A Tale Of Two Thalis

As mentioned before, i was parked at the Saifee Hospital for a bit and took an outstation guest for lunch to Golden Star which is just around the corner. For some reason Golden Star has never really been high on our radar, perhaps because my dad never favoured it and also because it has no parking available.

Great food, not so great service but that's okay.

A photo posted by Gaurav (@gauravgjain) on Dec 27, 2014 at 10:32pm PST

Thalis have become more and more about excess, cramming things in and offering vareity as well as more and more desserts.

While the food on the whole was pretty good, no complaints with quality or taste. I do think that adding Dal Bati which was strictly okay was excessive and its not quite Gujju. The Undhiyu too is always around in these months but is a specialist dish it should be done carefully. I am not a fan of puris either, a bhakri would have been kind of good.

In any case this was my guests first thali ever and he loved the experience. The service was pretty slack and i had to pretty much ask for everything i wanted which is the sign of a badly run crew. The dhokla showed up only twice.

Price wise, it was def not cheap, 400 bucks per person is hefty.

A photo posted by Gaurav (@gauravgjain) on Dec 27, 2014 at 10:32pm PST

#lunch

A photo posted by Gaurav (@gauravgjain) on Dec 20, 2014 at 12:34am PST

One of my fav meals, this one, i cant go more than a month without a visit. this one too was pretty spectacular, Luckliy enough on a weekday we were able to get our tables without too much of a wait.

Overall, nothing new except the awesome food but the beans which were very tasty but seemed kind of odd, i wouldnt have expected them in a meal like this. Will check up on this when i can but there is little to complain about here. Rasam & Sambar were terrific, the buttermilk was super spicy and yoghurt as it should be - tangy. The tamarind chutney was awesome too.

Bliss. at 150 bucks.

Rasovara Rajdhani

A lot of the past month has been spent in and out of phoenix mills, shopping for a family wedding. Having been to pretty much every restaurant we finally decided to head to Rasovara, which was the final piece of the puzzle. 

we walked in around 2.15 i reckon, the place was just about packed but had two or three tables and we were seated right away. 

the dhokla was terrific, the fried patty thing was good but of late, i have lost my taste for fried food (not dieting, no siree bob) 

the kachori was terrific, pity more than one would ruin the appetite. 

the chaas was nice, i personally prefer it real cold. 

the dal baati was pretty good too but again, would kill the appetite. 

Rasovara, is the upper echelon of thali dining, and they dont really scrimp on mch, the veggies that day were a yoghurt and okra, gujju style aloo amongst other things. 

went for the basundi for my dessert.

overall, the place is def swanky and they continue to do the appetizer first and then main course approach which i personally don't like, especially since their appetizers are pretty good. 

i do think they should go back to the traditional system of serving. the quantity is simply staggering and  daresay there is possibly too much and one must pace oneself. while serving too, they staff will insist we try and they dont take no for an answer easily. 

at 600+ the price is certainly on the higher side, possibly the most expensive thali outside of a 5star, but going by volume, a person with an appetite would not feel like they have overpaid. Indulgent but certainly worth it once in a while. 

Rasovar by Radjhani

Rest: Rasovara by Rajdhani
Meal: Lunch
Loc: Phoenix Mills

A few weeks ago i attended a bloggers luncheon at Rajdhani and did the same a few days ago as well. The bloggers are a merry bunch and its good to catch up with them every once in  while. Rasovara is an interesting attempt to alter what is a tried and tested format in the Indian dining scene.. the Thali.

Rajdhani was already one of my fav joints for a thali in the upper end (my all time fav is Friends Union which is much more basic) especially because they make attempts to differentiate themselves with their offering. Their use of makkhan (churned white butter) adds tremendous value to the food and is a throwback to what Indian food tasted like back in the day.

While Rajdhani has multiple outlets country wide and the thali is their mainstay, its brave of them to try and change what works. They have tweaked the concept of a regular thali to make it a more royal experience, from the decor which is upmarket to the plate setting to the number of dishes.

The handmade plates with all the bowls and silverware weigh in at 2.5-2.6 kgs (6lbs) and have a golden sheen to reflect the royal moniker.  Another unique introduction is a set captain to co-ordinate your dinner, he will call for anything the people on the table desire.

We were welcomed with a pretty delicious, albeit heavy glass of thandai (almond based cooler)

There is now a set appetizer course which is served at the opening of the meal and once you are through the dish is taken away. The Dahi Vada was okay but the dhokla was just incredibly good.

The Dal-Batti-Churma which used to be offered as a once in a while special is now a staple. Not bad.

Overall, there were 2 types of kadhis, 2 dals, 4 veggies, 4 types of bread, two type of rice etc. The food was good, no real complaints.

The price for the thali is usually 350 which i have always found on the higher side, (A friends union does a basic version with a few less entrees and appetizers for 150) but the Rasovar experience comes to you at between 549 and 649 depending (weekday lunch & dinner. 649 on weekends throughout the day)

What i liked about the experience was that there was an attempt to try something different, bringing on a custom captain to co-ordinate the meal is a good idea and when you have a high number of dishes it actually works out for the better. I also like the relaxed pace and even though there were 50+ people dining then it felt like we had our own personal space.We were also told that the higher price of the thali allows them to use even better and more expensive ingredients and offer dishes they could not before. Which explains the ghee laden badam ka khalwa (almond halwa)

What i did not like.. First off, the thali experience is about having all the things together at once. I did not like having my appetizers up front and then not having them later.. i think the courses concept leads to a less than fulfilled meal and must revert to its earlier state.

I also think that there are simply too many things on offer, sweets could easily be reduced, the dal bati could be removed as well. They could add a few more kinds of bread (light ones a stuffed paratha is a bad idea) some more veggies because we end up with ones we dont like far too often.The offering needs a little tweaking but thats just my opinion.


The service was a tad off, with waits for things i wanted but i think they will be get that sorted out.

Friends Union Joshi Club

Rest : Friends Union Joshi Club

Loc : Kalbadevi Road

Meal : Lunch

My dad turned me on to Friends Union a few years ago and i end up there once a year or so, the fact that it is located on Kalbadevi Road, which is near impossible to get in and out of keeps me away from some absolutely amazing food. This Sunday afternoon, whilst trying to figure out where to go, my friend and frequent dining companion Slash (not the GNR axeman) and Mr.Samant were in the mood for something not South Indian. So FUJC seemed like a good idea.

Located on the first floor, FUJC club is an old khanaval serving home style Gujarati food for less (more on that later) it is not easy to find but once you are on Kalbadevi Road, walk roughly towards the middle and you will find a sign towards the first floor, enter the door below and find your way up.

The space is fairly basic and functional, no luxuries here, as Mr.Samant noticed, you get an idea of how serious they are when you see the heavy steel plates (parats as we call em)

The place was not too busy when we walked in and they brought up a litle plate of chutneys and pickles.

The first thing to come out was the white dhokla served with delectable white yoghurt chutney, absolutely brilliant, the little kachori pakoda thing was not bad a tad on the hot side. Good start.

the garlic chutney was strong and fiery, awesomesauce.

the patta gobi (cabbage, cauliflower n peas) was oily but brilliant.

the veggies were a very punjabi onion-tomato which was hot and actually pretty good but stuck out like a sore thumb. the cholly was awesome as was the watery tomato n potato (aloo tomato) brilliant.

Sunday menu is different, they dont serve Bakhris but Puris and the dal is not sweet, they also serve a yellow kadi along with the sweet white one. I am not a fan of the yellow kadi and i like my sweet dal so i was disappointed.

Overall the food was fabulous, my fellow diners were constantly saying that it was fantastic and i think this is one of the best if not THE best gujju meals in the city. The fact that they keep it simple really goes a long way.Also, a fantastic dish was the basundi, which was phenomenal.

The ambiance is nothing to write home about so do not come expecting luxury, this is all about quick functional delicious food.

The service too is basic, not the most efficient, you need to ask for somethings but they bring em out quickly enough. Frustratingly they serve an awesome glass of chilled chaas but only bring you a second very very begrudgingly, quite frustrating for someone like me who is a big chaas drinker.

Overall, the food still kicks major ass (previous visits here) and i highly recommend a visit if you can brave the traffic and find it.

Food : 9/10
Service : 6/10
Damage : 160 per person (with two sweets on Sundays, week days without sweets is i think about 100)

Ahmedabad

Our friends Pooja & Pramit got married this weekend in a Gujju-Mallu wedding in Ahmedabad. I was quite looking forward to a gastronomic feast which it was but not exactly as i expected.

Ahmedabad has seen a fair bit of progress over the last few years, wide roads which are more or less clean and traffic is not too bad for a former capital. Two major national educational institutes (IIM-A and NID) a convention centre and an airport which is at best 30 minutes from most places.

Right at the airport i found a Havemor, which is all over Gujarat and has begun mushrooming in other states as well. They serve the ice cream sandwich, something i have been looking for quite a while but have had no luck in Bombay (K.Rustoms on Marine Drive does not really count)

The sandwiches were delicious and i had two a day throughout my stay there. I hope they add a chocolate flavored one soon. Apparently there is a Havemor outlet in Phoenix Mills, though i haven't seen it yet.

Our first meal that day was a totally south Indian home cooked meal complete with pappads, rasam, brilliant, BRILLIANT dal, curd rice (damn, i want to cry now, really)

Pramit, the groom and our man in Ahmedabad recommended we have breakfast at Laxmi Gathiya Rath (map) which is right on Nehrunagar circle. On a Sunday morning the place was fairly buzzy, they serve regular gujju staples,

The Khaman was brilliant, sweet with spicy chutney, good good stuff, i like my khaman softer with a little more water, this was dryer but not bad at all.

the white dhokla was pretty good as well, the fafdi/papdi was very different from what i am used to here, its usually dry and crunchy while this was just out of the frying pan and continued to be soft throughout our meal.

The patra were nice, though i have this habit of having em with ketchup, so felt a little incomplete.

the khandvi again, soft and surprisingly on the spicy side with flecks of chillies in and around.

the chutneys.. Overall the food was brilliant, however its plainly unhealthy for you, nearly everything was friend and they werent cheap about the oil either. Dont think id be able to do this more than once a month.

Another surprise was this crate we saw while leaving, after our chai. A crate of Sosyo, the evening before we were discussing old tv commercials and dead drinks we liked as kids. Sosyo had a catchy commercial and was easily available in the 80's but disappeared all together at some point.
But Lo and Behold, we see a crate and walked over to check out how it was possible.

Shailesh Prabhu, founder of Yellow Monkey Games, greedily gulps it all down.

Turns out Sosyo (website) is actually still alive and is an original Gujarat brand being exported globally (but not nationally) The drink is masala soda esque but not quite as spicy, it just needs to be chugged to be understood. Now if only someone would bring those awesome Gold Spot bottles back! (For the record Pepsi has revived Dukes which is the only good thing i can say about Pepsi)

As i mentioned before, i went for a wedding most of our meals were with the wedding party, as much as i wanted to slip out and get a thali (which i love) i really couldn't get around to it. Part of the reason was meals like the one above which were simply stunning. A traditional meal this is probably one of the best, south indian meals i have ever had.

there were sweet and salty banana chips, veggies, avial, puri, papads, the most amazing AMAZING tamarind chutney i have ever had, a brilliant sambar, pyasamas galore.

dal, rice and ghee, how on earth could that be anything but great. 

washed down by loads of spiced buttermilk. 

So all in all, the trip was amazing, the city was easy like Sunday morning (though i could never move there) the food was good all around, we had plenty of meals Gujju, South Indian, Punjabi, home made pav bhaji even and not a single one was below superb. 

Perhaps ill get a shot at Ahmedabad and their Thalis some day, until then Bombay will have to suffice !

Panchvati Gaurav

Rest : Panchvati Gaurav
Meal : Lunch
Loc : Infiniti Mall, Andheri Link Road

After a long day auditioning voice over talent in Andheri, we decided to grab a quick lunch before heading to work. Last week in Andheri, doing the same thing we ended up at TGIF for a dreadful meal. I regretted not having gone into Panchvati, so this time i got a shot at making up for my mistake.

Panchvati serves a pretty impressive thali here in Andheri, my visit to their older Marine Lines venue was good (read), except the food was not that warm which was a major turn off. This time around though, the service was okay and the food was hot.

They serve a boring dhokla, a fantastic papdi chaat, of the 4 veggies, three were great, one i didnt like at all. Not much of an option when it comes to bread, all they have is roti and puris, the masala rice was below average. The Marine Lines venue serves a bhakri as well, which i enjoy. The chaas could have been way colder.

Overall, the food is good, the service ordinary.

I would consider a 150-175 to be a decent price for a thali, the moment you cross to 2oo, it needs to be superlative. While it was good, it was def not worth the 250 per person price tag.

Samrat - Thali

Rest : Samrat
Loc : Churchgate
Meal : Lunch

Previous visit here

Another thali afternoon at Samrat, the busy Churchgate eatery patronised by businessmen in the area, women on their kitty as well as some of us who just come there for the food.


the thali is usually decent at Samrat, my brother had never in all his years had a thali here, while i havent had the a la carte North Indian food here in a long time.

one of my fav things was the chaas, which was served chilled with plenty of refills.

the salads, the snack and munchies were more or less average. nothing spectacular.

the sweet dal and the sweet kadhi were both fantastic and are usually the mainstay of a thali most places.

unlike other places they didnt offer a bhakri but a thepla and a normal roti. they also serve rice, pulao & khichadi which is slightly more options than most other thali places.

the dessert was an average rasmalai.

Overall, its a busy place at lunch time and the service is geared towards dealing with it. I like their thali i find its better than their sister restaurant Status.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 550

A primer on thalis is here

My other thali visits are here & here

Soam

Rest : Soam
Meal : Supper
Loc : Babulnath

Soam is an ethnic food joint which serves as the only competition for the hugely popular Swati, while Soam is popular it does not have the gargantuan lines and constant waiting that is a common feature of Swati. This is not a mark against Soam in anyway though they compete fairly well and do a decent job while they are it.

The place is comfortable and ambiance is fairly upmarket and modern. The menu offers many options identical to Swati (Golas, Sugarcane juice, Panki) while at the same time it has different items and also offers its own take on Gujarati & Maharashtrian cuisine. Similar yet different would be an apt explanation.

We started with a Masala chaas which was excellent, and we had to go on and get another one.

Diet Pepsi for me.

Being our first visit together (i have been here long ago) we didn't try anything too out there and stuck to what we know. The regualr rice panki with green chutney, was excellent, just as good if not better than its Swati counterpart. They have many options on the panki front too.

The masala rice with yoghurt kadi was excellent. The rice seemed to have a real home made touch, slightly on the spicy side it worked real well with the kadi.

Overall,the whole experience was fairly positive, the place is small but well patronized. Shall return and be more experimental soon.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage 400

Soam
Sadguru Sadan
Ground Floor
Chowpatty, Girgaum, Mumbai
Phone 23698080

Friends Union Joshi Club

Rest : Joshi Club
Loc : Kalbadevi
Meal : Lunch

The Friends Union Joshi Club is a hard to find, no nonsense little place about a hundred years old, not a restaurant in the traditional sense as they have only ont thing on offer but places like this were the order of the day before we developed a proper eating out culture. Its not only great food but its a slice of old Bombay as well.

Its located on the main road of Kalbadevi on the first floor of an old building, the entrance is from the inside of a building complex (Narotam Wadi)

Though its not a traditional restaurant with fittings of comfort its well lit, ventilated and clean but not air conditioned. The seating is also sideways, they can seat about 50-60 odd people, the whole point is to come in, sit down, eat quickly and let others do the same. The concept was the lifeline of students & businessmen living away from their families and on a budget (though now i am not so sure about the budget part)

Compared to the other restaurants the service is not as sequentially organized, you will find things coming mid meal (farsan, papad etc) there is no option for khichadi or the white kadhi. However none of this detracts from the food you do get.

The salad did not seem like the freshest thing in the world (it was really dry) and might have been cut in the morning. Got a bunch of chutneys & pickle along with.

The chaas was chilled and just the best i have had in a long time. I had like 6 glasses, it was just stupendous.

There were two options for the daal, sweet & regular and i chose the sweet one which was perfect, not to sweet and with peanuts. The Aloo was also great, not too spicy and seemingly fresh made. The Chana again, slightly on the spicier side but well made and fairly tasty. There was bhindi (okra) and some green thing both of which i dont do, so no picture. Everything went well with each other which makes things that much more interesting.

For the breads its simple you get a chapatti, a bhakri and a masala roti (not pictured) they also had some regular rice with ghee. Overall the food was great, the service was okay and there is little i have to complaint about. Compared to the other thali purveryors this is quick, no frills and to the point. Even the sweets are an add on.

Food : 9/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 180 for 2.