This is a review of local cuisine at the coffee shop of the hotel.

In a nutshell:

A ‘home food away from home’ experience at Gateway Hotel, curated & partly cooked by a housewife from the city.

Address & other details: Gateway All day dining
Meal for 2: 500 onwards
Cuisine type : vegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short description – in case u r in  a hurry:

The home food section had a Gujarati sampler which we were told was curated by a Gujarati housewife from Vadodara. So we opted for it.

The description read ‘you can order from any of the above seasonal vegetables’. Our server said that there were two fixed options only – bataka ringna nu rasawalu saag (potato and brinjal cooked Gujarati style) and ringo no olo (roasted brinjal). Wierd. So we ordered a set menu and two a la carte sides oondhiyo and bhinda nu shaak ( okra cooked with Gujarati spices).

When the set menu came, we found that it had an okra and bhinda nu shaak ( okra cooked with Gujarati spices). We pointed out. A senior gentleman owned up the mistake and said that actually we cud choose from any of the items. The junior was new and made a mistake. He said he will make changes in the dishes. The junior boy came back and said ‘but the chef told me there are only two options, what is my fault?’

…… Really? One of my rare such strange experience at a taj hotel.

However , must say that the seniors took action. On 3 different occasions at the Senior people met us to understand what went wrong & they apologized. I got to know that they did a root cause analysis to find why this had happened & the they figured the reason & are hopeful that this will not happen again. I was impressed – Things can go wrong in any business but the way it is handled ,makes a huge difference.

Food was good in general. It did not taste like mass produced commercial food with extra oil and Color. It was simple and good food for daily consumption by business travellers ( this is more a business hotel).

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading

Sugarcane juice was served in a beer mug. It had lemon, ginger and black pepper added to it. Loved the combo and the rich, refreshing sugarcane juice. Awesome. Rate it 4.5/5

Bhakarwadi was served as a starter. It was not crispy and the outer layer was moist. I had to throw the balance after 1 bite. Rate it 1/5

bhinda nu shaak ( okra cooked with Gujarati spices) was a simple home like okra curry with the sliminess of okra intact. Spices did not make their presence felt. The salt was suboptimal. It was good as it is and gets 3:5 but for the salt finAl rating is 2.5/5

bataka ringna nu rasawalu saag (potato and brinjal cooked Gujarati style) did not excite us but we loved it as soon as the curry landed on our tastebuds. There was a tinge of sweetness like in most Gujarati curries. Loved the simplicity of the curry. Rate it 4/5.

Ringo no olo (roasted brinjal) was very good. It had a good balance of flavours of roasted brinjal and that of spices. Loved it and rate it 4/5.

The oondhiyo was good. It was not overtly ‘made up’ like the ones at Swati snacks or At soam. It was simple , home like. I guess it wud taste better with winter veggies. Rate it 4/5

Khichadi was good but not great. It was understated and again had sub optimal salt. As it is it wud hv been 3/5. With sub optimal salt rating goes to 2.5/5

Gujarati Kadhi, served hot , was sweet and sour in taste. Excellent. Rate it 4.5/5

Bajrey Ka rotla was great accompaniment with the various dishes.

Chaas was very nice. Rate it 4.25/5

Rasmalai was good but was not ‘calorieworthy’ as my foodie friend Aalok puts it. Rate it 3/5

Overall rating of food at gateway all day dining restaurant averages out to 3.4/5

Had breakfast at this restaurant the next day which was very good.