Mutton in Ajman: Every Mutton Dish and What It Costs

Mutton is the expensive meat on any desi menu and the one that most rewards a kitchen that is actually cooking, because none of the good mutton dishes can be rushed.

There are eight of them here, from AED 8 to AED 64. This is the whole list.

All of it, in one table

	Price	When
Mutton kaleji — liver, cooked fast with onion and tomato	AED 8 small / 12 large	Thursdays
Mutton paya — trotters simmered overnight	AED 10	From 7:30 am, daily
Mutton qorma — braised in fried onion and yoghurt	AED 10 small / 15 large	Wednesdays
Zafran mutton karahi — tomato and green chilli, more gravy	AED 30 half / 60 full	Daily
Mutton Charsi karahi — namkeen, slow rendered, black pepper	AED 32 half / 62 full	Daily
Mutton white karahi — yoghurt, cream, white pepper. Mild	AED 32 half / 62 full	Daily
Mutton Shinwari karahi — meat, tomato, salt, animal fat	AED 34 half / 64 full	Daily
Mutton Peshawari karahi — the Peshawar cut, cooked hard	AED 34 half / 64 full	Daily

Note the spread: AED 8 to AED 64. That is not a quality range, it is a cut range. Liver, trotters and shoulder are different parts of the animal costing very different amounts, and the AED 8 kaleji is not a lesser dish than the AED 64 Shinwari.

The cheap end is the interesting end

Most people go straight to the karahis. The two dishes below AED 11 are the ones worth knowing about.

Mutton paya, AED 10, from 7:30 am. Trotters, which are almost entirely bone, cartilage and connective tissue. Simmered overnight, the collagen dissolves and the stock turns genuinely silky. The test: press your lips together after a spoonful — properly made paya leaves them slightly tacky. It is a breakfast dish because the pot has to run all night. More on paya.

Mutton kaleji, AED 8 small, Thursdays only. Liver, cooked down with onion, tomato and spice. This is the dish that tells you whether a kitchen is paying attention, because liver goes from tender to grainy in about ninety seconds. There is no middle ground and nowhere to hide it. It runs one day a week, in a single batch. More on the weekly menu.

Mutton qorma, AED 10 small, Wednesdays. Braised slowly in onion fried to a deep brown and then broken into the sauce, finished with yoghurt, cooked until the oil separates. The most expensive thing on the weekly list and the best. More on qorma.

The five karahis

All cooked in the pan after you order, all thirty minutes or more, all served in the karahi they were cooked in.

Zafran mutton karahi, AED 30 half. The house version. Tomato and green chilli, a little more gravy than the others. This is the one with real chilli heat.

Mutton Shinwari, AED 34 half. Meat, tomato, salt and the fat rendered out of the meat. That is close to the entire ingredient list. It is intense and salty rather than hot, which surprises people. Order this one to judge any kitchen — nothing hides in it, and if a kitchen's Shinwari is good the rest will be.

Mutton Charsi, AED 32 half. Namkeen, slow rendered in its own fat, finished with black pepper and coriander. Pepper heat rather than chilli heat.

Mutton Peshawari, AED 34 half. The Peshawar cut, cooked down hard with very little beyond tomato and fat. Concentration rather than spice.

Mutton white, AED 32 half. Yoghurt, cream and white pepper. Rich and mild, with no chilli. It sounds like a handi and is still cooked over a karahi flame, and it is one of the best things on this menu. More on white karahi and on how each style is cooked.

What to order, by situation

To judge the kitchen: mutton Shinwari, half, AED 34.

For two people, properly: half Zafran mutton karahi at AED 30 with six tandoori roti at AED 6 — AED 36, and you will not finish it.

For a table of four: one full karahi at AED 60 to AED 64 feeds three to four. Add a large daal at AED 8 and eight roti at AED 8. More on group ordering.

If somebody cannot take chilli: mutton white karahi, AED 32 half.

On a budget: come Thursday for kaleji at AED 8, or any morning for paya at AED 10. Both are genuinely good mutton for under AED 11.

There is no mutton biryani. The rice section is chicken biryani, chicken pulao and special beef pulao, all AED 10 / 15 / 20. More on the pulao.

The one thing to know before ordering

Mutton takes thirty minutes or more, every time, and that is not a queue — it is the dish. A mutton karahi that arrives in ten minutes was not made in ten minutes.

Message 050 720 8707 on the drive over and it will be finishing as you park. That is the single most useful thing on this page.

More on the five mutton karahis in detail and on the case for this kitchen dish by dish.

Finding us

Shop 8/1, ground floor, Amman Street, Ajman Industrial Area 2, beside Nesto Hypermarket. Free street parking directly outside, step free from the pavement, indoor and outdoor seating, families welcome at every table.

Open 7:30 am to midnight, every day. We answer in English, Urdu, Hindi and Arabic.

We do not deliver. You can eat here or collect at the counter. The full menu with every price is on this site.