Food Corner

Rajdhani - A Paradise for Veggie: Aaojo

2007-06-17T13:31:00.000+05:30

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"

Fooding around in Pilani

2007-01-27T20:12:00.000+05:30

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.

Jan Food Festival

2007-01-13T03:13:00.000+05:30

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.

Enjoy Mexican Food at Rodeo, Delhi

2006-09-02T20:18:00.000+05:30

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.

Italian Food at Nick, Mcleod Ganj

2006-08-20T19:45:00.000+05:30

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.

KFC Noida: A new food option

2006-04-13T22:42:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-13T22:19:00.000+05:30

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.

Orissa Food Festival in Delhi Haat

2006-03-30T01:28:00.000+05:30

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.

Snacky time in Noida...

2006-03-18T20:28:00.000+05:30

Holi evening and I was getting restless for some spicy junk food. My flatmates were not ready to move out of the house. So have to call Tarini :) and he came to my rescue. We went to Taste of India in CenterStage Mall and ordered a Tandoori Platter and some Papdi Chat. I must say the Tandoori Platter was really nice. It was a combination of Paneer, Aloo, Gobhi and also some Nan and Dal. Very tasty. After our tandoor food, we went to Pizza Hut for some Pizzas. Luckily there was a scheme running which had a Pizza, Coke, Garlic Bread and Icecream at 75 per head. I had lots of Pizza and Garlic Bread and Tarini had my share of coke and icecream too (i avoid icecreams for my throat problem). Rs 150 for 2 with all this was a real good deal. After watching "Malamaal Weekly", I ended my snacky affair by having Pav Bhaji at home prepared by Joshi. Perfect end to the Holi evening.

Food Bonanza in North Campus, Delhi

2006-03-18T20:15:00.000+05:30

Moets, Karim and lots of "discussions"

I was in North Campus to meet couple of my Brother's friend and we were supposed to do some business discussion and yes we did have some meaningful discussions. But more importantly for this blog, I had some nice food at different places. We went to Moets (Chinese) in Civil Lines and had some nice Prawns, Chicken and Chowmein. Prawn was particularly good. The difference in Moets kind of chinese outlet and some indianized Chinese outlet is that Moets stuff are steamed whereas the desi chinese food means deep fried and spiced up a lot. Any case, i like both of them.
Mitha Pan with lots and lots of Gulkand outside Moet was a perfect end to the night (or actually a begining to the post dinner "discussions")

Murgh Biryani was waiting for us at Karims in Kamala Nagar during lunch time next day. We had some nice Chicken Barra (nice kababs) and Chicken Jahangira along with it. The gravy(of Jahangira) was really good and went nice with the Awadh style Biryani of Karims.

We ended the food festival by having some nice Pastries (Chocolate Truffle and Choco Almond) in a bakery outlet in Model Town and i got to know a small trivia about Model Town from sujit bhaina. It seems "Model Town" is the first Private Colony developed in Delhi(by DLF).

Choko la at PVR Priya Complex

2006-01-29T15:56:00.000+05:30

Theme Restaurant based on Chocolates. Could I ask for more? I read about the place in TOI and decided to check that out. Excellent decor and quite spacious. Good place to spend an evening with someone special but also great place for people like me who went there with Tarini :)

To get a taste of the place, we ordered a platter. Its called "Choka La Tasting Plate" - a selection of deserts. The one I liked the most in that was "Baba au rhum", a sponge cake marinated with jamaican rum. Also "Sao thome", a dark chocolate mousse with rice crsipy pralines. After that we ordered a milk chocolate drink "Papua" which had lemon, caramel and walnut. It was very tasty but definitely very rich.

Great Place with rich and tasty chocolates. Definitely a must go for all chocolate lovers like me. This place has inspired me to learn the art of making such delicious stuffs. May be someday I prepare them and invite you to taste.

Ichiban at Pandara Market

2006-01-23T17:06:00.000+05:30

Visiting Pandara Market for two consecutive days. Friday to Chicken Inn and Saturday to Ichiban. Ichiban is a speciality restraurant serving Chinese and Japanese food. It is a bit small place with not so elaborate decor but I must say the food is great.
Definitely try the "Tom Yam" Soup. Its a chicken soup with lemon grass in it. It has also a spicy tinge to it. Excellent soup I must say. We also ordered "Yaki tori" - grilled bar be cued chicken along with standard Noodles. It was good...for me it tasted like chicken pakodas. It was slightly costly than Bercos but i would say food was better.

Unlike Chicken Inn which caused the small hole in our wallet, Ichiban was a birthday treat by Pany. But the real burn came outside when he had Pan. Each Pan costed us Rs 15 :(.

Chicken Inn at Midnight

2006-01-21T17:59:00.000+05:30

I had heard a lot about Pandara Market Restaurants getting the midnight crowd. So after watching a excellent movie ("ZINDA") at PVR Noida, I along with my friends (Nitin, Chaitanya and P2) went to "Chicken Inn" at 2 in the night. But yes ofcourse after a game of TT in the office.

We just ordered some Aloo ke Parathas, Malai Kofta and Chicken Burra (Tikka like). Food was good. I really liked the ambience. Well lit with nice simple decors. The seating was comfortable. Crowd was good but not brilliant as expected. I was hoping to catch some Page3 celebrities out there and also may be we appearing on Page3 of next day Delhi Times. But sadly nothing like that happened. May be this place is not big enough for those stars but it was definitely hot enough to burn our pockets a little bit.

We ended the night with a Pan outside and then a long drive back to Noida (ofcourse after a ride around the India Gate)

Home Food at Orissa Bhawan

2005-11-14T19:31:00.000+05:30

We took all the pain to travel from Noida to Chanayakapuri to have lunch at Orissa Bhawan. Simple, tasty n cheap: just 3 words to describe the food. Fish Fry, Fish Curry, Rasogolla, Dal, Chawal, Sabji, Papad and you know how much it costed: only 70/head. Nice Oriya song was playing in the background. The only area of improvement is the wash basin area. One of the taps was not working and the area was not clean atll. After a satisying lunch, we took a walk around the area and went around Norway Embassy. I had been there before and reminded me of the past.

Geoffrey’s CenterStage Noida

2005-11-11T02:25:00.000+05:30

Chaitanya's birthday treat in Geoffrey's. Woh...this is a place for treat i guess. Quite costly but it also caters to a different class. Nice interiors, nice (loud) music. my friends told that its trans(something which keeps repeating). I tried Grilled Fish. It was good. Quantity less but tasted good. Then helped my friends with their food :) Pizza, Some Potato stuff(difficult name). Nice place to hang around with friends particularly if someone treating. Total freakout for today with lunch and dinner treat.

Pearl Regency, Noida

2005-11-11T02:17:00.000+05:30

My favourite here is Veg Biryani. I would prefer to call it Veg Pulao rather than Biryani. It is very tasty, truly indian. Very Spicy and full of kajus. Also I like to just have Butter Nan with Moorg Tikka Masala. I should say food is extremely spicy. Not sure abt health quotient but it definitely scores on taste qoutient. Quite Spacious. You have live music(Ghazals) on weekends. A good place to satisfy your taste bud. Checkout if there is special discount for your company. I get 15% discount for lunch :) Adobe zindabad. Today's occasion was pkant's treat. All the best to him who is shifting to USA for a job in California.

Andhra Bhawan Food + Dr. Mishra

2005-11-09T01:00:00.000+05:30

Tomorrow Dr. Mishra will be flying to France and we decided to go to Andhra Bhwan for dinner. You cannot find a better place for Andhra food for Rs 50, that too unlimited food. They keep you serving till you are totally fed up with food :) The system there is very simple. Just pay Rs 50 and win a ticket for delicious unlimited andhra thali. Non Veg costs you 50 more and you can get Mutton/Chicken Curry. I think they prepare Hyderabadi Biryani only on Sunday afternoons.

Dr Mishra likes Andhra Bhawan very much and all of us (Sambit, Beena, Dr. Mishra, Shweta) had great fun. After dinner, we had nice coffee at Barista in Green Park. We tried two new flavors of Hot Chocolate. One was Mint flavoured and other called Caribbean Hot Chocolate had some Rum added to it. I thought not to mix drinking and driving and went for the mint flavoured one. Try it sometime. Its different and great

Desi Food at Desi Vibes

2005-11-07T00:58:00.000+05:30

Had some nice punjabi food at Desi Vibes, located at Sec 18 Noida. It is very close to MotiMahal. We started with Murgh Sorba, then ordered Tandoor Platter. Both were great. Then we ordered the usual stuff...Butter Nan and Chicken Kadhai. Food was great...Not too spicy, not too bland. Right mix. Brilliant ambience...the usual well stuff, mud walls giving it a "desi look". Pricing reasonable, knowing it is in sec 18, noida...Rs 600 was the damage for 3 people...After dinner, we had Badam Milk at nearby Nathu's Shop. Good end to a great weekend(food, sleep, food, sleep, chat, sleep and some cricket) :)

Tea Corner

2005-11-06T15:52:00.000+05:30

I visited "my cup of tea", obviously for a cup of tea. I read about the place in the newspaper and really liked the concept (www.mycupoftea.com). I visited the shop in the PVR Priya complex alongwith Sambit and Tarini. I had a cup of Masala Chai and it was really good. Priced reasonably at Rs 35. They have some variety in Black Tea also (its called Tea Sangria). Next time I am there I will try out some Juiced Tea.

But they need to work really hard to tranform it from a good place to a great place. Music was lousy. Some bollywood numbers were playing. I guess in a concept based outlet like this, music should also be matching the mood of the place. Interiors was plane. Couple of lamp shades hanging around. Not really impressive. But the concept is good and i hope they put some serious effort to improve the ambience. Even I think they should work on the website. it is too slow (lots of images) and most of the pages are under construction.