Rajputana instantly strikes with its skyrocketing ambiance and that rightfully takes centerstage. It's a wondrous sight to witness the sky lights to the outside in a very well done up elevated roof top restaurant. There are lovely cottage like settings for couples and small families and the dim lights with old school mild bollywood music playing across adds to the decor. It has a lot going for it on the class side but it's on the food that they need to do some giddying up to make the experience wholesome and complete.
The restaurant is located in Koyambedu near the bustling CMBT bus stand and is conveniently located on the top floor of JP hotel. They are open only for dinner and have both Buffet and Ala carte. It was an 'On the House' meal and we got our hands at the former which in actuality is priced at Rs 750 for veg and 850 for non veg. The food was quite a mixed bag with a few items being top notch but the majority of the food turned out being disappointing.
Chose the veg option and started out with a mocktail which was spicy and just didn't taste right. Next was the black gram soup which was passable with the ingredients being soaked right at the bottom. We had 3 starters in the form of a paneer, corn and gobi and the rating scale for them went from good to decent to bad. The paneer was the hands out winner in this section, being soft, chunky and presentable. The gobi at the other end of the spectrum was such a dampener not being grilled properly and was rather tasteless. On the main course we were served Indian Bread, Pulao, Biryani and 3 main course dishes. Really not much to complain on the nans and rice but it was on the gravies where they have lots of catching up to do. The dal was delicious but the veg makhanwala left a lot to be desired and the Kadai paneer which is supposed to be spicy had a rather funny taste and was flavorless. In effect was forced to have majority of the meal with the Black Dal for company. On the dessert section we had phirni, lassi and kulfi. Whilst the former two were no doubt nice it was the kulfi which won the day. It just had the perfect feel and texture to it and it was a delight gobbling them up. Also was a pretty good way to end a rather ordinary meal overall.
This one's a sit down buffet and one factor which was bothering was the time taken to serve the food which was taking for ever.
Whatever encomiums one showers on the ambiance, the food needs to match up because whether you like it or not its what you eat which is key and gives maximum weightage when visiting a restaurant. They have a lot of ground to cover up here and hope they take the necessary precautions to ensure the best in food and service supporting the already prevelant top draw ambiance.
