Thali

Reviews 3

RA

Rangaprabhu Parthasarathy

Every once in a while, I come across a relatively new Indian restaurant in the Bay Area that in a short while has built up a good reputation among the hardest to please. One such is Thali Vegetarian Restaurant, a Gujarati Thali place in Santa Clara, CA. Here is my review from my first trip to this restaurant last week. It was a Friday afternoon and we landed at Thali Vegetarian at about 12:20pm. That happened to be about the worst time to land at this place for a party of 6. The place is small and hard to locate, nuzzled amongst a bunch of Korean restaurants and shops on El Camino Real. It seats no more than 40 people or so from the looks of it. And it was packed when we arrived. After a good 20 minute wait, we got ourselves a place to sit. Once seated, we were given big empty thali plates with a bunch of small katoris (cups) and waited for a good 5 minutes before food started arriving. We were famished by the time food arrived. All talk ended as the food was served. Much like Komala Vilas in Sunnyvale, Thali offers unlimited food with service to the table. Pleasant folks at the restaurant promptly refilled our plates and cups many times over before the lunch was done. They moved fast between the tables and arrived on time when we needed a refill. In the order of arrival, we were served chaas to start with. Then arrived dhokla, aloo tikki (potato patties), salad and achar (pickle). The sabzis (vegetable curry) arrived next with palak paneer, kadhi and dhaal. For bread we had chappattis and tepla. Rice arrived a tad later. We also had papad and for dessert, gajar ka halwaa (carrot sweet). Overall, the food was very tasty. Yes, there were niggling minor issues- the chaas felt a tad watery to me, and one of the dhals felt a tad too sweet. But beyond that, the food was great. The roti was soft and the carrot halwa was just the right amount of sweet. With no reservations, we dug in and the table was quiet for a while as we polished multiple servings of pretty much everything. We stood up and walked out, very full. The thali price for lunch is $12.99 plus applicable tax. This is on par for the course amongst comparable thali/full meals experiences in the Bay Area. I polled all my colleagues, most of them from North India and one from Gujarat. Everyone was very satisfied with their lunch. That is a testament to the quality of food Thali offered us. For me, a big fan of DeeDees, this is a good alternative for vegetarian Gujarati food in the South Bay. Rating: Ambiance: 7.5/10. Nothing fancy. Almost bare minimum but for a couple of wall hangings and adornments. The place is a little cramped especially when it is crowded. Running kids would be a challenge to say the least. Service: 8.5/10. It took a while to get their attention and get a seat. But once seated, food was served promptly and without reservations on the quantity we were consuming. Food: 9/10. The food itself is great. Loved it. Price: 8.5/10. As I mentioned earlier, $12.99 is about how much most Bay Area thalis cost. Restroom: N/A Overall: 9/10. I highly recommend a trip to Thali. Be prepared to wait because it is a small place and quite popular. Otherwise, well worth a trip.

ME

Mehul Rajput

I went there due to good reviews and especially as one of the review said, Rajdhani of Bay Area. If you were in LA you will know the Rajdhani is best of Indian restaurant in LA area. And if you think it is Gujarat thali, then please do not go as it is not. It is some weird concoction of Indian dishes that it. Apart from khaman there was no other Gujarati item on it. The tables and thali were resemblance with Rajdhani, so I was excited. As soon as I had first bite of cutlet I realised the resemblance ended. They had Appetizer khaman (for some weird reason they kept on calling them dokla) - this probably was better of the lot. cutlet - i do not know what it was made of, however the crust was not crispy and taste was OK. salad - now who in the right mind would serve cucumber and lettuce as salad in indian restaurant. It should have been cucumber, onion, tomatos, mooli.. not lettuce. no fork so we were to eat with spoon and that too lettuce. Main course paneer palak - this was the most bland palak paneer i have ever tasted in my life. may be the chef forgot the location of spice rack :-) moong dal - there were no taste of moong in the moong dal, the overbearing taste of methi was killing any of the taste which might have left in poor moong. yellow daal - it was served cold to use, we thought it was desert however when asked they said they will heat and come... okra - only one bite was sufficient to notice that they were under cooked. Didnt take any more. Kadhi - This was the pick of the lot. Atleast it was tasting like what it should be. The only issue was it had too much urad dal. Roti - Unless you want your tummy to be upset dont have it. It was maida more and wheat less Roti. Thepla - This was whole wheat one but the server kept feeding us roti till we realise there was thepla. This was way better and tasted good. Desert Ladoo - was OK, could have been little more soft Carrot Halwa - Does chef even knows what is carrot halwa. It was dripping with water, probably chef made it out of fat free milk ... Overall, a big no go. do not get fooled by "Rajdhani of Bay Area". It is no where near it.

VI

Vikram Muttineni

I have been here 2 times earlier and this was my third time. We were seated at a table and sunlight was reflecting into our eyes, and it was particularly not comfortable. We requested another table and we were told it was taken, we did not want to wait too long and so went ahead with it. One thing about the vegetarian Thali is that there are no veggies other than the salad and undi. All other items are made with pulses/dals. The salad was made of cabbage and it didnt have a good taste and I had to taste it and leave it. Dhokla was soft and good. I liked kadi - it was hot and tasty but we didnt we find any pakoda or any other peices in it.We were served Shahi Paneer and black eye beans to go with roti and poori. The paneer was decent to taste but I got only 2 pieces of paneer in the first serving. The taste was okay. I didnt like the black eye beans as it didnt have much flavor to it and probably it was over cooked or not fresh or both. The papad was served in broken peices, and when we requested a full papad we got bigger peices, still peices. Being from Southern India we are generally served full papad and I didnt like the peices. The Shrikhand was tasty, but compared to my earlier visits the pistachios in the Shrikhand were few. The dal was too dilute and a little too sweet, though I am generally Okay with sweet dal. The poori and roti were good. The kichidi could have been served hot and the sweet dal did not go with the kichidi. The butter milk was spicy and good. We were also served Kshera (sweet made with rava), it was good but never knew it was a Gujarati dish. One of us had chaat thali and the pav bhaji and pani poori were good. We were 3 folks and this sums up our latest experience.