Lucknow is an interesting place. The part of teh city in theory in its center, near to Gomti River, is quite nice. Cleaner than most parts of India I've been in. Really nice architecture. Some stunnign areas, like the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial Park (more on this later). That area is really pristine. The Center part of the city, which houses some shopping districts, bustling streets, restaurant stalls and the like were about as cramped and sprawling as any I've been to in India (reminded me of Bangalore a bit). The neighborhoods out East with tall buildings are also quite Bangalore-esque. The only real letdown was their main tourist area combined quite nice sights was bustle, gristle and maw outside of it.
The food is quite great. Awadhi Cuisine at a high level mixes some of the Indian food classics - kebabs, curries and biryanis. But they have their own styles - kebabs that feature more minced meat preparations than the normal charred chunks. Biryanis that are flavorful (many other areas take inspiration from here). Curries of the gosht nature that again are mimicked by lots of other parts of India. There are upmarket places, standard places, street places. I went to all three (yes, even teh street places - granted, ones with indoor seating). Lucknow is a foodie paradise - granted many places in India are.
The sites are not bad, just a bit varied. The first I went to was La Martiniere College, which has some nice colonial architecture spaced out across a sprawling, beautiful campus. Again, this particular area of Lucknow is really well maintained. Some ways away is The Residency, an old site that housed British troops and then refugees during revolts in teh 1800s. It's in a way more of a large plot of land with almost Roman style ruins, again just super weird for it being in the middle of Lucknow. As a whole, the site areas within Lucknow are well maintained, quite green an open.
The shopping and commercial areas are totally different. Bustling, cramped, buzzing, just a lifeblood of energy that I'm sure many foreigners like (the "colorful India" and all that) but I'm a bit over at this point. Within it were a few hidden gems. The main handicraft offering of Lucknow is Chikankari embroidery clothing, shawls, etc., and there were some really nice shops in the main market street that also offered air conditioning and fresh lime soda while sampling some kurtas. Another I'll get to in a bit but was just about perfect.
The main sites of Lucknow are a small portion on the other side of the city from where I was staying, a Muslim-heavy area that houses to the main Imbabara (mosque-sites), along with Hussani's Tower and a few other sites. They are all nicely marked, including a wrought-iron & copper map that adorns a city street side which is quite beautiful. The Bara Imbabara was the first site, the more funtionally operational and larger, if a bit simple in its design. The courtyard is beautiful, and the buildings themselves were quite stately. The Chota Imbabara is the other - more lush of a courtyard, more beautiful calligraphy on the walls and sides. Both buildings are really nice - I just wish teh areas outside them were equally so.
The best site, for me, in Lucknow was a sprawling "park" dedicated to Dr. Ambedkar, the Thomas Jefferson come Roger Taney of India. It is truly a giant complex, befit with three different buildings, all impressive in their own way that could figure to be the main shrine in a complex such as this. The least impressive was a large two-dome building with large statues inside. The medium was a long semicircle of columns, statues and sculpture, with a row of elephants in front of it stretching half a km wide or so. The most impressive a weird geometrical pyramid-like thing. From when I arrived a 4:30 through to when I left at 6:15 the floodlights came on and it was truly impressive. This one site was in all honesty not out of place in any top flight city.
Enough dilly-dallying, let's get to the food - after all it was the reason I came here. We'll start at the low-brow - my lunch at Tunday Kebabi, a place that I had to somewhat steel myself to enter. On the street it's a small road-face charcoal grill and maw of humanity, but behind it are two floors of indoor, super well AC'd, seating area. Nothing fussy, bustling throughout, and tasty. I got a Galouti Kebab (so soft and spicy), a mutton biryani (really nice rice, if a bit too bony with the meat), and a kebab that came basically as a bowl of chili. It was weird at first, but really tart and solid. Just a nice, old fashioned meal in the heart of Lucknow.
To go middle-brow, there was my meals on my last day, first at Naima Khalat for lunch, and then The Mughal's Dastarkhwan for dinner. The dinner spot was ojne of seemingly a chain of Dastarkhwan's littered across Lucknow - they all have a similar logo, name and menu, and it was quite good. Their specialty was Handi curries - cooked for hours in a clay "handi" pot. I got Handi mutton, which may have been the single best curry I had in my whole time there. The mutton just so perfectly cooked and tender. It counteracted the boti kebab which was made the same way (a chili-like consistency) of my kebab yesterday but not as nice.
Lunch as Naima Khalat was perfect. The place was "cooked from the kitchens of Lucknow" with a really nice menu, and a great decor with nice flowery crockery and the like. There was a great craft store next door - the place I walked arond for an hour through various markets trying to fine: stone work, metal work, books - basically non chikankari stuff. The had some more interesting curries (by name) which I tried two, both excellent if a bit too fatty on the mutton.
The final meal was probably my most fancy, and the best - at Falaknuma, a beautiful restaurant on the top floor of the Clark hotel in downtown. The view was great, the decor was great, the live traditional music was great, and the food better than all of that. I over-ordered (intentionally, planning to take some back) but each of the kebab (a mutton galawi kebab), curry (a great chicken curry) and biryani, cooked in a "handi") were excellent. I can't recommend Falaknuma enough.
Overall, I can't recommend the food in Lucknown enough, but I truly don't know if that outweights the slightly above average sites to make it worth a visit. Certainly if it's part of a larger Northern India swing, or like me you've done some of the main sites (Rajasthan, Agra, Kerela, Goa) then sure, why not. Whatever the matter though is, if you do find yourself in Lucknow, just get your stomach ready.
