Chennai restaurants offer a range of curated Iftar boxes

After two years of takeaway, this Ramzan, restaurants welcome diners with a range of innovative iftar menus, including vermicelli biryani, vegan gulab jamuns and of course a range of slow-cooked haleem

If you are dining in, start with a bowl of haleem, still steamy and silky from 8 hours in a brick oven, then slice into the dramatic metre kebab, which stretches across the length of the table. Alternatively, just check out Abid’s bustling outdoor counters, which run from 3 to 7 pm, and curate your own iftar over cups of sulaimani tea and bowls of khubani ka meetha: jammy stewed apricots in cool dollops of sweet cream.

@Abids, Chetpet. 4337 4747

At Habibi, Chef V Manikandan and his team have been sending out meticulously curated Mediterranean flavours in Iftar boxes since April 3. After working in the UAE, Spain, Qatar and Switzerland, the chef has curated nine different types of iftar boxes. “Dishes are cooked over firewood and we use charcoal pit roasting as well,” says Chef V. Manikandan .

They have an interesting vegetarian menu, including a ‘green grill box’ (₹460, serves one), which has three varieties of grilled paneer, broken wheat cous cous, hummus and stuffed chocolate dates. The Gulf Sea box with harissa prawn, zaatar and olive fish, broken wheat cous cous and choco dates are popular this season. Try the Egyptian and Moroccan style hummus, as well as their wide variety of baklava.

@Habibi, Anna Nagar, Iftar boxes, starting from ₹ 375 onwards available from 12 noon to 10.30 pm. To order, call: 6379974278

This Ramadan, the cloud kitchen, Sahib’s, which is popular for biryani, has launched BeeVee’s Hot Kitchen in Velachery. They offer a family iftar kit comprising a menu that changes everyday and is announced on their social media handles one day ahead. The menu usually includes dates, drinks, cut fruits, nombu kanji (rice and lentil porridge), haleem, sandwiches, wraps, grilled chicken along with pita bread, fried snacks with dips. They also have options for early breakfast (Sahar) where one can order string hoppers, parotta, stuffed rotis and biryani, which can be ordered along with Iftar box as add on.

“Considering that fasting days are during summer, we have included sabja seeds in sherbat and agar agar in our desserts, as these are natural body coolants. We have also avoided using processed sugar and substitute it with jaggery to avoid sugar load,” says Muhammad ali, the proprietor.