The plate floweth over…Maharaja Bhog Thali, Goregaon & Indiblogger 2013 nominations

I am quite kicked to see Finely Chopped nominated under the Food and Travel categories of the Indiblogger IB 2013 Awards. Please click on this link and recommend the blog. Only if you like Finely Chopped of course. A comment there by you would be just lovely

It usually takes a bigger man than me to do justice to a Mumbai unlimited thali meal.

The other day I was at Oberoi Mall at Goregaon and after weeks of grills, pastas & Banu’s limited Indian veg options at home. I decided to choose Maharaja Bhog from the restaurant options that K gave me. We walked into Maharaja Bhog past the printout of the review by food critic Alison Cook pasted on the glass walls. This review is on Maharaja Bhog’s Houston branch. Their other branches, interestingly enough are in Malad and Dubai!

The Maharaja Bhog outlet in Oberoi Mall is pretty cavernous. You queue up and then are seated for the Rs 350 (6 USD) unlimited thali once a table opens up. The place is manned by efficient stewards and waiters. They use hand signals to manage the supply of food and remind you of old school stock exchange floors.

Maharaja Bhog, like any thali place, is not the place for you if you like to sit and reflect on life over your food. Once the thali and vatis (plate and bowls) are kept, they are filled immediately with pickles, farsans,  sabzis, desserts and then rotis. The rice and khichdis follow when you call for them and there is a welcome appetiser drink and butter milk. The waiters keep plying you with food and look very hurt if you put up your hands in surrender and say ‘baas, no more’.

The sign at the entrance says that the food is a mix of Rajasthani and Gujarati. What we had that day, barring the nice green sweetish vegetarian dish, was pleasantly savoury and spicy unlike the excessive sweetness of Gujju thalis. The dum alu was particularly nice as were the daal and the ghee laden rotis. I also like the kachori at the start and the cherry halva dessert. There was an interesting saunf (fennel) welcome drink and a lovely chhaas (butter milk). I asked for seconds of the latter.

I know that this post reads as scanty as that written by a vegetarian blogger writing about a barbeque place but this I can tell you that the food at Maharaja Bhog is hot, hearty and leaves you with that peaceful easy feeling and is best followed by a nap.

They do have a movie theatre at Oberoi Mall if you do want to duck in for a rather expensive 40 winks after the meal.

Talking of a bigger man and foodie than me, had the honour of having Kunal Vijayakar of The Foodie on Times Now walking with us in a Fort Finely Chopped Walk. Kunal’s a great guy to eat with and we were really lucky to have him and the crew with us. More on that when the episode airs. If you need any proof that he is royalty, the fact that we could shoot at Yazdani so easily says it all