The Rajasthan Food Festival at Hornby's Pavilion

Rest : Hornby's Pavilion
Meal : Lunch
Loc : ITC Grand Central, Parel

Hornby's Pavilion is a coffee shop i have spent a fair bit of time at. They do a lot of festivals Hyderabadi, Coastal and this time it was the Rajasthani Food Festival. I spent a week in a heritage hotel outside of Jodhpur called Fort Chanwa. The chef at the hotel was a local villager and we had the most fabulous week of some very tasty dishes.

So it was with some excitement that i accepted the invitation and it turned into a little bloggers meet, which was an added bonus.

While the festival was on they were also serving their regular menu which included a selection of salads.as well as Lasagna which too was pretty good. I guess i cheated a little by trying out the non festival items.

The mini samosas were yummy

The perfect accompaniment for a dinner like this is a glass of thick buttermilk, it wasn't cold but it was still pretty good, i am a fan of butter milk and this was as good as any ive had.

The piece de resistance of any Rajasthani meal has to be the Daal Baati, served here as a churma (crushed) with a spot of daal and some jaggery. While i don't enjoy jaggery in particular i didn't mind it as much here, the daal baati worked pretty well, no complaints. The generous dose of ghee meant it was quite a heavy dish, did not go back for seconds.

Poppadums are a must, the green one was i think made with spinach as well as believe it or not, foam from the Sambhar lake in Calcutta.

To start with there was some of the most amazing Paneer tikkis, little fried pieces of cottage cheese, brilliant these were. There was also the stuffed bhavnagri chilli which looks quite furious but was not very spicy.

The patra was delicious, dressed up like bhel, The Greek salad is pretty far from Rajasthani cuisine but it was allright. They also served some other traditional dishes, one of them similar to gatte ki sabzi along with bajra ki roti.

Some of the sweets on offer, Indian as well as the usual selection of desserts.

The Laksi was a traditional dessert from the chef's village which was very simple yet interesting.

Overall, the food was pretty decent, the coffee shop festival (anywhere) suffers from having to cater to the hotel's other guests which means a large cosmopolitan spread. The festival dishes are ample but a part of the larger spread, which means the diner is usually distracted.

It would work better if this were a separate option, served on a platter as Rajasthani cuisine is meant to be. Anyway, the food was good and the service was spot on.


The evening turned into a mini bloggers meet with @Foodchants, @CaramelWings, @ScrollsNInk & @Desh and yours truly joining us. Also pictured is Chef Kailash Maharaj the mid mannered, soft spoken chef who has worked in many a royal kitchen including that of the Late Maharani Gayatri Devi and is now at ITC Shonar in Calcutta. Also with us was the lovely Arundhati Ghosh from the ITC who was the architect of the evening.

Dakshin - Disaster

Rest : Dakshin
Meal : Dinner
Loc : ITC Grand Maratha, Near the Airport.

I am a big fan of South Indian food, dine out regularly for thalis at Ramanayak, Mani's amongst others. Am also a fan of the ITC hotel chain because they are unique amongst 5 stars in trying to promote Indian cuisine with their restaurants.

My Venezuelan born, American educated and Germany employed friend Edgard, who is a bit of a world traveller was in town for a day and i thought i would take him for a taste of something he is least likely to get anywhere else outside of India. We settled on Dakshin as North Indian cooking is easier to find compared to South Indian. Unfortunately my experience at ITC though was less than stellar.

Dakshin is one of the big ITC brands with multiple outlets across India. As the name suggests they do a cross section of dishes from across the South, recently they added the Coastal moniker to the brand. My previous visit is here although I have eaten there this was the first time i opted for a Thali.

Things meal began typically with chutneys, the tomato being the best one, the garlic second best, the coconut and green were okay.

The poppadums were nice, the traditional white ones were best, the rest were way too oily.

The Rasam was okay. More like a vegetable soup than a tomato rasam, certainly not in the league of a Ramanayak, Mani or even a Cafe Madras. Disappointing.

they serve molgapoddi, gun powder and other mixtures to which one can add ghee and have it with plain old rice as well as with the other dishes.

There is something they call the Iyer trolley, where they serve mini versions of Uttapams which was okay, one of them was a sweet banana based which i completely avoided.

The two starters were Vadai which were again, fairly basic and dry. The second was a some fried veggies which actually reminded me of something i would get a Chinese joint in a small town.

The other items in the thali were an eggplant curry which i did not like much, roast potatoes which were nice. The appams were okay.

The tomato pappu was a tomato gravy with lentils etc, it was decent, there was the tendli vegetable which i did not enjoy much, the stew was pretty good.

The curd rice was quite a disappointment, they did not have any lemon pickle but the garlic pickle they served sort went with.

The Payasam was actually the better dessert and was liked by all on the table.

Overall, the ambiance of the place is okay, the service is top notch, informed, prompt and eager to serve, although i will dock points for the hard sell on wine.

Now, the food was just average, compared to a Ramanayak or a Mani, the food is not even in the same sport, let alone league. You get a great deal of starters, which is a definite contrast to RN & Mani's. However the starters aren't that great and ruin your appetite for the mains (which in turn are also pretty weak, a total loss-loss)

Of course the setting is opulent and the service completely unhurried but when it comes to the food its just not up to the mark. They even scrimped out on yoghurt and buttermilk, which you would get as standard with any south indian meal. When you consider the price 3000+ taxes on the veg thali and 3500 on the non veg, it was not only downright stingy it was bad form.

Dakshin needs a fundamental re-think of their offering. Get a Ramanayak cook to come in once and show you how its done.

I know we don't go into 5 stars to have cheap meals but even by 5 star standards the ITC pricing is outrageous, Konkan cafe, at the Taj President, serve a Konkani thali which is a ball park offering for Rs.1200.

Now i have no problem paying up, hell i pay the prices at Kebabs n Kurries, provided I get good food. At 3000 + taxes even a good meal wont do, I want a GREAT meal.

Shame on me though, i could have a fantastic thali for 120 bucks, i chose, this. Can't blame anyone else.

Food : 3/10

Service : 8/10

Damage : 9500+ tax for 3 without booze.

PS. There was also an unfortunate incident with a paan, the paan they served was pretty bad, all three of us were in various state of discomfort almost immediately.. Mrs. Jain had a messed up throat and could not taste or eat anything the whole of the next day, besides she also had some ulcers in her mouth. I had some ulceration and couldn't taste a thing pretty much the whole of the next day.

Umame Launch

Churchgate has not been very kind to new restaurant ventures, so I was a little apprehensive when I accepted an invite to the launch of Umame, the new Farrokh Khambata restaurant set to replace Valhalla which in turn replaced Starters & More (one can see the remains of Chez Vous below it)

Khambata previously ran Joss which was quite popular but has now shuttered, so it was hardly surprising that Umame has a Pan Asian menu, Joss loyalists will not be disappointed. The space is adequate, the décor reminds one of Amadeus (also a Khambata property) there is also a lounge area separated from the restaurant and a small patio area for smokers.

The menu is not very expansive but offers a variety of options sushi, dim sum, appetizers, Chinese & Thai main courses in both veg/non-veg. The shortened menu is a trend i have been catching more and more and its great to see restaurants try and do a fewer dishes and do them well (contrast with China Gardens gargantuan tome.. but we do not speak ill of China Garden)

The Mojito was on the money, good start. Not a fan of the glasses though.

The bloody mary was even better ! Pity i was driving.

The Dim Sum's were not too bad, i don't recall the names of em all but i remember one being excellent and the other being not so bad.


This one was the winner - Char Grilled burnt pepper mushroom with holy basil cream, i think this one is from Amadeus.. just brilliant. could not get enough.

The sushi was all right, i enjoyed the little twist of the carrot tempura with spicy sauce and the gheisa rolls with Jalapenos cream were pretty good too.

The pan grilled potatoes in thai spices were not bad.

The silken tofu with cashew, again, no complaints at all.Very familiar ground for a Chindian diner.

The palm hearts and asparagus salad was pretty good, The noodles with the mushrooms were excellent, The second tofu main i did not like it at all.Avoidable. The water chestnut steaks in thai sambhal were extremely weird, they tasted pastaesque but tasted great.

The best thing however on the menu was the green curry ! fantastic, i would love to see what they can do with Red (Thai Pavilion is king of that particular hill)

The desserts, were fantastic. Not a single mis-step here, the rum and coke ice-cream was probably the best. For a Pan-Asian restaurant to do desserts like this is quite rare.

Overall, the space is interesting, Pan-Asian is a very competitive space but Umame seem to have the offering down right. Most of the dishes are pretty good, the desserts & cocktails are also top notch, hopefully they can keep the standards up. Worth a look.