Food - UdaipurTimes

[Recipe] Celebrate Eid With Delightful Desserts

September 8, 2010 By Krati Bansal 2 Comments

The pious month of Ramzan is on its verge to end. After Ramzan, Muslims will celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with ardent delight. Eid-ul-Fitr is the time to break the routine of month long fasts and have delicious food. Muslims visit to mosque for special prayers and all the friends and relatives have a small get together where all of them have Eid meal collectively to build a feeling of unity among each other and spread the happiness and love all around.

So here we are sharing two delightful recipes of Eid Seviyyan and Sheer-Khurma desserts with Udaipurites by Mrs.Sabina Hita.

1.SEVIYYAN

Ingredients :
2 Cups of milk
2 Tablespoon Of Rice
3 Tablespoon Of Sugar
1/4 Cup of blanched almonds (sliced)
1 Teaspoon of Green cardamom (crushed)
1/2 Teaspoon of Kewra essence
Silver or Gold foil paper (varak)

How to Cook:
Soak rice in water for few hours, after removing water, grind rice into a smooth paste. In a non-stick saucepan bring milk. Over a moderate low heat add rice, sugar and cardamom and stir constantly till milk turns thick. Now add almonds and put in serving bowl and chill. Garnish with silver or gold foil paper (varak) and serve.

…….

2.SHEER-KHURMA

Ingredients:
1 Pack Vermicelli
1 Gallon fresh whole milk
1 Cup sugar
20 cloves whole cardamom pods
1/2 Tea spoon cardamom powder
1 Cup slivered almond, cashews and pistachios
1/2 Cup fresh cream
1/2 Teaspoon saffron strands
3 Tablespoons charoli nuts
1/2 Cup light brown raisins
1/2 Teaspoon rose water
1 Tablespoon butter

How To Cook:

Fry the vermicelli in the butter until well browned but not burnt. Fry on low heat until all the butter is dried. Add in 1/4-cup sugar and fry again. Add in the whole milk cup by cup, stirring constantly, and bring to boil. Add in the raisins, whole cardamom, and 1/2 cup slivered almonds, cashews and pistachios, and the remaining sugar. Reduce the heat and thicken the sheer korma to three-strand consistency, letting the milk boil until it is halved. The vermicelli must be very soft by now.
Quickly add in the rose water, charoli and fresh cream and let simmer covered for 10 minutes.
Garnish with the saffron strands and powdered cardamom, and serve immediately.

…….

Hope these Eid desserts will sweeten your feverish mood on Eid-Ul-Fitr. Eid Mubarak.

Category: Culture | Food

[Food Review] Home of Elegant Biryani, Biryani House

September 4, 2010 By Zaheer Abbas 4 Comments

Month of Ramazan is going on, a month to refurbish ones soul and body by fasting and praying till late at nights, involving into spiritual practices and detaching oneself from worldly deeds. However, while breaking fast at evening till the next morning before sun rise Muslims are free to eat anything, naturally after a day long fast everyone will like to have something extra ordinary.

So here I am back with another food review from another eat out in Udaipur with more tasteful declaration of mine that I am in love with Biryani House Take-Away, they are specialized in Biryanis, Kebabs and Kormas. Situated at Chetak Circle (they earlier used to serve from their syphen/bedla shop)

I took a take-away parcel home after breaking our fast. We were 3 people who had all the food.

So, what we had?

Chicken Dum Hyderabadi Biryani
Mutton Dum Biryani
Chicken Malai Tikka

…………

Chicken Dum Hyderabadi Biryani

Favorite of Nizams, this dish has ruled Mughlai, Awadhi and Middle Eastern kitchens for many hundreds of years, let’s not get so historically precise about Biryani. The Biryani House’s Chicken Dum Hyderabadi Biryani was seriously an amazing experience for all of my 6 senses.

The chicken mixed with all needed spices kept marinated for hours and then cooked well till it turned into thick gravy. Rice is prepared separately, when both chicken and rice gets ready it’s time to overlap each other on layers one after another and then keep it on dum for an hour. Dum is a very popular cooking process where they keep burning charcoal over the vessel tightly closed and keep the dish on light flame to cook slowly. Finally, it is served with garnishing of boiled eggs, and green rice; rice is mixed with different herbs like mint, coriander etc. making the dish more mouth-watering.

The rice was long, the chicken was tender and those some green rice were exceptionally toting up the altitude of extreme savor and whiff.

Biryani is nothing new for me and may be for you too but every time, everywhere you eat, it gives you a different experience. Biryani House definitely lead any other restaurant I visited in Udaipur till now in terms of Biryani they are mastered in.

…………

Mutton Dum Biryani

To be true, I love Mutton Biryani more than chicken and when something is cooked on dum then I cannot stop myself grabbing it. I know it is embarrassing but food can sometime really drive me crazy. And if my luck turn into good luck and I get opportunity to have authentic Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani then, it is an indescribable happiness. Same I felt yesterday while having lavishly made Biryani to spoil myself.

Unlike Chicken, Mutton dum Biryani’s preparation is quite longer and typical than any other biryanis. Perfectly marinated with spices, herbs, yoghurt, saffron and paste of dry fruits, mutton is cooked partially or approx. 80% and then it is shifted to unite with raw rice. After that meat and rice were spread over each other in 4-5 layers in a big vessel .It is then closed tightly with burning coal over the lid for dum till it gets cooked.

That mesmerizing aroma of charcoal reached in every single grain and meat giving a punch of hypnotizing affect to me, I was totally unaware of things going around, and in every bite I felt something new in it. I wish I could have ability to describe it more perfectly.

It was served enough for 2 normal adults however it was not enough for an unusual foodie like me.

A great taste and perfect airborne ride to all three major delicacies of India i.e. Mughlai, Avadhi and Mewari was experienced in one single dish that’s Mutton Dum Biryani.

The only thing I disliked in it was quality of rice, I was hoping Biryani cooked with basmati rice but they used some other brand.

…………

Chicken Malai Tikka

I always love this creamy starter. At Biryani House too, it was near to the perfection by all means, may it be the preparation, marinating, cooking, tenderness, creaminess and fragrant so great! But I was deeply hurt by the quantity they served, don’t go for just one plate if you are two people.

…………

Till now, very few “Take- Away” have stolen my heart, especially in Udaipur. None of any other Non-Veg take away shops has ever impressed me the way Biryani House did. They have chefs from Lucknow and Hyderabad, they are friendly and most importantly, for any Muslim who prefers good quality halal food I strongly recommend Biryani House.

Last but not the least, here comes the weight on my pocket

Chicken Hyderabadi Dum Biryani – Rs. 140/-

Mutton Dum Biryani – Rs. 150/-

Chicken Malai Tikka – Rs. 110/-

Total – Rs. 400/-

That’s affordable enough to enjoy the Awadhi taste on the land of Mewar.

Contact info of Biryani House : 9251033821

Category: Food | Restaurant

Weekend Food Review: Kites Restaurant

August 21, 2010 By Harshit Agrawal Leave a Comment

Location: RMV Compound, Gulab Bagh Road, Udaipur

After another tiring day in office, UT team thought to refresh with some delightful food. This also does some part of our work to give you a latest food review of another eating point in Udaipur. So, looking for a new restaurant in the city, we went to Kites after recommended by a common friend. It’s been just a week this restaurant is open. The interior was a fair combination of wood and glass which made a soothing ambiance.

Restaurant menu was financially within the reach.

Although, we met series of surprises there like a plate of salad given for complimentary was not fresh. There was no pepper in either of the sprinkler bottle. And finally we were confused by the arrangement of dishes in the menu.

What we ordered?

Vegetable Kathi Roll (thought it to be a vegetable as mentioned in vegetable’s section in the menu)
Malaii Kofta
Missi Roti (chapatti)
Plain Roti (chapatti)
Paneer Matar Rassedar (had to order it after misconception of kathi roll)
Ice Cream (Butter scotch)

Vegetable Kathi Roll:

This dish was mentioned under the section of vegetables. The waiter, when asked for the content of the dish (before ordering) was actually unaware of the dish. It finally came out as a roll of white flour chapatti filled with mix vegetables (paneer, capsicum, onion) and gravy. But to our surprise it came out to be a true delight. Something very similar to the frankies. This dish tasted good and was satisfying.

Malaii kofta:

This was something which helped me fill my stomach. There were 3 pieces of kofta flowing in the curry. The quantity was enough for four people. The aroma of the dish was tempting and for quality, I would rate it eight out of ten.

Paneer Matar Rassedar:

Paneer and matar was good but rassedar (soupy) did some problem in the dish. Felt like all the spices were drained away in the rassa (soup). It didn’t give me satisfaction and value for my money.

Missi Roti (Chapaati):

This chapatti is made by using 3 types of flours wheat, barley, and gram. After a few minutes we turned to missi roti and felt it to be more like papad than roti. May be, we were late to get over it but still not that late for it to be so hard.

Plain Roti (Chapaati):

Plain roti was good and soft made of wheat flour. Was a happy feeling when consumed with malaii kofta. I enjoyed the combination and would recommend it.

Dessert:

We had butter scotch ice-cream in dessert. It was at par to my expectations same usual taste you would find anywhere.

Rating:

Food: 6/10

Service: 7/10

Damage: Rs. 495 after 10% discount (for 4 people).

Category: Food | Restaurant

Weekend Food Review – Hotel Udaigarh

July 31, 2010 By Zaheer Abbas 9 Comments

It’s raining in Udaipur nearly after 4 years so hopes and happiness is commonly seen all over the place in the city. This weekend, I thought to discover a place where I can enjoy monsoon along with pleasant food. There are lots of beautiful places to eat in Udaipur but some have exceptional charm and magnetizing location, one such place is Hotel Udaigarh which is located over the bank of Lake Pichola is one of the beautiful hotels in Udaipur, but their roof top restaurant is special from many perspectives, the most heighted, roof top swimming pool, food, ambiance and service. All over it became one of my favorite eating out points in Udaipur.

Go ahead to know my experience at Udaigarh, It is never going to disappoint you.

What we had?

We had Fish, Chicken, Vegetables and Dal.

Fish Tikka – I never had fish at any restaurant in Udaipur except this time at Udaigarh. The reason behind is that I always believed no one other than my mom can cook sweet water fish so well. But fish tikka at Udaigarh has established an everlasting experience in my taste buds. I loved every bit of it, to the way it was cooked, served and tasted.

A deeply marinated sweet water fish (Singada) was barbequed and served over lettuce leaves on a sizzling sizzler pan, accompanied with lots of salad, lemon and chutney.

It was tremendously soft, juicy, little bit crispy (I wish it could be some crispier) and perfectly blended with fine quantity of Indian herbs and spices. Not too spicy or too mild, perfect dish for any fish lover.

………

Crusty Crispy Veg – Have this once in your lifetime if you really admire the combination of simplicity and beauty of vegetables, yes I am talking about food nothing else. Crispy Veg was simply beautiful appetizer I ever had. Let me be more precise for using such an odd term. Crispy Veg are medium sized pieces of different vegetables deeply fried till it become real crispy and then mixed with tomato, soya and schezwan sauces which gives it a punch of sweet, sour and spicy flavor.

The vegetables include tomato, capsicum, cauliflower and carrot but interestingly they all were so unidentifiably similar with look and the taste was simply awesome!

………

Chicken Lolly Pop – Udai Garh made my hunt for perfect chicken lollipop over. I was

looking for this in Udaipur since long. Well, I like chicken lollipop in other restaurants too but this one reminds me those beautiful memories of Mumbai’s Chinese food hangouts. Many restaurants in Udaipur have their own ways of preparing this Chinese starter; it all depends upon their style and creativity. Udaigarh has their own way and I love it, chicken lollipop was good too but I missed something, those Chinese sauces I don’t know if they had but this starter is perfect with schezwan chutney.

Chicken pieces were big, well cooked and perfectly tasted.

………

Dal Tadka – I am falling in love with dal tadka each time I am having, luckily none of the restaurants in Udaipur has disappointed me till now, and Udaigarh serves the best as well. It was served in a small, metallic bucket with dash of tadka (spices fried in oil) on it. Superb taste of north Indian delight, dal tadka goes best with chapati or rice.

Damage!

Fish Tikka – Rs.200/-

Crispy Veg – Rs.140/-

Chicken Lollypop – Rs.200/-

Dal Tadka – Rs.125/-

Plain Rice – Rs.100/-

Total Rs.905 including 2 aerated water bottles

Total Rs.905/-

With Discount of 20% Rs.724/-

Fortunately, the owner of Udaigarh came out as a mutual friend of a friend I was accompanied with and that’s how we saved nearly 200 bucks.

It was not literally damage for me. I enjoyed the food at Udaigarh to my fullest, their ambiance was heartwarming, the panoramic view of Lake Pichola and having dinner on terrace near the swimming pool was such a wonderful experience.

How to reach there?

Udaigarh 21,lalghat behind jagdish temple

If you ever been to Udaigarh then we would love to hear your experience, use the comment box below and feel home!

Category: Food

Weekend Food Review- Peppers Restaurant

July 18, 2010 By Aditya Joshi 1 Comment

Another lazy day passed, the temperature was high as usual and it didn’t feel like rainy season. I was looking forward to a cheerful, fun filled evening with my friends. So, we decided to visit Peppers for our evening “starters”.

Peppers Restaurant is situated in the premises of renovated Ashoka Cinema. You can choose from four food categories to dine upon. Dosa (South Indian Food), Punjabi, Noodle Mania (Chinese Delicacies), Italian Treat and Chatori Chaat along all these you can buy soft drinks, Ice creams and Bakery eatables like sandwich and pastry etc. Peppers is a self service place with a simple system of first pay and then eat. They have happy hours every Monday to Thursday from 2:30 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. and run a discount of 25% in this duration.

The first thing on which I put my hands and disappointed me was Water. It wasn’t cool enough to relieve someone from record breaking heat of the year.

I ordered Paneer Tikka, Naan which was accompanied by a bowl of Dal Makhani and Green Salad.

Green Salad: It was served well decorated. Glad to have non-vinegar onions and carrot in this season with cucumber, tomato, half sliced green chilies, chopped cabbage, slice of lemon and it was tossed with chaat masala. I think green salad can’t be good or bad but found it a little over priced. I could give salad 6 over 10.

Paneer Tikka: If you are an exclusive paneer lover then you should come down here. With more paneer cubes and less onions, tomatoes and capsicum an economic mind might find it value for money but a food loving heart, missed the vegetables. It was not uniformly marinated. If someone had tasted a paneer tikka at a good Punjabi restaurant then this thing couldn’t be compared with that taste. But the vegetable mixture of chopped chilies and onions with lots of spices do score and not to forget; the green chutney could be appreciated. Again I can’t give it more than 6 on a scale of 10.

Dal Makhani: I am a huge fan of this dish, has tasted it here earlier too. But this time it was third thing in list of disappointments. It was having a rich and thick orange curry, but on tasting it didn’t appear freshly cooked to me. Moreover anyone well versed with dal makhani can tell you that it must contain a good quantity of rajma (kidney beans). I found only two of them and that too in the bottom of the bowl. Sorry can’t give more than 5 out of 10.

Naan: In the entire meal I could suggest and would like to appreciate one item and that was naan. Well prepared, well baked and carefully buttered for finesse. It was thin, layered, crispy and soft. No doubt I can award 8 out of 10 to it.

Monetary part:-

Naan with Paneer Tikka and Dal Makhani 79 Rs.

Green Salad 29 Rs.

Total 108 Rs.

After Happy Hours Discount 81 Rs.

Peppers gives you a feel of a restaurant or food court of a metro city but food quality wasn’t that impressive as the ambiance. Though I didn’t find it good but it’s fine to eat here once in a while, spacious hall makes it good for birthday parties or small get together. There was a new board hockey game also installed, I am sure few of us would love to check that out.

Category: Food

Weekend Food Review- Uncle Sam’s Pizza

July 11, 2010 By Aditya Joshi 14 Comments

This time we ate at Uncle Sam’s Pizza which is a part of Sankalp Group of Restaurants Udaipur. It is situated at Parmatma Complex, Chetak Circle. Here you will find only Deep Pan Pizzas.

What they serve?

They have categorized pizzas in 3 different classes i.e. Classic, Premium and Supreme. The Classic and Premium classes has four further flavors like Margherita, Tomchi, Caponito, Popeye, and Cheezeee Maha Mazaa, Veggy Delight, Hawaain Ecstacy, Party Lovers respectively. In the third category Supreme they serve Cajun Spicy, American Heat, Spanish Passion, Hot ‘n’ Spicy and late Break Fast. You can order extra toppings of Onion, Tomato, Capsicum Sweet Corn, Olives, Mushroom, Cheese, Baby Corn and Jalapenos. All these are served in three sizes Regular, Medium and Large

To accompany your pizza you can choose anything from the different varieties of Brownies, Garlic Bread, French Fries and Salad.

What we had?

Our order consisted of a typical Hot ‘n’ Spicy Pizza of Regular size and Peanut Masala Salad.

Peanut Masala Salad

it was a bowl of finely chopped onions, tomatoes and peanuts with lemon juice and spices like red chili powder, Salt, Rock salt and Chat Masala tossed with finely chopped green coriander. First it tasted to me like the Chana Jor Garam (that typical Indian style snack) but later I realized that it is quite different, worth mentioning and trying again &again whenever I will visit Uncle Sam’s Pizza. But let me warn you that this is very very SPICY! Red chili powder and other spices are used abundantly which makes it inappropriate for those who are not habitual to eat spicy food. Chili lovers can surely relish on it. I will give it 9 / 10.

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Hot ‘n’ Spicy Pizza

First time I tasted a deep pan pizza, I have to say I found it as delicious as a baked pizza, on a soft pizza base separately prepared Onions, Jalapenos, Chillies and tiny pieces of marinated cotton cheese cubes were spread in liquid cheese. It was a feast for mouth and tongue. Like we all are familiar with cheese, chilly and onion pizzas, this tasted indifferent but Jalapenos is a debut in my dictionary, it added a sweet sourness to the overall taste. Pizza was tender soft and nice cooked, saving all flavors for the taste buds. It deserves 7 but for Jalopenos, prompt and efficient service I will give one more point to total score 8 /10.

I would like to mention one thing which I disliked a lot was that water served was not cold enough to quench my thirst.

Salad costs 35 Rs and Pizza 100 Rs, plus 5 % V.A.T. i.e. 6.75 Rs. Total 142 Rs.

Uncle Sam’s Pizza is a small air conditioned restaurant with caricatures of celebrities on one wall and American symbols on other. It is a is nice place for spending a decent and cozy evening with your family.

Category: Food | Restaurant

Weekend Food Review – Khana Khazana

June 28, 2010 By Zaheer Abbas 1 Comment

“Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as necessity – Voltaire”

Following the above quote and to please my body as well as my carving soul yesterday(Saturday) I again went out in the city looking for something best to eat which should be also worth sharing with you. This time I was in the company of a very good friend of mine. He didn’t allow me to mention his name here.

A cloudy evening later brought rain for us which made our Saturday evening wonderful.

We went to my one of my most favorite restaurants Khana Khazana, I am visiting this restaurant from last more than 10 years. They are changed with time but one thing which is same is their quality food, excluding their chicken chowmin which I was an admirer once.

Khana Khazana is a part of Hotel Dream Palace which is situated in the same compound.

What we had?

Before moving, let me inform you that this review is not digestible for pure vegetarians. So, skip reading if you don’t want to see pics of butter chicken.

We had,

Chicken Hot-n-sour soup
Half Butter Chicken (boneless)
Dal Tadka
Butter nan and Roti
Plain Rice

Chicken hot-n-sour: I am not used to of having soups before main course. The only reason for ordering it yesterday was to make ourselves warm after getting all wet in the rain. Yes and that worked well, the soup was really hot, chicken was well blended and mashed. All over a well cooked nicely tasted Chinese soup.

…..

Butter Chicken: I love to have it here because they prepare it differently. Generally, a very basic method of making butter chicken is either boil and cook chicken in a thick red gravy and butter, splash some cream over it and ready (hey! I just used short words, this is not a real way to make it) But, at Khana Khazana, they make it with roasted chicken, it is authentically Rajasthani way of preparing butter chicken.

Now, imagine the combination of two diverse tastes, one a roasted chicken and other is thick spicy gravy. If you haven’t tried it then have it. I strongly recommend you butter chicken of Khana Khazana. You won’t come looking to bash me. But remember, they have pretty good quantity in half plate so if you are two adults then go for half butter chicken, if you are 2 adults with one child then still go for half.

…..

Dal Tadka: This one was extra ordinary mouth watering, splendid, wonderful, elegant and classy dal I had very less in my life. I loved the way it was served in a traditional handi, and then it was so damn yummy that I first time felt dal had overpowered the chicken. Its rich aroma of species with a combination of charcoaled like fragrance made a deep impact on my senses. I forgot I had a friend with me. Sorry mate!.

Dal is something which is eaten by all class of people in India. Dal is in fact a God of Indian food. And Dal Tadka of Khana Khazana is king of all Dals.

Their butter nan was not that good in quality and quantity, after having some 2-3 butter nans we ordered tandoori rotis and felt it better than those nans we had.

Rice made our dal tadka complete. But it was too costly for plain rice to be.

Damage!

Rs. 398/-

Hot & Sour Chicken soup- One bowl 60/- worth (we took it 1 by 2)
Half Butter Chicken- 130/- worth
Dal Tadka- 60/- worth
Butter Naan- One for 24/- not worth
Tandoori Roti- One for 8/- ok
Rice – 60/- not at all

Address: 11-D, Kumbha Marg, Udaipur. Near Sukhadia Circle. Contact: 0294-2527227

Category: Food | Restaurant

Best Places in Udaipur to Get Food for Fasting

June 24, 2010 By Aditya Joshi 2 Comments

Fasting is another way of purifying our self and unleashing inner-power. Especially in Hinduism, fasting has one of the most important positions with other rituals. Being as spiritual or religious we fear God and try to please the almighty by worshiping, offering sweets in form of “Prasad” or observing fast on some auspicious days and festivals etc.

While fasting, we have few selected range of food items to be eaten known as “Segaar” which consists fruits and non-cereal food. This means no lentils or grains. Also salt is restricted to Sendha Namak or rock salt. Ladies in our households prepare such kind of food and we enjoy it.

But the problem arises for those students and working people who stay in hostels where food for fast is not prepared in eating area known as mess or for those who are living alone or as a paying guest.

Not too many restaurants in Udaipur offer such kind of food. Then we are left with very limited options like either spending our day without eating anything or survive on fruit juices, buttermilk and other liquids along with staple “Segari Namkeen” found at cafeterias. Both the options appear a little bit impractical, as today’s life demands physical labor with mental labor. Therefore we need some good alternative and this alternative is moving food stalls offering different varieties of “Segaar”

Such stalls are located in different areas of city. I would like to mention their locations

Shastri Circle,
M.G. College near the building of R.S.M.M. office,
Ambabmata Circle,
Durga Nursery Road,
Ashwini Bazaar
Hiran Magri Sec.11.

At these stalls you will find Potato Chips, Banana Wafers, Potato Papadi, Potato Chivda and Sabudana (Sago) Khichdi.

These eatables are prepared fresh every morning with complete purity and hygiene eliminating the chances of you accidentally breaking your fast by eating something prohibited while fasting, all food items are served in disposable paper bowls and plastic spoons.

Rates of eatables at these stalls as on today’s date are as follows:-

Potato Chips 15Rs per 100gms (150 for Kg)

Banana Wafers 15Rs per 100gms (150 for Kg)

Potato Papadi 12Rs per 100gms (120 for Kg)

Potato Chivda 12Rs per 100gms (120 for Kg)

Sabudana (Sago) Khichdi. 100 Rs per 100gms (100 for Kg)

I am sure they are relief to people who wish to fast but circumstances don’t allow them. Even if you are not observing a fast you can eat it for a change.

Category: Food

Weekend Food Review – Charan Kamal on National Highway No.8

June 20, 2010 By Zaheer Abbas 5 Comments

Change is a human nature, so to keep myself with it I did some changes in this weekend food review. First, I convinced my wife to be at home this time. Second, I invited one of the most active members of our UT facebook community Kaedjauhar to accompany me this weekend to review a restaurant together.

I asked Kaed to contact me, he called up and we decided a place to meet and then think about where to go, I left everything on him because he is more experience foodie than me.

Though, Qaed don’t like himself to be called as foodie because he is more a wanderer and explorer of different places in Udaipur. Ubeshwar is his favorite place. It was really a wonderful experience with Qaed.

So, finally after a long drive on the way to Ubeshwar at around 9:00pm (Yes I was scared with that road) we decided to visit a veg restaurant located nearly 15 km far from Udaipur, Charan Kamal Veg Restaurant on National Highway no.8 Balicha.

Now, just to clarify, ubeshwar and balicha are two different places located exactly opp to each other.

What so great about Charan Kamal?

Motels on Highways are not Indian Trend. We are fond of Dhabas (restaurants on highways) Charan Kamal is very much like a typical Dhaba with traditional sittings on wooden and jute made beds instead of tables. If you don’t feel comfortable taking your shoes out and sit then there is facility of chairs and table too.

What we had?

We had nothing big or great but a fantastically, simple and pure Indian dinner.

Stuffed Capsicum
Dal Makhni
Butter Roti
With Papad, Salad and Soda.

……..

Stuffed Capsicum: The first impression of stuffed capsicum when arrived on my plate was “oh what’s this”. There was one big capsicum which I could hardly see as it was fully covered with red oiled gravy. I broke it and inside it was something nice, smashed potatoes and paneer. Truly speaking I didn’t touch anything in it except that capsicum. You might like it if you have no problem with spicy food.

……..

Dal Makhni: Black pulses cooked long, well and served with dash of cream on it, they cook it till it turn into a creamy texture. There are many ways to prepare this north Indian delicacy like they also mix it with rajma. Here, at Charan Kamal it was different, there was nothing except dal in it, it was watery, spicy and tasted ok. Not that creamy as I expected.

……..

Butter Roti: You cannot imagine an Indian food without Roti, indeed roti is more important than anything else. It completes the food and Charan Kamal made it best. It was soft n crispy, cooked well, and burnt less all over a very good roti.

……..

Charan Kamal is spacious, you can enjoy a typical dinner under moon light(check the sky first), the staff is friendly, their menu have more than 100 varieties, they have butter milk and lassi, they have plenty of parking space. And last but best part is it’s a very budget restaurant.

Service: Fastest Service, Good and friendly staff.

…..

Damage!

Stuff Capsicum- Rs.60

Dal Makhni – Rs.40

2 Half litre drinks – Rs.50

2 Papad – Rs. 14

1 Salad – Rs.25

7 Butter Roti – Rs. 49

Total yourself….

ok I do it. It is 238 Rs. Only/-

Howz it? budget haan!

8 Tips you follow before visiting any Dhaba:

Don’t expect less spicy food in Dhabas.
But, you can ask them to prepare it less spicy
Not all dhabas are good, always prefer the one with more family crowd
No, they don’t accept credit cards
Yes they have toilets
Beware of weird people
Ask for bottled water
Is that hygienic? …what? What did you say?

Category: Food | Restaurant

Weekend Food Review – Hotel Rajdarshan

June 13, 2010 By Zaheer Abbas 6 Comments

Since I started series of weekend food reviews, my wife and kid are the happiest people around, if I consider you as a reader the second happy people in the list. I hope you love reading my experiences of eating out in Udaipur’s various restaurants and food joints.

Usually on Sundays, I prefer being at home working full time, but today something unusual happened with me. My mom was out so I with my wife and kid got enough reason to have lunch outside.

If you are on our facebook community, you must saw an update I did few days back taking opinions of members to suggest me a good place to do review next weekend. One of our friend Saurabh Dharmawat suggested me Hotel Rajdarshan, very popularly known as RD.

So, that’s what I decided to go for and I must say that my decision was not-disappointing.

Rajdarshan is one of the reputed Hotel and Restaurant in Udaipur, I am not sure but I think they come under 3 star categories. Well, I don’t care about stars and moons…I just want good food, good service and pleasant ambience. “Amantran” is name of their restaurant which serves Indian, Mughlai and Continental Foods.

So, let me come to the point. What we had today?

A complete non-vegetarian lunch at Rajdarshan. So, skip reading if you are pure vegetarian, I respect your belief but I am a pure non-vegetarian.

We had…

Chilly Chicken – For starters
Murg Makhani – Butter Chicken
Gosht Safeda – White Mutton
Butter Nan – Typical Indian baked bread with butter
Pepsi – Canned Pepsi

Chilly Chicken – sounds nothing great as it is a very common foreign recipe which successfully ruled the heart and tummies of Indians, but RD serves it with little more perfection than what I had in Udaipur’s other restaurants. It was a complete YUMM!! thing with a great taste and good quantity.

Their Chilly Chicken was really hot and spicy, it was tender soft, looks mouth watering and perfectly blended with green chillies, Capsicums and Onions. I loved it!

…..

Murg Makhani – Before I start praising it, let me tell you why I ordered this? I called my friend who is frequent in RD, I asked him to suggest the best food here and he said Butter Chicken, I had butter chicken several times but I did not wanted to take risk so I ordered Butter Chicken which they named Murg Makhani. It was boneless, they have options of boneless, with bone which serve in half or full plate (choice is yours).

I am not that happy to have it as I was expecting after eating Chilly Chicken. It was slightly mashed pieces of boneless chicken with a dash of cream on it. A red gravy, not very spicy not very bad. It was all over good but not best.

…..

Gosht Safeda – Seriously, I hate saying “safeda” though they can make a better name of it because this was the only dish ruled our table today.

White gravy with cashew nut paste, cream and ground spices made our lunch complete. I am a big time Mutton crazy man, but in fact I seriously avoid eating mutton outside my home. I don’t know why and how I ordered it but I must say it is now my favorite.

Best thing of this white mutton was, that it was not at all spicy, they serve it with lots of mutton pieces, all worth eating (you know it don’t sometimes). You can taste the cashew nuts inside. It was Awesome!

…..

Butter Nan – The best butter nan I ever had was in New Delhi’s Bikanerwala food chain. After that it was Rajdarshan in Udaipur. It was not at all a joke of butter nan. It was fresh, crispy, crunchy and lots of butter on it.

Let me tell you one thing, if you never had butter nan and wish to have now after reading my true review (swear on God, it is true) than never order it the way you order chapattis or rotis. Order 1 butter nan for two people and if you go to RD than beware, you can be a victim of over-eating if you order it same like chapati. RD’s butter nans are really big.

Pepsi they serve is canned, they don’t even serve fresh fruit juices, they have it all canned.

Service: Good service, good staff but they little misjudged our choice. I must say, they should not judge their guest’s likes and dislikes.

Damage!

Rs.1138 including VAT

I don’t know how much you earn and can afford but I am a very middle class man and love to be in this class forever, so for me it is quiet expensive but if you compare the food and service then it was worth.

RD was a great experience but I forgot something….

I did a small mistake and they (management) did a small mistake too.

By mistake, they added a peg of Vodka of Rs. 160/- in my bill and I didn’t read it, so be cautious every time, wherever you go. We are all human beings and doing mistakes is our inbuilt ability…ah! I think I need a good nap…I am totally bloated!

For your info: RD serves food for European and American tourists too, they have liquor bar as well. They are also one of the Halal non-veg restaurants in Udaipur.

Address: 18 Pannadhai Marg, Udaipur

Category: Food | Restaurant

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