Howard Johnson (HoJo) is hosting a grand Rajasthani Food Festival from 16 -25th Sep, 2016 at their all-day dining restaurant, Nest. The fest is named as Padharo Maro Des, meaning 'welcome to my land'. Founded by Mr. Howard Deering Johnson, Hojo was the largest hotel and restaurant chain in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s. Now HoJo is a chain of motels, hotels, and restaurants which are spread across 14+ countries.
In less than a month's time, this was my second visit to HoJo and this time, it was for sampling Rajasthani food fest menu. (Checkout my previous review for HoJo here ). Located at Thanisandra Main Road near Manyata Tech Park, HoJo can be easily located using Google maps. As it was a lazy weekend afternoon we started our lunch with a glass of Mai Thai and Lynchburg Lemonade. Mai Thai is a combination of dark rum, amaretto, Cointreau and pineapple juice and Lynchburg Lemonade is a whiskey cocktail made of whiskey, lemon juice, and lemonade. Both the drinks were perfect.
For this Rajasthani Food Festival, there will be only an 'À la carte' menu. As a part of food tasting, they served us in thali which was a good choice. As I am a pure non-vegetarian, I got a thali which consisted of Ghee rice, Dal bati churma, Lal mass, Dal lassoni, Chicken rogni tikka, Mohan gatta curry, Safed murgh, Pander ajwani tikki, Papad ri sabji, Rajasthani kadhi, Paneer long lata, Missi roti and a glass full of Lassi. My thali just looked colorful as Rajasthan.
I love dal bati churma, so I started my meal by crushing bati in a small bowl of crumbly churma. Churma was so tasty that I was tempted to skip the dal and bati. They gave ghee (clarified butter) in a separate sauce bowl. The combination of dal- bati- churma with ghee was just divine. Each and every dish on the thali was appealing as well as appetizing. Some of the must try dishes are Dal bati churma, Dal lassoni, Chicken rogni tikka, Mohan gatta curry, Safed murgh, Papad ri sabji, Paneer long lata, and Missi roti. Lal mass was not as fiery as I was expecting. It could have been bit spicier. Safed murgh was an exceptional dish. Usually, there will be always a space for dessert in my tummy. But this all of us just skipped the dessert part and opted for a good ol strong cuppa ginger tea.
Rajasthani Food Festival at HoJo is definitely going to be a gastronomical journey through Rajasthan's royal cuisine. Chef Dev Bose has carefully curated each and every dish on the menu. Service was quick and their well-dressed staffs are very polite. I had a wonderful time at HoJo. A meal for two would be INR 1000+ taxes.