The husband and I dropped by Shree Khana Khazana in HSR Layout last weekend. We were in search of food that was homely, yet tasty, cooked with minimal oil and spices, something that wouldn't burn a hole in our pockets. That is exactly the kind of food we found here.
The entrance leads you to a small room, barely enough to hold a desk, at which we found the owner sitting. Next to this room is the little kitchen where the meals served here are cooked. The minute we entered, we were greeted by the owner with a warm 'Namaste', which we felt was a simple but pleasant gesture. We were led upstairs to a larger room with a few tables and chairs, with just a couple of tables occupied then. We were seated immediately.
Ambience-wise, this place isn't much. It is just a decent-sized room with comfortable seating, a television (I really wish this could be done away with!), and a washbasin to wash your hands. This isn't a fine-dining place, after all, but a place that prides itself on serving home-style meals (the owner told us this - he told us to leave with him the responsibility of caring for our health!).
The husband asked for a Badi Thali, which came with 4 phulkas, a paneer-based sabzi, an okra curry, daal tadka, rice, papad, garlic chutney and pickle. Everything tasted simple and homely, the same as it tastes at our place. The garlic chutney was exceptionally delicious. I found the paneer sabzi to be a tad spicy, but it was still beautiful. The rice could have been a little more cooked, but it was still way better than the kind of rice that is served in most restaurants - and then, we are used to cooking very well-cooked rice at home.
I ordered a Chhoti Thali, which came with 4 phulkas, the same okra curry, daal tadka, garlic chutney and pickle. I was kind of disappointed to see the same okra curry served with my thali - who wanted to eat sticky, gooey okra curry on a weekend? But when I tried out the curry, I was thrilled with it - it was so well made, not one bit sticky, yet not with oodles of oil swimming in it.
Later, the husband ordered a Sweet Lassi, and I opted for a glass of Buttermilk. The lassi was okayish, I felt, but the husband quite liked it. The buttermilk was nice - not sour, neither too thick nor too watery, flavoured mildly with salt and cumin. Well done!
We paid about INR 380 for this meal, which is pretty reasonable, we felt, considering the quality of food and the taste.
I am pretty sure we'll be dropping in here often, for more of their thali meals. They also have the regular sabzis (like aloo mutter, aloo gobhi, paneer butter masala, paneer tikka masala and the likes) as well as snacks (kachori, mirchi pakoda, samosa, etc) and various rice dishes (ghee rice, veg pulao, veg biryani, paneer biryani, veg fried rice, etc) on their menu. The place serves only 100% vegetarian food.
Do check out this little place, if you haven't already.
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