Raj Rasoi pe humara Raj
Regretfully
one thing that we Pakistanis did not bring with us from India is their ‘Thali’.
Had we done that we’d be eating vegetables, daal, salads, chutneys, papads,
rotis, chawal and sweets all together synchronized perfectly into a beautiful
healthy meal.
I’ve tried a range of thalis from Rajasthani to Gujrati to South Indian, and the rare Non-Vegetarian and have occasional cravings for food like that. No matter how many times I’ve visited buffets a Thali brings an altogether different experience that cannot be replaced by any 5 star buffets.
I’ve tried a range of thalis from Rajasthani to Gujrati to South Indian, and the rare Non-Vegetarian and have occasional cravings for food like that. No matter how many times I’ve visited buffets a Thali brings an altogether different experience that cannot be replaced by any 5 star buffets.
It took
ages to finally be able to experience that fun in Karachi. I got a marketing
email last year about ‘Raj Rasoi’ the thali restaurant in Karachi. And since
then it certainly has been on my list of ‘places to visit’.
Unfortunately,
the chance only came this year. A colleague of mine visited the place and came
back with a special recommendation and insisted we all go there for lunch someday.
Which we did, and do my surprise the experience was even better than I had
anticipated. Part of the fun was my company the rest of it was what the
restaurant had to offer.
Friday
lunch hour is the longest (one hour) though not really for us but nonetheless
it is the longest break we have all week officially and chose this day to be
the day we go and expand our office parties to outdoor venues. Of course we
were planning on this for almost a week and excitedly made a reservation for
12:45 pm for that afternoon.
We were
quite amazed with the ambiance of the restaurant that hosted colors of Rajasthan,
the attendants wore the traditional outfits and were warm, welcoming and courteous.
The lunch
service started with a warm hand wash, while we still couldn’t stop touching
and looking at things as if we’d seen them for the first time in our lives; we
were served with the salads and chutneys and the pickles. The next item that
walked to our tables were the starts the Dhokla and the papad and something
else that looked like a ‘United King – Chicken Samosa’ and had actual potato samosa filling only it
was called something else and I can’t recall its Rajisthani name. anyways I ate
away with everything though the world-famous-thanks-to-Star-Plus-ki-Tulsi-and-three-idiots-ka
rancho ‘Dhokla’ wasn’t my favorite I did enjoy it with the lehsan (garlic) ki
Chutney.
The main
course was more interesting than the previous round of appetizers; on the menu
that day were two vegetable items, the Green Gujrat and Aalo do piyaza, amongst
these two the Green Gujrat was my favorite. Then we had one daal, one Kadi the
only kind I’ve ever enjoyed, there was Paneer kofta (too dry for my taste)
which was compensated with the wonder and awesomeness of the shakahari qeema
(vegetarian mince) and then there was the chicken the Rajvadia Chicken or I think
that’s what it was called, our choices to eat all this amazing stuff was Chapatti,
Puri and Rice. To end this eating spree we were topped with the most unusual
dessert, a garlic kheer which was an outstanding dish, you could barely tell
the taste of the garlic and couldn’t imagine if your dessert could actually
have something like garlic in it. Lastly we were served with masala chai and
thankfully so coz after that much amount of food in our tummies I think keeping
our eyes open for work was a tough job.
We ended
the afternoon with a bunch of cheeky photographs and were kindly handed the
correct props for that.
We did
have a wonderful afternoon and I did go back again for another family evening. I
do want to go back there again and again coz the food’s amazing, the ambiance
is lovely, the service is warm and I feel like the only guest there when I sit
and eat. I am however waiting for the right company for my next visit… who’s
interested?
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