Restaurant review Chetna's@ Kalaghoda

This boasts as one of the early eateries in the town to start the now famous rajasthani/ gujarathi thali. For a change, this place serves 3-4 types of thali – Gujarathi, Rajasthani , Maharashtrian and a G+R combo. They also have seasonal celebrations like in winter they serve daal bati and churma in the rajasthani thali. I can’t tell what they do for summer as I have never been there in summer.
The best part though about this place is that they are very affordable considering the location they are situated in and the fact that they also have a-la-carte menu.


The variety of food could be a little better and something they need to work upon especially now when the initial excitement on the thali system is over.


The most exciting menu item on my rajasthani thali (which DH eyed looking past his own Gujarathi low key thali) was the Ker Sangri sabji. It is some kind divine intervention always,that I hear about something and immediately happen to eat or notice it the same or at max the next day. I remember, reading about ker sangri on Chef Pankaj’s cookbook review site.
The churma laddoo, gulab jamun were just about okay, cannot complain or crib about what they missed. However, the seviyan kheer was a complete dampener. It was very bland in taste and also runny for my liking. The buttermilk, jaljeera water, vegetables in rajasthani thali, were very good. The starters were good in taste, but need some more zing as you expect something new after having known dhokla and matar patties for ages now.
The daal bati was very high in calories(read fat) and should be served at the start of the menu else, there is no room left to try it. Also, the dal gets served in the first 10 min and the bati follows in a separate bowl after 10 min. This kills the dish as the dal is very cold by then and asking for another helping seemed sloppy when I was sure that I cannot finish what I already had on my dish.

As against the popular 2 kinds of rice – khichdi and plain rice, here they serve 3 options. The 3rd one is the maharashtrian staple fodnicha bhaat (tempered rice) which I believe was made using fresh rice unlike the regular recycling that we maharashtrians do at home.
Overall feedback,
Price wise 2 Thumbs Up 290 Rs for Gujarathi Thali and 390 for Rajasthani thali in up town is pretty reasonable even for an all veg thali
Taste wise- You have no reason to complain as the food served is authentic , original and true to its roots
Ambience - It is a nice place especially past 8 PM when the streets outside are empty and remind you of some old European country side road
Service - Thali system, you are always served with a smiling face and they insist to feed you even when you appear stuffed

As I said, barring the extra zing they are perfect.



Comments

Hema said…
Nice review, the food platter looks very tempting..
Fairy Garden said…
yummy the food platter looks full and mouth watering as it is chetnas.

thanks for responding to my recap-jan12.

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