rajputana

rajputs in general are known for their hospitality and are known for their indulgence in food both vegetarian and meat from north india.

chef jugesh arora after trying out with tadka talk a resto in chennai has now tried to bring in this new royal experiance from rajputana.

was it royal ? did it satisfy the thirst ? lets see.

# the resto is open only for dinner all the days.
# has both buffet and al a carte, and both veg and non veg.
# veg buffet priced @ 750 inclusive of taxes and non veg @ 850 inclusive of taxes.

items served in veg buffet were

# welcome drink - jaljeera

# soup - choliya di rassa, nothing but a tomatoe shorba

# 3 starters - slice of cottage cheese, piece of grilled cauliflower and piece of corn kebab.

# main course - 3 side dishes and 1 black dhaal and lahori subj biriyani with raitha, pappad served with your choice of bread.
side dishes were - panner based, aloo based and one veggie based.

# 4 desserts - tiny glass of lassi, phirni, kulfi and fresh cut mangoes

the starters and desserts were awesome
but the main course was a complete failure cos all the side dishes were sweet inspite of telling them to make it spicy, and lacked the flavour. black dhaal was gud.

biriyani tasted like tomatoe rice seriously, no flavour.

# pricing - buffet pricing is vfm , otherwise ala carte is defy priced on the higher side for the taste offered. buffet is unlimited :-). it is advisable to go for a buffet in case u are planning to drop in here.

# ambiance is classy , the setup is rajputana style, nice high lifted chairs, breezy. it also has an ac room seating inside which also has a nice view in case u feel sultry outside.

#service- very good and friendly guys.

# ala carte pricing - would cost u around 1k to 1.2k per head.

final verdict - i would not go back and nothing was royal as such.
you could only except few idols for display to give a rajputani flavour :-(

there are some things in this world so closely linked that one without the other really makes no sense. one of these is the rajputs and the heavy rajasthani food that their desert home is so known for. oddly, this restaurant named rajputana has not a single rajasthani dish. 

the ambiance is an emphatic win, with the rooftop area being one of the most spectacular places in the city to have a meal. even the abominable cmbt appears monumental from here. 
with valet parking, decor that is thematically perfect and that view, it is very hard to see how things can go wrong. yet go wrong they do.

not with theservicethough. that is fairly good, with one waiter in particular appearing very familiar with the food (we failed to get his name, which just goes to show no good deed is appreciated these days).

the food is the let down here. the welcome drink had so much pepper it could have cured an army battalion of the cold. of the 3 starters, only the paneer worked, with the cauliflower grill appearing to be raw cauliflower, impaled on a skewer.
the mains weren't any better, with just the dal being even edible. the kadai paneer stood out for its total lack of any flavor, which was bizarre given the paneer in the starters was pretty good.
desserts were better, but nothing could save this meal.

pricing is very steep. we were invited in, so our meal was free, but the vegetarian buffet at 650 plus tax is mind boggling given the poorness of the food.

overall conclusion: pretty settings and mood music do not a good restaurant make! rajputana needs to get their basics right. perhaps starting with the name.

so one day my partner was determined to take me out for a surprise dinner date and she is been nagging about the same all day long. :p though it was meant to be a surprise, i still helped her with deciding on a place. after an extensive and exhaustive search for an ideal romantic dinner date sort of places (going by their reviews and pictures) on zomato, this place caught her attention. i was totally unknown about rajputana till the moment we stepped there. it wasn't even on zomato then. one of her friend suggested this and she without giving it another thought, she decided to take me there for which we went all the way to koyambedu from thoraipakam and that too almost at their closing time.. but the staff was courteous enough to consider her request for the later dinner and served us with a smile.

my second visit was with a group of 10-11 foodies who were invited for a on-the-house meal.

being located on the rooftop of jp hotel right opposite to koyambedu bus stand, the view you get from here is amazing. the busy roads of koyambedu, the car lights...though it was seems busy and noisy you would enjoy the peacefulness of the view! you can also spot the metro trains that goes for trail runs at intervals.

the place has rajasthani village theme with wooden furnitures around. but one strange thing about this place is, they offer a rajasthani theme with a punjabi menu. you wont find any rajasthani rajput dishes here, not even one.

what ever it is, for me the food is the main thing. :-p the first time i went there, we chose a la carte and all our dishes tasted well esp. their paneer tikka and some chicken starter that my carnivore partner had. only disappointment was their their bhindi based main course we had ordered. (cant recall the name).

on my second visit, with the foodies, i felt the food was not up to the mark. we were served the buffet this time. apart from the starters (their paneer one again) and their lip smacking desserts none of the other dishes seemed to win any of our hearts. the biriyani was okay and maa ki daal was good. rest of the dishes tasted sweet. the welcome drink was made a bit too rich and it was hurting the throat. it was quite disappointing experience for all of us!

coming to theirservice, they care of you and your choices well. one dedicated seever serves you the dishes.

a la carte is expensive but the buffet seemed reasonable given the array of dishes.

overall, this is a place you can take your partner to, have a romantic candle-light dinner with an amazing view. order a few dishes from a la carte (ask for their suggestions) and enjoy their service.

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 andservicesupporting the already prevelant top draw ambiance.

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, selfservicegot 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.servicewas 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

the best and descent place to have food and drinks in and arround koybedu. impressed withserviceand the taste. wish to visit all the time more over its a 8th floor rooftop again impressed

it's a decent roof top restaurant. good view but unfortunately not great food. we were disappointed. food taste was not up to the mark.servicewas too slow. while the gold benefits were well taken care of.

ambience - 4
taste - 2
service -2
value for money - 2
quantity - 3

superb location and good ambience very goodserviceand staff are very friendly .. roof top view must try .. must try once and value for money

the location and elevation is good.serviceis slow, plus the food is not up to the mark. overall a poor experience. would prefer green park hotel anytime

had this place on bookmarked for a while and i finally got to visit this restaurant. it’s located on one of the busiest roads of chennai making it really hard to ignore it.
this place is a roof top restaurant which serves some delicious food from the north indian cuisine. couldn’t take much decent pictures of the food as we had visited this place for dinner and it was quite dark.
we had ordered the following
-the tamatar ka shorba soup just to start off a bit fancy. it was just a plain tomato soup with a thick consistency, just a note for those who would love their soup that way.
-shebnam ke mothi for starters which were stuffed mushrooms with grated paneer and cheese over it. definitely a different starter from the ones i usually opt for in starters. a bit bland but well complemented with the mint chutney. wasn’t spicy and might be a bit bland if you have too many of these so 1-2 pieces would be fine.
-also, the murgh malai kebab lucknowi which were tbh the non vegetarian version of the shebnam ke mothi replacing the mushroom for chicken.
-garlic naan, tandoori roti, kadai paneer and jeera rice for mains. there isn’t anything i would point out as a flaw and you can feel free to try any of the above dishes.

loved theserviceat this place which definitely deserves a special mention because every waiter was assisting us so well and helped us feel comfortable throughout our dining experience. the ambience was fairly good and definitely a place i would consider visiting again.

very nice ambience and view of koyambedu from roof top is excellent. very good hospitality andserviceby dhivyananth. items in buffet is limited however over all experience is good.

worst restaurant food was worstservicealso worst
waste of money
cheaters
chef doesn’t know what is jain food
i would not recommend any one to this restaurant
tis restaurant spoiled my 1st wedding anniversary celebration

to start with, a wonderful place to have dinner. be it watching a live match or a nice romantic dinner. suggest to go for the buffet as it covers almost the entire menu. the food is excellent, loved the chat that was served along with the starters. theserviceis good but suggest to book your table in advance so you don't have to wait long.

ambience was nice in the rooftop under a small hut.servicewas nice by mr. tamil who gave us good ideas to select items according to our taste. we wanted a spicy cuisine.
we ordered mushroom creamy soup which is spicy and creamy. then corn kebab and a variety of tandoori chicken recommended by him. then roti/naan with corn methi gravy which is really yummy. along with main course we had cooling thandai drink. at last we had complimentary dessert platter which included almost all desserts.
we had a fantastic dinner here at rajputana and i'll come back for sure.😃😃😃

awesome place to be in. the ambience was very good.serviceand staff were very prompt and courteous and the taste of food was also awesome. lots of varieties. the main plus point were the deserts. worth trying