Food Corner

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Rajdhani - A Paradise for Veggie: Aaojo

Saturday night and search for good food. Suddenly I remembered someone mentioning about Rajdhani in CP offering Gujrati Thali. So why not try that out. Paresh and Nitin picked me up from my house and we headed towards CP. I had just heard that its near PVR and we parked very close to PVR Plaza. There we came to know that the place is near PVR Rivoli. I never knew there are two PVRs in CP. Anycase that was not far off and we decided to walk the talk, with standard discussions on life, starting a company, patents etc.

After a waiting time for 10 mins, we got a seat. I must say the person handling the waiting queue was very courteous which is rare in most of the places. The first thing that attracted me is the vessel they gave to wash our hands. No other place I have visited before gives you a chance to wash your hands before food. After washing hands, then started the long list of food to follow. My fav was Thika Dal, Khichdi, Aloo ki subji, Veg Roll. Food here is unlimited and the people there really want you to eat as much as possible (much like AP Bhawan). Ambience is simple and clean. It doesnt hurt much to the wallet also. 150 per head (120 i guess on weekdays) in CP for good food is anyway a good deal.

The restaurant is located right in front of PVR Rivoli(Outer circle). For parking, I would suggest to park in CP Inner Circle, in front of 'Rodeus' and take a short walk. There is a subway also to cross the outercircle. There is going to be a outlet in Noida soon and that will help people like us. Till then, I guess we will make another trip for sure sometime soon.

On leaving the place, there is a drum which you can beat to show your satisfaction and on doing that, people there say "Aaojo" which in gujrati means "Please come Again"

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Fooding around in Pilani

Last Week I visited Pilani for Adobe's Campus Recuitment drive and had a great time eating out in Connaught. So thought to put down my experience with some suggestions. If you are a Pilani student, you wont learn anything new but I hope you would definitely agree with my choice of places and food. If you have not stayed/studied in Pilani but visiting Pilani, this posting is going to help you to make the right choices related to food. So when in Pilani, you can try eating out at the following places...

1. Fried Maggi in Blue Moon: Start with this in Pilani. The maggi over here is amazing. The taste remains the same. Try it with MNB(Mid Night Beauty:Shake with Icecream Scoop of choice) or hot chocolate. The milkshakes here are also great.

2. Dhaba on Jaipur Road: Situated close to Sarvajanik Hospital on Jaipur Highway, this place rose to prominence during the late 90s (i think our group had a major role in that). Ask for Cheese Tomato when you are here. Nice food with a dhaba ambience. During winter, one can enjoy the 'sarson ka khet" nearby.

3. Coffee with Sandwich in SKY: A visit to Sky during daytime is a must. Supplement that with a strong coffee with vegetable sandwich from Pappu(owner of the only food outlet in SKY). If you have studied in Pilani, expect to be recognized by Pappu.

4. Dosa at Annapurna: Nice Crispy Dosa. Tasty filling. Also ask for Saunf at Annapurna. They serve those colored sweet saunf which tastes very good.

5. Non Veg at GD: If you are a Non vegetarian, there are very little options in Pilani as most of the places serve pure Veg food. Try out Golden Dragon or Kapoors. I would suggest GD first.

6. Gulab Jamun at Sharmas: Try it after dinner. They serve you hot. It generally gets over by 10.30. So book it for yourself before you finish your dinner. They may not last that long.

7. Pan at the Corner Shop: "Shiv Ganga" is what the shop owner has given the name to his speciality. He puts a "laung" in the sweet pan and puts it on fire. Then you put the burning pan in your mouth. Really good in the winter. Finish your day with the pan.

One thing that hasnt changed in Connaught is the lack of wash basins in the restaurant. I guess they dont see any ROI by putting in the wash basins. So things remains as they were.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Jan Food Festival

I am blogging after a long time but I have lots to write as well. Hopefully that will compensate. This week was all about good food.

Sunday:AP Bhawan
We started up on Sunday with good Andhra Thali at AP Bhawan near India Gate. Its the best place to have authentic andhra food and that too just at 60 rupees (it was 50 sometime back :)) Fixed price, unlimited food. What else one wants? Service...topclass...before you finish food, there will be people asking you to have more. Yes it can improve a bit in cleanliness in the wash area. One can ask for non-veg for an extra 60 bucks. One can have chicken and fish. I have heard they serve biryani on sunday afternoons but have never tried that.

Monday: Big Chill, GK
Italian food and good ambience and nice cheese cakes. If this interests you and you can spare 400 per person, head for Big Chill. Nice pastas, pizzas. Good that they have a number attached with every menu item. The names are so difficult. Never ever miss the cheese cakes when you are here. Too yummy. To top it, it has unique ambience. Crowd is too good. Definitely check this out. I was told there is another Big Chill in Khan Market but the GK one is the famous one. Good place for a big treat.

Tuesday: Mezbaan Near IIT Delhi
Heaven for student community in IIT, JNU, NII, IIMC and thousands other preparing for Civils who stay close by. Nice tasty Indian food with a hostel mess kind ambience. Quite cheap. 200 for two including Coffee and Gulabjamun at the end. Order something Indian here. Best bet is Nan and Sabzi/Chicken Curry. My favourite here is Garlic rice and Pineapple raita (any ex NIIite feeling hungry?)

Wednesday: Take a break...Adobe Cafeteria...Better not to write anything.

Thursday: Chor Bizarre, Noida
The ambience at this place is really great. Somehow its different from all other places I have visited. It has got a ethnic touch with sofas from yesteryears. Food is good. Totally Indian. We went for the buffet costing 350 per head. I wont say great food but combined with the ambience, the experience is good. Also try out the mousse there. its taste good. They add some kind of spices to it which makes it better. The place is famous for Kashmiri food but I decided to check that some other time.

Friday: Eating Point, Sec 20 Noida
Hidden in the local market complex of sec 20, its a very small eating joint which serves garma garam parathas and gajar ka halwa. I liked the Halwa. Paratha was ok. The gobi one was better than Aloo. Small simple place and the price is never going to hit you. 200 bucks for 4 person. Nice smiling people serving food.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Enjoy Mexican Food at Rodeo, Delhi

Rodeo is a popular food joint serving mexican food in CP Inner Circle. They have tried to create a cowboyish ambience inside and quite succeeded too. Cowboy hats by Waiters add to the ambience. We had some Chicken Fajita and it was good. Veg people among us ordered Veg Burritos which was so good that Chicken eaters also tried them out. When we landed there, we had very little idea of Mexican food but we returned with added general knowledge. Ofcourse we had the standard Nachos and Salsa. A catch there is that you get free serving of Nachos with meal. So dont order them for snacks if you plan to order meal. We didnt know that and we ordered Nachos just after occupying table (as that is the only mexican food we were aware of, courtesy PVR). Then we our meal, we got the Nachos again as free servings. I made it a point to inform the Manager there that people should be informed about this when they order Nachos as Snacks and pay for it. Its definitely a costly place. 4000 for 6 people for us and worse it was my bday treat :). Not a regular place for me but definitely worth experimenting.

Situated close to Metro Station, its easy to reach the place. Also if you are travelling by Road, there are lots of parking options close to the place. If you are visiting the place on weekend, I would suggest to book a table to avoid waiting there (no space to wait, very uncomfortable) but we were not that smart. We waited atleast for 15 mins before we could get a table.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Italian Food at Nick, Mcleod Ganj

If Pasta, Pizza, Pancake and Pastries excite you and you are in Mcleud ganj, this posting will definitely help you. Nick’s Italian Restaurant in Mcleud ganj is the place where you should be heading. I spent almost 2 days having breakfast/lunch/dinner at the place and I can assure you that this is one of the best dining out place in the area. With a a big open area facing the Mountains, the place provides excellent food as well as sight seeing. The place is really amazing. Buzzing with tourists, it has LIFE. Still you can pick up a corner table and just gaze at the mountains and be lost.

Its difficult to say what I liked the most there. Cheese Pancakes, Almond American Cake, Chocolate Cakes all were so tasty. Just order anything there and be assured that it will be good. You can start your day with Farmer's Breakfast which has the regular toast/omlette and end your dinner with some cake like Lemon cheese cake.

Food is definitely heavy on cheese side but there seems to be magic in the place. We had boat loads of cheese there for 2 days but somehow we still felt light at the end of the meal. Food is economical too. Any dish will cost you around Rs 40-60. Three of us were there and when we ate like hungry kids, we could barely reach 300 (includes cakes). So the place is light on your stomach as well as on your wallet and 5 star rating for taste and ambience.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

KFC Noida: A new food option

I have been visiting KFC quite often and really liking the "Zinger Burger" (try it with cheese). Its a new addition to Sec 18 Noida. Other than the burger, definitely try out the standard Chicken "K" style. Will update this as I try out more and more from the outlet.

Indian Food at Moti Mahal

Brother was in Noida and he just wanted to have typical delhi type indian food. So after his regular shopping at the "Dockers and Colorplus" shop, 3 of us (akshay joined us) went to Moti Mahal for dinner. This was my first visit to the place. The decors were not that great but ok kind. We were lucky to get the window seat overlooking MacD. We started with JalJeera and Lemon Soda and then Tandoori Aloo followed. It was good. Really tasty. As we were not very hungry, we just decided to order Stuffed Kulcha and Dal Makhani (typical delhi style as per brother's request). Food was really tasty and one Kulcha was person was enough for us. Though we didnt have lots of food, i would say we had good quality food and the stomach was full in most optimal way :) As such it was brother's treat, so only gain....no damage.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Orissa Food Festival in Delhi Haat

Great break at the middle of the week as I went to attend the Orissa Festival at Delhi Haat. There was dance performances from Orissa and I liked the Ghoda nacha (Horse Dance) the most. But the biggest attraction of the event was the Oriya food that was served. I had a little of almost everything alongwith a lot of fish fry. Rasogolla was good. Unfortunately Prawns were over by the time we reached. Tarini, Pany, Neena and myself had good fun and also discussed a lot about weekend travels to around i guess 20 places. Hopefully just one materializes...

Ended the night with some chocolates at Barista. Tried out some roasted coffee wrapped in Milk Chocolates. It was nice but bit costly as the pack with some 10 pieces being priced at Rs 30.