Laajawab

Yesterday night was Radhesh's treat in Laajawab, a somewhat new restaurant in CMH road which I had heard about but not visited. They specialize in Punjabi fare and the menu is admittedly compact(especially if you are used to huge menus like at Shanti Sagar, Koshy's etc).

The ambiance is really good, and since I went on a weekday for dinner, the crowd was not much, you can actually afford not to book on weekdays I guess.

We were six vegetarians for dinner, and though the menu looked limited, I was hoping that whatever is on the menu is really good.

There are just three kinds of soup, tomato shorba, dal shorba and a non veg soup. We ordered tomato shorba, and the portions were generous(despite one by two). It tasted like authentic South Indian rasam. Now, I dont really know how an authentic shorba is supposed to be like, but this was good!

For starters, we ordered three since all of them looked rather inviting. The omni present Paneer tikka(was really good, very high quality paneer), Tandoori Gobi(was ok, not special, I like the one in Treat better) and another starter consisting of spinach and cottage cheese(forgotten the name already, but this was quite good). Probably, a platter would give a better idea of how the starters are, and one can order more of the best ones. Starters are all priced around the Rs175-Rs200 range.

For the main course, since I have recently become calorie conscious again, I ordered plain tandoori roti(good soft rotis), instead of the butter naans and stuffed kulchas which looked delicious. The vegetable kadai was good but a tad too spicy(no complaints there!). The other curry was something consisting of cottage cheese in a cashew gravy with kesar(forgot the name, but really rich!). This was very nice and somewhat sweetish, this complemented the spicy kadai veg perfectly well. Diced and pickled onions for salad was great as well.

Finally, the desserts! They have some pretty cool items like the paan flavored ice cream(which was supposedly very good acc to my friends). I had a gulab gulkand ice cream which was very different and very nice. There were the usual suspects like jamoon, rasmalai etc. Considering that our desserts were quite good, am sure most of the deserts are good here.

All in all, it cost us roughly Rs 400 per head, and I would consider this a tad expensive. But the food was really nice, ambiance pleasant and service quite attentive. They have valet parking(which is a must in Indiranagar I guess).

If you are in the mood for some good Punjabi food, I would recommend at least one visit wholeheartedly.

Location: CMH Road, after Chinmaya Mission Hospital, before the 100 feet road(so no Metro mess if you come from Airport road/JB nagar side).
I would rate the food as very good, say 7/10, the downside being that it is a bit pricey.
PS: Considering the variety is rather limited, I am not sure how the afternoon weekday buffet is, it costs Rs 249.