In a NUtshell:A restaurant manned by ‘cold’ people, members of ‘no laughter club’ , the restaurant has average ambience and serves very good food Address & other details: The calcutta club Meal for 2: ₹500 onwards Cuisine type : vegetarian and non vegetarian Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & … Continue reading The calcutta club (22, link plaza, near police station, Oshiwara , Andheri West, mumbai)
This is a review of Sunday brunch In a nutshell: An unforgettable brunch, one of the best we have had in years, in terms of spread, amazing attention to detail by chef and team, brilliant conceptualisation and seamless execution. For seafood lovers in india, this is specially more interesting. Address & other details: Meal for 2: ₹6000 Cuisine type : vegetarian and non vegetarian Disclaimer: … Continue reading J W Cafe (J W Marriott, sahar , mumbai International Airport area, mumbai)
Read YUMMRAJ’s latest review of AC 1st class rajdhani here: rajdhani
In a nutshell:
My first time travel in AC 1 of Duronto – turned out to b a series of Pleasant surprises. Pretty Good food, very good service & an amazing experience in a coupe of a new coach.
The story:
Duronto , like the Rajdhani trains, r full AC trains with meals included in the ticket price. Unlike Rajdhani, Duronto is a ‘no stop’ train – so it straight away stops at the final destination. We decided to travel by this train for a holiday from Delhi to Kolkata & chose AC1.
inside Duronto AC1 coupe
What is strange about AC1 is that even if u book way in advance, the seats / cabins r not allocated till the day of journey. We were thrilled to see us being allotted to a coupe (only two people in a cabin instead of four).
As I entered the coupe , I was pleasantly surprised. It did not quite look like Indian Railways. New coach, spic & span, pristine white walls & ceiling, a huge 4ft X 3ft mirror, a tiny mirror etc. I cud sense the room freshner as well. At times it felt like we were sitting in a mid-range hotel (of course ignoring the size of the cabin).
We were lucky to have the pantry car just next to our coach. It had transparent glass window & I peeped into it – looked as good as an open kitchen restaurant. Within I guess 10 minutes after the train started, an IRCTC representative came & welcomed us & gave us a rose & a facial wet wipe.
welcome rose & face wipe aboard Duronto
Within minutes of this, the pantry boy appeared with two menu cards – printed & laminated like the ones in low to mid end Restaurants. One menu card was veg Indian & nonveg Indian. The other was Veg continental & non-veg continental.
We started to read the Indian non-veg & were surprised to see ‘veg au gratin’ written in it. We were told that ‘the starters r common for Indian & continental but the main course is different’.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy reading:
Service started within 30 minutes of the start of journey. The server came in & pulled out two foldable tables from one corner of our cabin & set them up.
Foldable dinner tables aboard Duronto
He served freshly made thick vegetable soup. Good to taste by Restaurant standard & awesome to taste by ‘Indian Railways standard’. Soup sticks were also given along with this – those turned out to be sub optimally crunchy. We njoyed our soup with dollops of Amul butter. Halfway thru the soup I decided to season it with black pepper – that is what turned out to b a bad decision. The pepper provided was as fine as dust & it was quite weird. Spoilt the Soup to some extent.
vegetable thick soup aboard Duronto
After a gap of almost 20 minutes, we were served starters – 2 pieces of Fish Orly & a lump of vegetable au gratin, in addition to one apple.
Vegetable au gratin turned out to b a catastrophe. It was a lump of sweet potato with cheese popping up at different spots, funny texture & really bad by Restaurant, someone’ home or train or any standard.
The fish orly was awesome to the power 10. It was deep batter fried fish that had a thin outer batter layer & a superbly juicy, soft, flaky fish fillet inside. Outstanding flavors of the fish & also the spices ……………….. Good by all standards – Restaurant, train, aeroplane, someone’s house etc.
Cool hangout place with friends & family, good food in general topped up with some real masterpieces.
Address & other details:Sky Lounge
Sheesha Sky Lounge
Cuisine type:Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Meal for 2:Rs. 500 onwards
Short description – In case u r in a hurry:
The first time I went to this place I was super impressed. I was pleasantly surprised again on my second visit as well.
A part of the interiors of this Lounge is for obvious reasons, in lounge style with sofas etc in Indian detailing. On another side there are few open cubicles with interesting seating in which a group of five to ten can easily sit around a table & talk to each other face to face while enjoying the food & beverages. There is normal restaurant seating in another section as well.
The first time we went to the restaurant, it was 7.00 pm. The place was quite empty for almost an hour & looked spacious. The second occasion we reached at about 9.00 pm. The place was jam packed & fully alive. Liked both the occasions. Love the lamp shades here as that dramatically livens up the otherwise brown, beige & white interiors.
the cool lamp shades at Sheesha Sky lounge
The waiting staff is quite warm & knowledgeable. Service is reasonably in time. Not too fast , not too late. Both the occasions I found that the ‘order’ in which we ordered the food was followed.
The menu card is very tastefully done.
The menu card
The food is good. There are sure instances of trying to do some things differently. Some of the food I found to be outstanding.
Sheesha was not served due to the new Government regulation.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
Exceeded expectations when it came to eating superb subtle Assamese food in the land of strong flavors & taste – Delhi.
Near the entrance of the Restaurant
Address & other details: Jakoi
Meal for 2:Rs. 700 onwards
traditional setting in open air sitting area
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
The Assam Bhawan Canteen is managed by Jakoi, a restaurant Chain in Assam. The eatery has a nice & warm traditional look & feel to it. U can choose to sit indoors or outdoors. The outdoor seating is quite interesting conceptually – large hand painted metal trunks form a table & people sit around them on cane chairs.
hand painted metal trunks serve as tables.
Traditional bamboo products like fishing hats, fishing nets (jakoi) etc are displayed all over. In the indoor section, there are displays of traditional Mekhla Cloth, silk worms & a lot of interesting things.
Traditional fishing instrument Jakoi & other things on display
The menu card looks like a Jakoi. There are options of set menus as well as ala carte. Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian options are available. Assamese names of all dishes were printed. On the table there was a small ‘special menu’ which was just Assamese words written in English Script……….
Menu card that looks like Jakoi (2D of course)
……….& that is what sparked off a debate. We had heard about a pepper called Bhut Jalokia which is hot but in a different way than Chilly. So we wanted to have a preparation with that. In our conversation with the staff, neither of us understood each other & we got what we did not order. After a tiny debate, the Manager came in & changed the dish to what we wanted. This could have been avoided if the additional menu wud also have had an English Translation.
beautiful traditional decoration inside
Food is subtle & not ‘on the face’. Flavors r enjoyable. We loved the thali so much last time that we again went for the thali. We were pleasantly surprised to find that all of the dishes in the set menu were good.
parampara thali at Jakoi
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
U will find it quite Good on its own – however, if u compare to Jaipur eateries, then this one falls flat on the face.
Meal for 2: Rs. 100 onwards
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian
Description:
When we went to this place sometime back, we quite liked it. We opted for a Rajasthani thali – a gatta curry that tasted very good but with hard gattas which might b compared to cadbury’s eclairs!!!!! A kadhi – again very nice but with quite hard pakoras that wud make noise if they fall from ur hand. A daal that was mildly spicy & a very good flavor of its own – really enjoyable & a potato curry that was not bad at all but not wow either.
In a nutshell: Excellent Dal, baati, Choorma, Subzi – one of the best I have had so far. Cuisine Type: Vegetarian Meal for 2: Rs. 120 onwards Description: There r only 2 options of food in this very focused restaurant – Daal, Baati thali or Daal Roti thali. Needless to say, since we were visiting Jaipur & wanted to taste the local fare, we ordered … Continue reading Santosh Bhojanalaya (Station Road, Jaipur)
In a nutshell: One of the best rustic, authentic, lipsmacking Dhaba food that I have come across in a while. Cuisine Type: Vegetarian Meal For 2: Rs. 80 onwards Detailed Description & the story: We had read about this place in a book called ‘Highway on my plate’ by Rocky & Mayur. The book says ‘wander here no faint of heart’. It’s a true blue … Continue reading Bajwa ka Dhaba (opposite Highway King, 60 km before u reach Jaipur from Delhi, on NH8)
