Stunted nostalgia, smelly plates, expensive but great food.

The title sums up my first impression about Moti Mahal, Tandoor Trail @ Sigma Mall on Cunningham Road in Bangalore.

The food is great tasting. Good quality fresh meats were used in the preparation. The spices are balanced and one gets to savour wholesome flavors in the cooking. Despite some of the other downers I will point out, chances are I will visit Moti Mahal again, if I want to indulge in a good non-vegetarian tandoori meal. (I just may need to carry my own plate!) That it's located in one of the more pleasant malls in town, Sigma Mall, is another draw.

To begin with, the menu. There is no bar and the restaurant focuses on food. The waiters are brisk and appear to be a mix of local talent and imports from the other Moti Mahal locations . There are specific items listed out as Moti Mahal speciality.

Slightly amusing is the "Bata" style of pricing. Yoghurt is Rs 59/-. Plain Naan is Rs 49/-. Naan with Butter is Rs 59/-. Chicken dishes are all priced Rs 249/- and upwards. A Pomfret preparation is priced at Rs 499/-.

As is apparent by now, Moti Mahal prices are above average, placing a premium on its brand and history.

Another peculiar thing was, that their square tables ( seating four ) were really big and their rectangular tables ( seating as many as eight ) were really narrow!

Even otherwise, the decor of the restaurant was overall drab - the only concession to an ethnic look was the use of inverted Kadhais (Indian woks) for lamp shades! One wall of the restaurant was fully windows - and that was so dirty! If clean, the windows could provide some really nice views.

For lunch, we had Kalmi Kababs (house speciality), Keema Masala, Tawa Chicken, Tandoori rotis and Khuskha for main course. The kababs were served on a sizzler and the marinade was excellent. The minced mutton used in Keema was appropriately coarse and it was a near homestyle preparation, simple and very tasty. The tawa chicken had excellent flavour.

We gave desserts a miss and ordered no vegetarian food either. So, while I cant share my opinion on them, my guess is that they too will be well made and tasty.

The worst and most off-putting aspect of the place was that the plates were greasy to the touch. Y smelled them and got completely upset. It was obviously not washed properly. He had them changed 3 times below they got him some really clean plates. For a place serving such oily food and non-vegetarian food, they need to be more careful about the plates.

The other aspect is the stunted nostalgia - most pictures are really dated - showing Nehru, Kennedies and so on. Its almost as if the brush with celebrity stopped in the 60s and then was picked up again in the recent years. We see pictures of Shiela Dixit and the tourism minister. The pictures tend to give you an impression that Nehru and the like visited the restuarant very often but according to the book - "Moti Mahal - Taandoori Trail" that we leafed through in the restaurant, seems more like like Moti Mahal catered food at government dos those days.

Anyways to conclude, its a place of dubious cleanliness and great tasting food.