there is a huge difference between a food critic and a reviewer. a critic knows everything and can differentiate the best and the rest. on the other hand, a reviewer is someone who goes along tasting whatever food he stumbles upon and comments whether he took another bite or kept walking in search of more food. while i was living inside a little bubble thinking that i'm very much on my way to become a critic, rajputana comes up with a needle to burst my dream and get me back to reality with a pat on my back saying i'm still a meager reviewer.
the amount of so called knowledge i possess over south indian and north indian cuisine can be described in a simple manner. if my expertise over south indian cuisine can be compared to a lake full of water, then my prowess against north india can be described as something similar to the amount of dew left on a leaf in the early mornings. of course i can differentiate the food types but i can't even tell the difference from rajasthani and gujarati food. so when you throw such a guy in a restaurant called as rajputana, he is going be straight on the face with his feedback.
rajputana is a newly opened rooftop restaurant located at the 'you blink, you miss' type of hotel called jp hotel at inner ring road, sorta opposite to koyambedu bus terminus. the brilliant guy in me decided to search for rajputana on google maps instead of searching for jp hotel. what difference would that make could be a question. the answer is 10 minutes of agonizingly driving a car thru small streets and ending up in a dead end only to see jp hotel's signage and realising i have an entire block between me and it. google maps ruined the location part of it. then i had to reroute and get to this place. on that day jp hotel was hosting an event so they were redirecting all cars without even asking where the person was heading to. when they told me to do the same, i asked them if they have valet. only then they asked where i was going to and when i replied as rajputana, self service got upgraded to valet parking. jp hotel looks like one of those hotels that has already seen its glory days. after a ride up the elevator, i reached the gang who cursed me for being late. ambience was awesome. the view was spectacular and the mild breeze was so soothing. they have indoor seating too but the weather was picture perfect for us to be outside.
we were about 11 and it was a bloggers meet. so it's self explanatory that it's an 'on the house' experience and therefore the pricing point of view won't be commented upon. service was fairly decent. they were really courteous. i've kept the food part of my review at the end as it was pretty disappointing. the welcome drink which was meant to have just a pinch of spiciness to give that kick was loaded with it, making it unpalatable. chicken soup wasn't good. starters weren't impressive either. paneer tikka was soft but the flavor hadn't penetrated the paneer to give it a good taste. but when compared with others, it seemed to be the best starter. chicken starter was really rough in texture. the only saving grace was the fish cutlet which was pretty good. corn and cauliflower were downright disasters. mains was very simple with rotis and sabjis. the rotis dried out fast because of the wind but naan was good enough. out of the three gravies for non veggies, none stood out to be even a modest winner. dessert ended up to be the best part of our meal. by it's own, still it wasn't awesome by any standard, but when compared with the complete experience, the dessert was far more better. the kulfi and lassi were pretty good.
at the end, we were rather left discontented by the overall experience. when i overheard the price to be somewhere around 700rs for a non veg buffet, i seriously questioned myself over the vfm part of it. rajputana is a classic example of how a restaurant can get everything else right apart from the food which is meant to be the most important factor. that said, as mentioned above, i'm not certain if this is authentic rajasthani cuisine. if it is, then they don't have a fan in me.
ratings break up:-
location:- 4/5
parking:- 4.5/5
reception:- 3.5/5
food:- 2/5
customer service:- 3.5/5
ambience:- 4.5/5