Forget the Chinese and Punjabi fare at this restaurant, settle instead forthe elaborate Rajasthani thali that promises 30 different variations each day of the month

If you are thinking of heading to Rajvansh, a Punjabi, Chinese, Rajasthani and Sheesha restaurant all rolled into one, the only reason we might suggest you take your time out to visit it is because of their Rajasthani thali. If you like your meals elaborate and in many courses, then Rajvansh should be your choice of place.

The restaurant space is huge, tucked away into the deep recesses of a mall on Cunningham Road. The eatery is divided into a section for Punjabi and Chinese, one for the traditional Rajasthani thali and an outdoor section for the sheesha or hookah. Giant wooden carvings, Rajasthani royalty regalia, shields and swords line the walls.
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The restaurant also has a long bar that serves non-alcoholic beer, wine and champagne (why even call them beer, wine and champagne at all?) along with mocktails. The outdoor section is lined with laid back chairs, low carved tables, cane blinds and colourful glass sheeshas in greens, reds and blues. As expected, the most number of people could be found outside puffing away at their fruit flavoured hookahs.

We gave the usual Punjabi and Chinese on the menu a miss and instead settled for the Rajasthani thali. We started off our meal with a Mixed Fruit Punch. The punch was a medley of fruits spiked with loads of vanilla essence.

We suggest you ditch any kind of mocktail here and go straight for the welcome drink that's served as part of the thali. We were served Chaas that turned out to be refreshing, watery buttermilk tempered with mustard and other spices and garnished with chaat masala.

We were first served a spinach dhokla, a fried farsan and a piquant dahi chaat as starters.

The Spinach Dhokla was steamed and mild and tasted great with a spicy green mint chutney, the fried farsan or aloo bonda was strictly all right. But it was the dahi chaat with the bhalla stuffed with a spicy potato filling that had our attention. With it pouring outside, this was the perfect start to our meal.
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The restaurant serves 31 items as part of its Rajasthani thali and also changes up its offerings every day of the month. So if today you had bajre ki roti tomorrow you could choose between palak poori or aloo parathas.

Every dish is changed every day of the month claims the restaurant staff. Saturdays and Sundays are reserved for Rajasthani speciality Dal Bati Churma, Khair Sangria (a piquant pickle-like dish made with three berries found in the desert called khair, sangria and kumita and cooked in sesame oil and Jaipuri Gatte ki Sabji. But sadly we missed out on all these dishes due to our weekday visit.

For our mains, we were served a spicy Rajasthani dal made of five kinds of cereal: arhar, moong, chana, urad and tuwar dal along with another Gujarati style sweet dal, a Marwari Vadi curry, Aloo Rasawalla, Chana Khator and Dahi Kadi. The Marwari Vadi, was a spicy curry cooked with dal vadis and went well with the mini bajre ki rotlos served with a dollop of ghee and jaggery.

The Chana Khator, a curry cooked with black chana, heeng and other spices was our favourite though. The Aloo Rasawallah was a delicate curry spiced with heeng and garam masala and finished off with a kajoo paste. We had the choice of phulkas and aloo parathas to mope up these curries.
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However, the Moong Daal ki Khichdi stole the show. Though bland, this gooey, slow cooked khichdi went beautifully with the Dahi Kadi.We finished our meal with surprise, surprise not ice cream or mini desserts but old fashioned fruit custard.

The custard was chilled and was filled with chopped apples, pears and raisins and reminded us of a hoemmade version, a rarity these days. And for those who can't do without a paan after a heavy meal, there is a panwallah ready to serve you right in the restaurant. Choose from regular, meetha and Kalkatta paan.
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We tried a chilled meetha paan stuffed with sweet gulkand, topped with cherry and sprinkled liberally
with rose scented sugar syrup. The paan packed in quite a punch, with the right combination of the candied sweetness and the bitterness of the betel leaves.

Though we were more than satisfied with our meal, we felt that Rajvansh has too much on their plate while managing a mocktail bar, a sheesha lounge, a Chinese and Punjabi section. Trying to please everybody's palate is something a restaurant should aspire to but it often becomes difficult to practice.

At Rajvansh, # S-222, II Floor, Sigma Mall, Cunningham Road
Call 4147 2282
For Rajasthani Thali for Rs 199 plus taxes