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Indian Kitchen – Gujarati Marwari Food Festival @MG Road, Bangalore
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Indian Kitchen is one the relative new restaurant located in the MG Road, Bangalore which can otherwise be called as the downtown area. This restaurant specializes in serving dishes from different part of the country. Recently they had a Gujarat and Rajasthani festival in which multiple dishes from these regions were prepared and made available for the guests. The fest went on from 1-Mar’16 until 9-Mar’16. I had the privilege of being part of the initial tasting session of the food.
First Thought
The initial thoughts of Gujrati and Rajasthi food brings joy to me as these cuisines are famous for Vegetarian dishes. And the usage of spice is quite which makes me enjoy the flavours of ingredients added into the dish.
Healthy mix of vegetables gives more delightful experience.
Apart from the veggies and spices, the words like Dokhla, Handwa, Khandvi, Khichdi, Gatta, Pitla, Batata are terms keep hearing from our Gujrati & Rajasthani friends. Each of these items are quite mouth-watering, just by the thoughts.
I was approached for visiting this place with my foodie friends. The moment I came to know, I readily accepted. Infact, on a Sunday which is usually the laziest day of the week, I was early in the morning and ready for the lunch.
I reached the place quite early to click picture of the restaurant and was all set.
Location
I did give background for this food festival and my liking. But it is very important that I share the direction to reach this place.
If you are actually starting from the beginning of the MG Road, you drive across the 1st Bangalore Metro Stop and drive along until the signal, which leads to the Residency Road to the left side.
Then you drive along to reach the signal to find the Brigade road to the left side. And then as you drive along you will find the famous Barton Centre to the left that has the CCD. As you drive along, the Indian Kitchen appears to the left side. City Bar is also located in the same complex next to the Indian Kitchen.
If you are coming from the Chinnaswamy Stadium side, you need to cross the signal that is called as the ‘Anil Kumble Circle’. And then the Indian Kitchen appears to the right side.
Ambiance
This is a restaurant that has great food and also has some wonderful interiors. I am sure a lot of thought has gone into setting this place up. Let me share few thoughts on the same.
- Vibrant colours are used inside the restaurant which great vibes soon after you enter the place.
- Chairs have nice designs on them. The table is setup nicely with glasses with 4 different colours at the bottom. Every table has table cloth and bottled water.
- There is an open box kind of setup to the left and right side where some of the spices used during preparation are displayed.
- Lamp shades used are also pretty good. They surely don’t look very fancy but are quite good.
- Special colouring is done to the floor. It is not the same that we see at other places. Colours used includes – Green, Pink, Violet, Blue, Orange, Purple and others.
- Painting of elephants and other animals decorated with nice designs.
- One of the main highlights I felt are the paintings that are done to the right side where there are paintings related to various things that Chef does in and around the kitchen. The frying, cooker whistles, cutting meat, setting up tables, cleaning, chapatti making and various other things. It’s nice to see this unique depiction on the walls.
- There is structure made out of wood that has base and pillars at various places. Various bottles are places in it.
- Seating arrange are also done quite well. Mostly at the edge there are 4 seats and in the middle there are 6 seaters as well. Infact, the centre section can have a family of 15-20 people sitting across 2-3 tables and everyone would still be able to see each other.
I feel that his is one of the restaurant that has the best of the interiors.
It’s hard to compare it with any restaurant in a 5-star hotel but then it is no far from any of those.
Food
I have shared quite a bit of info regarding the exteriors of the restaurant. Now, it’s time to share the most critical aspect of it all, which is the food.
People may like the place for what has to offer in terms of ambiance, but then unless the food is good, then memories that we take bad can never be the same. As part of the Gujrati Marwari Food Festival, variety food was served. Time to share the experience.
Panki Chutney
Savoury Rice Pancakes Steam in Banana Leaf
This is a very interesting dish where the savoury rice batter is actually kept on the banana leaf and let to steam. The moment it is served; we need to separate the pancake from the banana leaf. The taste of it was simple amazing.
Apart from there were other varieties of Pancake – Pudina Panki & Moon Dal Chill.
Pudina Panki was also there which is the ‘Mint Flavoured Rice Pancakes’.
Moong Dal Chilla is pancake made of Moong daal.
Dal Dhokli
Whole Wheat Roti Cooke din Traditional Gujarati Dal
This for sure is known to all us and we try eating this at many of the street food joint.
Now, imagine getting a wonderful serving of this at a fine dining restaurant. I enjoyed the taste to the fullest.
Bajri Khichu
This is more like the upma that we get in South Indian. But it is made of the Bajra and the taste of it was simply awesome.
Similar to this ‘Bajra Uttapam’ was made which for sure is totally unknown coz usually in South only rice-batter is used. The taste of it was quite good.
Dammi Dhokla
Another unique name given to the Dhokla. It is not the actual Dhokla with the traditional usage of daal. The ingredient is different which lets it get the name.
Khatta Dhokla
Another variety of Dhokla which is a bit of the tangy side. It is worth mentioning coz it did have the unique taste.
Makai Handwa
This is a dish looks like the plain-cakes but it’s a traditional Gujrati dish made with corn. Taste of it was quite exquisite.
Besan Khandvi
This actually on the lines of dhokla but the way it is presented is quite different. The besan is rolled and tadka added on top. The taste of it become a bit different from dhokla.
Chef for sure seems to have perfected preparing some wonderful dishes like this.
Fata Ni Khichdi
Cracked Wheat Pulao Served with Curd
A dish that is great health wise coz it is easier for stomach compared to besan. The taste is quite unique coz I don’t remember having pulav with cracked wheats before.
There were few other dishes that were served which I think it might be difficult for me to mentioned individually. Let share the names.
- Dhan Shak – Bath: Traditional Parsi Dal Served with Rice
- Satpadi Roti – Gatta Nu Saag: Masala Roiti served with a Besan Yogurt Curry
- Thalipith – Pita: Mixed Pulses Masala Roti Served with Besan
- Seasonal Undhiyu with Roti
- Kanda Bata Sambhariya
- Khichdi Kadi – Bataa Saag
- Palak Makai Vatana Saag
- Dal Baati
The above mentioned were some of the traditional items available in the North Western regions of the country.
Chaats
The region is also famous for all the chaat items. And the Food Festival has not forgotten them. Various chaats available included – Dahi Bata Puri, Sev Puri, Panipuri and Papdi Chaat.
Roti
There was a selection of Rotis like – Moong Dal Roti, Sundari Roti, Rich Rotla, Puri and Palak Puri.
Deserts
It is quite critical as a good food that the deserts are also equally good. Well, the deserts sure did not disappoint. I loved the fact that the sugar was not added in
excess and the flavours came out quite well for the ingredients added.
- Moong Dal Shira
- Kaju Khopra Ka Shira
There were other like – Puran Puri and Radi Malpoa, which required an extra stomach to be able to eat.
Drinks
The food in this cuisine can cause throat to get dried and sometimes even feel choked coz we end up eating so much.
It is very critical that there are some good mocktails that can clear our throats and enjoy flavours. I am confident in saying that all the mocktails served were simply wonderful.
Each of them sure did have unique names but the taste was superb. Some of the mocktails I had included.
- Herbal Deva – Green apple with rosemary and basil
- Amrud Ki Thandai – Guava juice with coriander, green chilli, chaat masala and lime
- Anarkali – Kokum with black pepper corns, rock salt, mint and lemonade
- Baba ji ki Booti – Pan leaf and milk with gulkand, tooti fruity and dry cherry
- Aloo Bukhare ki Sherbet – Jaggery with fresh plums, raspberry, mint and limca
- Cold Kappi – South Indian Filter coffee with vanilla ice-cream and milk
- Khatta Banta – Green Mango with orange juice, shahi jeera and chaat masala
Its hard to pick my favorite among the above mentioned that I tried. But yes my favorites were Aloo Bukhare ki Sherbet and Amrud Ki Thandai. These both items were quite refreshing to take along with the heavy meals.
Overall Experience
This was one of the best experience I have had in terms of food tasting. Each and every item I had delighted my taste-buds.
When you know that the food being prepared is by an experience chef, you appreciate the food a lot more. Also to add to all of this was the good set of foodie friends who were always ready to try out different dishes instead of sticking to the contemporary favourite. My rating for this place would be 4.5/5. I don’t remember finding any faults in any of the dishes. So, it’s hard to hold back my rating. Hoping to go to the place more regularly and I also encourage anyone looking to try some authentic Indian food to go try @Indian Kitchen.
My rating in all the department is the same.
Food – 4.5/5
Service – 4.5/5
Drinks – 4.5/5
Ambiance – 4.5/5
Food for 2 people would cost anywhere between INR1200-1600 for sure I feel this is a great price for a truly wonderful dine-in experience.
Foodies who were along with me during the lunch session included – Naveen, Nitin, Sudarshan, Arijit, Debolina, Tapash, Chef BB, Hari Camala, Caroline.
