Gujarati or Kathiawadi: which thali should you order
One is gentle, sweet and many-coloured; the other is smoky, hot and built around bajra rotla.
What to expect at your first unlimited thali
How the refills work, what to eat first, and how to tell the server you are done.
An unlimited thali can feel like a lot the first time. You sit down to a large steel plate with eight or nine small bowls around its edge, and within a minute servers start filling them: four shaak, dal, kadhi, two farsan, a sweet, pickles, papad and a glass of chaas. Rotli and puri come in baskets.
There is no order to follow, but most regulars start with the farsan and a little sweet, then rotli with the shaak, and finish with rice, dal or kadhi, and khichdi. The servers will keep coming back with buckets and baskets. If you want more of something, just point. If you want less, cover the bowl with your hand.
When you are finished, fold your hands over the plate or say “bas”. That tells everyone on the floor to stop. Nobody will be offended if you leave food, but we would rather you asked for small helpings and more of them.
A thali takes about 45 minutes if you are not rushing. At lunch on weekdays the room is mostly office regulars; on Sunday it is families, and the wait at the door can be 20 minutes after 12.30. Water, chaas and refills are all included in the price. The only extras are cold drinks and rabdi with the sweet.
