheikh, credited with introducing Shawarma to the city after sending a chef to Dubai to learn it. “I still remember our staff struggling to pronounce it correctly,” said Omaer, who started manning the eatery at 16 after his father’s sudden demise in 2004. “My younger brother Arquam was only two years old. I had three younger sisters. My mother took over the reins and I would spend all my day after college here. My teacher would come to the restaurant to give me tuition classes.”

Shalimar is known widely for serving hearty Mughlai food — Nalli Nihari, Mutton Biryani, Korma, Kadhai Gosht, Do Pyaaza among others. (Express photo by Akash Patil)

This was 22 years old. Ishrat admits it was tough being a woman and running a restaurant, but the staff supported me. “I was very worried. But I grew up as a tomboy — I knew how to drive, I could read well. My brothers said always read your papers so you know what you’re signing. They sent a CA who taught me the basics of business and finance. Thankfully it all worked out,” said Ishrat, who also runs a school nearby and is affectionately called ‘Mummy’ by staff.

Omaer kept refining and expanding the restaurant — today it is a 600-seater. There is a dedicated dastarkhwan section where curtains are drawn and complete privacy is given to families. He also started four more branches, in Jogeshwari, Vashi, BKC-Kurla and Saki Naka, each 120-plus seaters.

On the menu are about 450 dishes. When asked about the signature items, he said, “I can’t tell you five items that are the most selling dishes because we have at least 50 that are extremely popular — from our pizzas to chaat basket to our Mughlai delicacies to our falooda and shahi tukda.”

Although Omaer had to take over quite early, he was insistent that Arquam get a formal hospitality education; Arquam pursued IHM Aurangabad and gained experience at Taj Land’s End before joining Shalimar full time. “Ever since I’ve come, I’ve been putting more SOPs in place — cleaning solutions, kitchen planning, training staff,” shared Arquam, who is all set to get married later this year with a batchmate from college, who is a pastry chef. “We will then add a bakery,” he added with a smile.

Their clientele spans neighbourhood regulars, Mohammad Ali Road shoppers, and politicians, industrialists and actors. “AR Rahman, Raj Kumar Santoshi, Javed Jaffrey and his son Meezan are our clients. Shahrukh Khan enjoyed our chicken chilli, while Aryan liked our shawarmas,” recalled Omaer.

Omaer Sheikh (L), his brother Arquam Sheikh (R) and their mother Ishrat Sheikh, run Shalimar today. (Express photo by Akash Patil)

A pause by FDA

Last month, Shalimar was under the spotlight again after the Food and Drug Administration Maharashtra suspended its FSSAI license. “We were falling short on some compliances — maintaining annual medical records of staff, pest control reports among other things. They were largely paperwork related,” shared Omaer. “We have 200 staff on payroll, we had to look after them. Shalimar is a big restaurant, it’s not easy to follow so many standards. But we’re happy we did it anyway — we improved.”

Ishrat added that though she felt bad then, she is happy they became better. “I am very particular about hygiene — our butchery is inhouse and all the mutton and chicken are washed thrice. Whatever we missed has now been fixed. I am actually very happy seeing the work FDA has been doing of late,” she said.

The restaurant got a stay earlier this week after scoring 97 on compliances, and is currently doing renovation work, adding air-conditioning to the fast food section to keep rodents and flies away. A visible change: their paneer tikka now shows white paneer with a slight yellow from turmeric — the red is missing, per FDA guidelines. “We were using a high quality food grade colour, but since the FDA doesn’t want it, we’ve stopped.”

The road ahead

When Omaer first expanded outside Mohammad Ali Road, his mother was worried. But he was clear — “I wanted to take Shalimar to everybody who couldn’t come here as frequently as they would like.” Fifteen years later, he’s eyeing at least four more branches: Thane, Pune, a posh pocket of South Bombay, and Dubai.