I heard a lot about this place and unfortunately skipped it in the last two visits. But, this time we planned to visit Chowki Dhaani and experience the very much celebrated village, known to be popular for their food and hospitality. Chowki Dhani offers pure traditional and authentic Rajasthani food. You'll have two options to choose from, one was for Rs.700 and other was a Royal Thali worth Rs.900 per person. The only difference was that later will be served giving you some royal treatment and providing you a sitting in a closed separate restaurant and serving additional food like Paneer, Mix Vegetables and couple of more. But to me if you intend to try out basic Rajasthani food only, then take Thali for worth Rs. 700. It's an area turned into a village spreaded across acres of land, which is full of traditional amenities and culture. The emotions behind the theme is simply to present the Rajasthani culture and showcase their majestic traditions in terms of folk and the food.

Some of the food items you will get in chowki dhaani. There is lots more, couldn't accommodate everything on a single plate.

                                                                                                                                 

Welcome Drink, It is a salty drink made up of butter milk. You will get three different places to go and have your food. One with chairs and tables and the other two has floor sittings typically seen in villages. All of them are open air except the one for Royal Thali. 

                                                 This was the one with Chairs and Tables, you need to give coupons to get an empty thali and then you can walk over to have food of your choices. Basically a buffet system. You will find waiters holding big trays with bowls of rice and other food items, so need not to worry when refilling of food will be required.

                                  Now this is the place if you are in the mood to enjoy your food while sitting on the floor. The good part is that you will be sitting and eating here, no self service here, just sit down and let them serve you the food and trust me they are superb in this format. Padharo maare desh.

Vegetable Salad, don't go for it as it will only occupy unwanted space in your thali.

Green Pudina and coriander Chutney

Pickle

Gatta Curry Sabzi, amongst the popular food item in Rajasthan..made up of Corn flour.

Steam Rice

Starting from the left - Chana Daal, Gutta Curry, Baati Churma, Kadhi, Gutta Curry again and Makki ki Roti.

You will get plenty of food variety in chowki dhaani. The buffet includes Daal Baati Choorma, Sarso ka Saag, Gutta Curry, Kadhi, Aaloo pyaaz sabzi, khichri with boora (brown sugar powder) and deshi  ghee, Rice, Maaki ki Roti, Baajre ki Roti, Aate ki Roti, Aachar, Chutney, Vegetable Salad and in the desserts you will have halwa. All above food items are amazingly delicious and each bite of them is divine. If you have really tasted food in the villages and are aware of the simplicity and purity of the food, then you might feel or taste the same. To me each same sip or bite of it was divine. We didn't eat anything for the whole day just to keep ours belly empty to eat all the delicacies in chowki Dhaani and we simply loved everything about the food. I couldn't stop my self sipping the daal, kadhi and gatta curry subzi. Halwa was incredibly delicious made up of moong daal, nariyal and pure desi ghee. It was like a complete food fair for me where we enjoyed the aromatic and lip smacking flovors of the Rajasthani Food.

TIME TO RATE THIS PLACE

 

Food: Excellent
Ambiance: very soothing and dim lights, Open Air.
Service : Excellent
Rating: 4.5/5
Next Visit: Will be visiting again soon
Recommend this place: Yes, for authentic rajasthani food and enjoy the Folk music and dance.
Tips: Opt the place with floor seating, if want to enjoy the food in a traditional village style.

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To View pictures of Chowki Dhaani other than food, If interested visit my below blog for Photography:

http://www.eyzeonyou.blogspot.in/2015/01/chowkidhaani-jaipur.html

New Delhi Palate Fest 2014 happened to be showcased at Nehru Park, Chanakya puri. When it comes about Food Festivals we do not recall such grand events in the past. Palate Fest 2014 was a buffet of food outlets, cookery workshops, food-tasting, events and live performances. With more than 30 restaurants like Dakshin, Khan chacha, Punjabi by Nature, Olive Bar and Kitchen, Taj Vivanta, The Leela Palace, The Park, The Oberois, Sakae Sushi, The Hungry Monkey, Sodabottleopenerwala, Guppy by Ai and many more participated in the Palate Fest 2014, it was definitely an opportunity for food enthusiasts  to explore variety of international cuisines. It was claimed to be first of its kind of international level food festival held in New Delhi, India. When it comes about food, Delhi has the taste of all and gives you the option of choosing from the wide variety of cuisines, regional and international food. Palate Fest 2014 motive was to give an opportunity to all food enthusiasts to come and enjoy every bit of all famous and delicious cuisines available at one place and that too for 3 days.

Food Outlets on the on the beds of green grass

Friday 28th was absolutely fantastic in terms of experience as it was the first day and didn't report many visitors. I was there on the first day and fortunately got ample time to chat with one of the finest and emerging chefs in Delhi and talked about their restaurants, specialties and shared their belief on  the cuisine which will be popular in near future. The first bite we had in the Palate fest was California Crab Roll (includes real crabmeat, creamy avocado and crunchy cucumber rolled inside-out on a bed of sushi rice) at Sakae Sushi. Me and my wife are not very keen of Japanese food, this is probably why it did not hit our palates in a good way. However, I am confident that we should try different dhes from Japanese cuisine more because world is not mad after it for no reason!!  Later on during our conversation with the Owner of Sakae Sushi Mrs Chandrima Aggarwal we got to know about her passion about the Japanese food and how she started her food venture.  Following on we had conversation with veteran chef Vikram of Guppy by Ai, Naina from Bistros and discussed the familiarities and expertise regarding their domain of food cuisines. We witnessed an overly crowded place on Sunday (30th November 2014, last day of Palate fest) evening because of the weekend and had to stand in long queues to get the food. At some places food were sold out or left with few options which were disappointing. Many people were complaining about lack of the proper seating arrangements, parking and other stuff,  but one thing was hit among everybody which was the food . Foodies walking around holding beer, sitting/rested on the grass with their family, kids and friends. It was truly a mesmerizing, relaxing and fun sight to watch. Among the plentiful of delicacies, we tried out following items and loved them -

Labanese Food at Habibi

Kunafa (cheese pastry soaked in sweet sugar-based syrup)
Lamb Shawarma
Four Seasons (Flat Labanese bread topped with seasonal vegetables)
Mouhalabiya (Lebanese Milk Pudding with sugar and rose water)

Tres

Quarter Chicken with Juju spice

Khaan Chacha 

Chicken Tikka Roll

Indissin Cup Noodles

Monchow and Chicken flavours


ALSO READ : Restaurant Reviews by fOOD aur mOOD

Drool

Tex mex Fiesta (Savoury)
Mellow Marshmallo (Sweet)

Sucre

Red Velvett Cake with Cheese Cream

One of the greatest part of this fest was reasonably priced food and the other was Live music.

Organizers of Palate Fest 2014 made an ingenious effort to make this Food Festival a phenomenal event. It is worth the mention that this fest had facility of Medical center, Lost and Found Center, Kids Zone etc.. Though omission of washrooms and Drinking water was uncomfortable and revealed that the event organizers were not prepared or might not have expected such a big crowd, but I still feel it was worth visiting the place and enjoyed one of the biggest international level food festival in Delhi. Hoping to see more of such events in Delhi and all over India as we are a country of diversity and welcome each man-kind with open hands!

Sucre - delight for pastires

Sakae Sushi - Authentic, Healthy Japanese and Pan Asian Cuisine

Beautifully decorated Cookies n cakes at Sucre

Chef Kunal Kapoor enjoying segway ride

Innovative presentation of art, made of used tins

guppy by ai outlet at palate fest

Bistro's part of olive bar n kitchen

Seating at Olive Bar and Kitchen

Chnadrima Aggarwal Founder/Owner Sakae Sushi

L-R: Chef Vikram Khatri/guppybyai, Naina/Founder of Olive Bistros, Chef Sujan Sarkar/Chef Olive Bar & Kitchen, Mohit/Sodabottleopenerwala

 

L-R: Chef Vikram Khatri/Guppybyai , Naina/ Founder of Olive Bistro, Chef Sujan Sarkar/Olive Bar and The Kitchen, Mohit/SodaBottl - See more at: http://www.shoppingstylenus.com/2014/12/what-i-wore-to-palate-fest-2014-and-people-i-met.html#sthash.Zg8YaYFM.dpuf

Quarter Chicken with juju spice at Tres

Live Music at Palate Fest 2014

Thai Food inside the Pan by Kylin

Kunafa at Habibi

Lamb Shawarma accompanied bu French Fries and Hummus (kind of dip)

Lamb Shawarma at Habibi

Jiya posing and about to eat habibi's kunafa and lamb Shawarma

Chicken Shawarma

Lam Shawarma

Tex Mex Fiesta at Drool

Fresh Waffles at Drool, Marsh mellows in above picture

Juice Up, they claimed it as fresh fruit Juices. Melon, Pinapple, lichi amongst few available flavor

Kylin

Four seasons Veg at Habibi

Mouhalabiya at Habibi

I'd like to conclude this post by saying that when you become a part of food, music and art you see how people from different races, communities and strangers become one face, one voice- that is when you feel there is no place for hatred but love and acceptance...

Grow Your Network and Spread Love

Palate Fest Food Festival New Delhi 2014

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