Attention all FOODIES! Recommendations for places to eat - Delhi, Agra, Udaipur, etc

Hi all,

Now that I've finally got all my rail and hotels booked - I'm hoping to get some recommendations for great places to eat in Rajasthan:

Namely in Delhi, Agra, Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur.

Recommendations varying from posh/semi-posh restaurants, to little hole in the wall cafes or any of your favourite eating places (with recommendations of what to order) would be greatly welcomed. LP has their usual recommendations each time I use them, I find the food isn't quite up to scratch (sorry maybe I'm fussy). So if any IMers living in these cities could provide me with some of their favourite local food haunts, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Especially - please advise where to find the best:
1) Lassi
2) Parathas and curries
3) Deep fried anything
4) Gulab jamun (my favourite!!!), ras malai (my second favourite)and pistachio kulfi
5) Dosai
6) Chai and Indian sweets (please elaborate on the names) as I don't know that much about Indian food.

Thank you in advance

Yum, Can't wait!

Karim in Old Delhi is good for meat curries. Try Makhani Murgh-e-Jahangiri

http://www.karimhoteldelhi.com/course.html

There's a thread around here called something like "what's the best food you ate in Rajasthan." You might find it worthwhile to search for it.

Kat - you should look in Delhi and Jaipur Forums for food ideas. Here are a couple of threads in Delhi Forum for a start:

Delhi Restaurants for Ladies' Lunch!

eating your way around India without leaving Delhi

For Jaisalmer - some tried and trues that Mr K and I go to are Heritage Inn for meat dishes, Trio, Desert Boys Dhani, Kanishka (pure veg for the last two). All good food and I've never had bad repurcussions (stomach probs.) from any of them over nearly 9 years!
Hotel Royale has a nice rooftop restaurant, and Little Italy over the first Fort Gate is a good one too for Italian food.

I was there 2 years back and ate some "normal" food and wound up with the worst stomach problems I've had in a long time.

I vowed never to eat there again.

Cheers
Zoltan

Oh dear, zoltan - that was really bad luck. We've been there at least 100 times, if not more, I would think since the time of opening. Never a problem. In fact as I said, all the restaurants I've listed here have never given me stomach problems.
I avoid like the plague, oily and highly spiced food however. A lot of Jaisalmeri food has the 'sauce' swimming in this red chilli oil which is added as an extra. I can just imagine the health problems in middle age of those who eat it regularly.

Aishah, that sauce is nothing but chilly powder in hot ghee, maybe couple of more spices. Its used in specific food items only. Being a Rajasthani is a common thing in my home, but generally its used in Kadi and moong dal only.

Here, in many restaurants, they seem to ladle a couple of spoonfuls over whatever they are serving in the way of Indian dishes - not confined to just a few of them e.g. any non-veg with sauce type, all varieties of subzee types (vegetables),paneer ones etc. The very good restaurants don't - they serve 'correct' recipes. Desert Boys Dhani tends to do the ghee ladling too. I ask for mine without it. (and also 'korma' dishes they don't do it)
Other places e.g. Jodhpur, Jaipur, Delhi don't seem to do it to the extent they do here.

I have editted my previous post according to your information, Shashank, thank you!

Hi mate,

If food is important to you, I would strongly recommend you go to Chokhi Dhaani, whilst in Jaipur. It is like a one stop shop and in my opinion one of the best places in Rajasthan to try authentic Rajasthani food.

The variety of food on offer is mind boggling and they serve you with such affection and warmth that you have to actually experience it to believe it.

Other than food, you can also get a glimpse of life in rural Rajasthan. Highly recommended.

yeah I can imagine that !! inmost of the parts in India, Desi ghee is valuable proposition and it is generally taken for good thing. The more the ghee the better it is. But alas !! that is not the case.

I can't tell Mr K ghee is bad for your heart - there is such faith in it here and I guess it all started from Krishna eating the butter? They think it is great for children and feed a lot of it to them by way of roti,ghee, and sugar mixture. I think it's called 'choorma' - don't know to spell this one. There is another one like ladoo, or even just loose, which is good for health in winter and has methi in it - sounding something like 'cassa' (I think I'm way off here with that word - Mr K's out getting my papaya for breakfast!) I have this last one, but I ask whichever relative lady is making it, not to put lots of ghee, so mine is rather dry, but very tasty.

its mark of changing times. Ghee is good when people do actual, manual hard work. Because of the fat in it, it does profile loads of energy. But with changing times, it simply is not good anymore.

But People in smaller towns and villages can still handle it pretty well, compared to us in big cities.

I love it...i still cant do without 2-3 spoons either in dal or rice when i am eating..

Kat - you were asking about lassi - in Jodhpur there is a 'famous' lassi place to the right of the gate to the Clock Tower area. In Jaisalmer, my favourite is still the one from Mohan Juice centre - he's now moved to near Gadi Sagar roundabout. Next best is at the Kanchan Shree ice-cream place - in Gadi Sagar Market towards the bottom not far from big gates.
Their ice-cream is delicious too! they have pistachio kulfi there usually.
Sweets - there are two good places in Gandhi Chowk - if you face them I go to the one on the right, they seem to be slightly 'cleaner'! And there's the famous Danraj Bhatia sweet shop near Gopa Chowk at the start of the main market street - try their gotwan, it's a speciality, but very rich.
'Deep fried' - my god, you'll be piling on the weight!! That aside, there are some street carts where they make this thing out of lentil flour, deep fried like a light pancake shape, and then chopped onions and other stuff put on top. Lots of people eat it and they say it's delicious. The carts are not far from the Fort entrance gate, and near the vegetable market.(Subzee mandi)

pancake shape...ummmm....I guess that would be a Chila/Chilla/Cheela.