Jaipur Palace

We ended up in Jaipur Palace because Sanskruti is closed on Mondays, just as well there is another world class vegetarian Indian restaurant 15 minutes walk away.
The restaurant is much fancier than I expected, and we were seated in a comfortable booth.
Following Raam S’s excellent review and recommendations, we all opted for a thali which is fantastic value at £8.99. I got the Gujarati thali and it’s one of the best things I’ve eaten this year. All the components were absolutely delicious, the stand outs being okra (which i thought I wasn’t going to be like) and the rich aubergine. The sweet was orange but I wasn’t sure whether it was carrot.
The only thing I didn’t like was that most of the thali was served quite cold. I’m not generally that bothered about things being absolutely piping hot, but it would be better if it were heated properly.
We got some other dishes too, the mysori dosa was extremely good (as also recommended by Raam) although as Emily said we weren’t sure exactly what to do with the sauce — will have to ask next time! The other two things we tried we weren’t so keen on (paneer and doughnuts). Basically I would say stick to the thali and the dosa.
I would definitely recommend this place and it’s worth the trip.

I really enjoyed my meal at Jaipur Palace. It’s not in a particularly vibrant area but I would recommend making a special trip as it’s worth it.
I ordered a Punjabi thali and we also ordered three extra dishes for the table (as perhaps we thought the thali would not be enough… fools!) which were paneer pakora, savoury doughnuts, and a mysore dosa.
Come hungry. Maybe starve yourself before coming here. Because you will end up with a lot of food (if you’re anything like me) and you will want to eat it all and your stomach will protest and you will be sad.
My thali was incredible in terms of taste, but it was not as hot as it should have been. Oonagh and Natalie had the same problem. I also was talking about it with friends from work and they said the the same thing. Maybe it’s not meant to be hot? It would be a lot more pleasant to eat if it was.
I can’t remember the names of the dishes on my thali but there was some sort of spinach dish, a paneer dish (delicious), a lentil dish (very good but suffered from going cold too soon), rice, a roti, a spring roll, mango lassi, and a dessert that I couldn’t quite figure out. The thali is incredibly good value and I would recommend it if you’re like me and love to eat a bit of everything rather than one main course.
Paneer pakora was a bit like a mozzarella stick and not a very exciting one at that. Again it suffered from not being hot enough, which is a shame because I love paneer and thought a paneer cheese stick would be wonderful.
The thought of savoury doughnuts filled me with joy but the reality was not so good. The texture was very sense and also soggy. I wouldn’t recommend these.
The dosa was, in a word, huge. I don’t know what we were expecting but I don’t think we were expecting this gargantuan pancake to appear at the table. Throughout the meal it taunted us by sitting there being so giant. None of us were sure if there was a special way to eat it involving sauces but we are some anyway and it was truly delicious. I would visit Jaipur Palace again to properly try one of these dosas (without ordering a thousand other things and being a full I could hardly breathe).
I would recommend Jaipur Palace, and not just for veggies and vegans. As there meat-​eaters we were all impressed and satisfied by the food.

It doesn’t look very impressive from the outside, in fact we nearly walked past even though we were looking out for it. It is appealing once you get in the door though and the service was very friendly throughout. Initiallly we were the only diners which we were surprised at but then it was early on a Monday night. It picked up later on though with a couple of larger parties too.
I really enjoyed the meal here. It was very tasty, all of it, and that was a lot!
I got a punjabi thali with a taste of various dishes. There was also paneer pakoras which I enjoyed, although they look more like rolls than the triangles I have come to expect from pakoras. Then a massive dhosa pancake which was a treat but also made us feel guilty for not finishing! All of it was yum.
Actually there were savoury donoughts too although I didn’t like the texture. The taste was fine though.
The only let down was that the food was lukewarm when it arrived. So it’s not possible to give a higher score even though the taste was great.

Inauspiciously tagged on to the unfashionable Landsdowne Hotel is this amazing gem serving a vast range of vegetarian and vegan dishes from across India specialising in Gujarati, Punjabi and South Indian food. Incredibly fresh and inexpensive it’s exterior hides a rich authentic food experience.

In my last review I told you we were planning to go there. Guess what! :D
We ordered a Mysore Masala Dosa and the Dhokla. I will leave the dhokla aside by saying it was very good and move on to the Mysore Masala Dosa.
There are variations on the dosa theme and masala dosa is one of those variants. However the way in which this is prepared in different parts in South India is different. Madras and Mysore refer to what the states were called all those centuries ago as opposed to the cities that they are now.
For example if you were to visit Chennai (Madras), you will get a simple potato based masala inside the dosa. Whereas in Mysore region, where I come from, the inner surface of the dosa is smeared with a sweet/​spicy onion chutney before the spicy potato masala gets filled in it. Apologies if the history/​geography lesson dragged on for a bit.
So, the dosa was the right colour throughout (starting with a slightly dark tinge of brown at the centre and gradually fading into beige as you go radiallly outward), had pretty decent texture, (crispier towards the circumference and softer as you come radially inward) and tasted just about spot-​on. It wasn’t very greasy either. I also got the onion chutney with it, which was yum! The potato masala was generous in terms of quantity and flavoursome. It took me back home!
The winner on the night however was the Punjabi thali that my wife ordered. Thali is a little like a tapas and a little like our sunday roast, but nothing like either. In Hindi and most other Indian languages, the word thali simply means a plate. The thali dish is essentially a reasonably big plate with about anywhere between 5 – 8 cups, some of which contain a curry, one has yougurt/​curd one with buttermilk and one with dal usually. One usually gets a decent portion of rice or a roti, which is the main dish.
The individual items on the thali were all well prepared and delicious. The portions were generous and very filling too. Definitely worth a recommendation.
As with everywhere else, I sincerely hope they continue to maintain their excellence.

Amazing south Indian cuisine. Restaurant is totaly vegetarian and for vegan too. I’m not vegetarian but that was plenty of choice for me to tried someting diffrent, great new experience.