Thursday, May 30, 2013

b! Review: Ras Bhojan @ T. Nagar

LINK: http://know.burrp.com/food-dining/b-review-ras-bhojan-t-nagar/44170


When you crave North Indian thalis and authentic dals besides the idli, vadai and sambar of Chennai, maybe you should try Ras Bhojan at T.Nagar, saysSandhya Ramachandran, as long as you don’t mind the small space.
If one were to judge a place merely by the quality of its starters, Ras Bhojan would win five stars. But unfortunately many other factors come into judging a place, and hence, Ras Bhojan’s newly opened T.Nagar branch comes down a notch or two.
Having been known for their good food and home dining experience in Mogappair, Ras Bhojan recently remodeled a shuttered-down restaurant in T. Nagar to set space for its second branch. Unfortunately, the place is very small and hence raises many functional and organizational difficulties. We love our food and it’s setting too, mind you. But since this newbie is taking its baby steps, we shall give them the benefit of the situation and go over to things of more direct concern to us – food, of course!
Like we told you already, go to Ras Bhojan for their starters. Make a meal out of it. If possible, pack some for the next day too. We are pretty sure you will be dreaming about their Paneer Sukka and Mushroom Sukka all night. The luscious paneer was dusted with spices and was served with a tangy chilli chutney. The mushrooms were batter dipped and deep fried, but were surprisingly not oily and were a steal for a mere fifty bucks!
With a slightly sweet tomato soup for a shuruat or appetiser in their terms, we began our meal. We will swear by their Tave Ki Rotis. As the owner, Mr.K.G.Anand promised, they were indeed special in terms of taste and texture. Soft and speckled moderately from the tava, the rotis are a must have, if you drop by Ras Bhojan.
It seems like the crowd agrees with us as well, what with almost every one of the twenty people who dropped by during our hour-long dinner, ordering the rotis. The place seemed like a popular haunt for office goers due to its ample and reasonably priced limited thalis. With such a large crowd to handle, the lone waiter servicing all the six tables seemed like the superman of the day, because not once did his smile falter! We were really wishing he had some company to split the work.
Give the cheese naan a skip, we found it too chewy and a task to eat. However, the Tave Ki Masala Parantha is an item you should order. It had the perfect amount of spice to keep your taste buds entertained. To go with these tava-cooked items, we ordered servings of the Paneer Lasooni, Achaari Kofta and the Stuffed Capsicum. Of these, the Stuffed Capsicum held its fort – the soft insides of the capsicum providing perfect foil to the spicy stuffing. The Paneer Lasooni was too garlicy, even for our garlic-crazy palates! The Achari Kofta made for a spicy side dish. Blame it on our order, if you will, but we felt the base gravy of all three too similar to keep us interested for long.
We moved over to the Ras Bhojan Ki Sabzi Biriyani – the signature dish of the restaurant. We must say, it proved worthy of its elevated status! The aromatic herbs tossed into the biriyani teased our tongues and on the whole made for a memorable eat. The dal tadka that we had alongside was definitely ‘ma ki dal’. The raita that came with it won itself the tag of ‘home-made’.
The gulab jamuns here are a must have. Remember those perfect roundels you possibly see only in those blasted ads for Milkmaid or Natura Sugar Free that don’t roll off when you cut it with your spoon, but also don’t shamelessly crumble into the jeera? We suspect they ordered those from Ras Bhojan. The jeera was just the right amount of sweet, and the texture of the gulab jamun is a worthy topic to write poetry on!
We ordered a sweet lassi and a jal jeera to wash down our food. The sweet lassi was thick in consistency and came with shavings of badam on top. Was it good? Hell yeah! The jal jeera was refreshing and was exactly what we needed – a good digestive.  By the way once you are done with all the hogging, don’t sit around waiting for the finger bowl like us. The sink is outside near the kitchen. So haul those lazy butts and go for a walk.
Technical difficulties apart, head to Ras Bhojan if you want good food at reasonable rates. Best place to pick a lunch thali on a working day. Or like us, you might keep going back there for their wonderful starters!
Meal for two: Rs. 300
Limited Thalis: Between Rs.95 and Rs.175

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