Review: Hotel Chetana, Kala Ghoda

I had been to Chetana Veg. Restaurant @ Kala Ghoda last month. It is located close to Prince of Wales Museum, Opposite Jehangir Art Gallery and is within walking distance from Westside Store. It was established in 1946 as a sandwich/coffee corner and currently serves Marathi/Rajasthani food along with Thali and buffet. I had heard a lot about this hotel from my friends and the IIT connection, so was always curious visiting it.





The ambiance of the hostel was good. A person was singing a birth day song, along with guitar, near one of the table. The singer was standing close to the table and singing and hence had a very personal touch but at the same time for people like us, it was a strict no no.

We were four people and selected a corner table. The menu included variety of items, mostly Marathi and Rajasthani. We were not very hungry and hence had a small order consisting of Dal-Bati, Baingan Bharta, Fulka Roti, Bharki, Bajre ki Roti. All the items were good in taste and had that typcial Marathi/Rajasthani taste, although not spicy as general Rajasthani dishes are. The ghee and gud were a delight on the bhakari. The bill also was under Rs. 500/-, which was a surprise for all of us.

All the main Marathi items and sweets are on the menu. I don't know much of Rajasthani items, but must be there. The service is pretty fast and over all behaviour of the staff is good and helpful. They even served us only two pieces of Bati (half plate) in the next round.

One of the key element of any public place is the availability and cleanliness of the toilets. The toilet there was under renovation and hence was in poor state but I hope will be up to the standards after the repair work is done.

Ratings:
Ambiance: ***
Service: ****
Food : ****
Value for Money: ****

Google knol

Google too wanted to celebrate my birth day and hence released Google knol (a unit of knowledge). It struck me immediately as I was looking for similar tool to make my GateGenie book public. Well, GateGenie is a book for Computer Science GATE preparation. As I am growing old, I am finding it difficult to keep the book updated and hence wanted a platform where I can upload the book and then the users can comment/update which I can moderate. WIKIBOOK was one of the options but then I loose the control and no revenue once I make it public.

It is one page knowledge that one can share with others. You are the author of the page. You can invite collaborator/reviewers etc. There are three levels of licenses (open, non-commercial, copyright) and three levels of collaborations (open, restricted, closed). In the restricted mode of collaboration registered uses can suggest changes to be approved by the author which is a very useful way. You can also earn using google adsense. Adsense was one of the feature I was looking for and I got peacefully. In addition it also has Name Verification option which if done will put a seal against the knol/author. This way the reader will be sure of the identity of the author.

As its recently released, only few articles, mostly in medical science are available as beta release. But I guess with Google's aggressive way, the tool is going to rock. In all, a cool too if it satisfies your requirements. In my case, it is perfect.

Village, Thane

I had been to Village, Eternity Mall, Teen Haath Naka, Thane for my V3.0 treat with close ones. We were welcomed with a stamp (like a pub) and Tilak. I was happy to see a true village like environment along with a good variety of food. I had walked about 2KM due to unavailability of the auto rickshaw, so was ready have blast at all the food items around.

The ambiance was excellent. All people over there were in Rajasthani clothing. The water is served in small glasses which are typical in tea-stalls in villages. Even the welcome drink, Chaas and sugarcane juice was served in similar small glasses. That set up the perfect mood for all of us. We jumped in for starters, Aalu (अळु)chi Wadi, पकोडे. They were good and then for a change, we shifted our gear to desserts and had Keshar Milk, Gulab Jamun, and Moong ka Halwa.Desserts were far below expectations :( .





As I was celebrating my B'day, the cake cutting was with LIVE song. After all cutting/eating, we also danced on few LIVE numbers and that was really refreshing. That enhanced our enthusiasm and we were all waiting for the grand food items. There were Punjabi, Marwadi, Gujrati stalls along with routine Chaat, Fruits, Desserts ,etc. All this with the live songs sung by village artists, Puppet show, Astrologer and the Tarot Reader.

We started with all favorite Dal-Baati but that crossed our all expectations downward and we just could not have it. Next we went for Gujrati food but again nothing up to the mark. Even Kaju-Karela had Kishmish in it which completely made it taste horrible. Some sweetness in between ruined my Karela dish. The other items were also not at all up to the mark. Gujrati Khichadi and Kadhi were so so and we had to be happy with that only. To end our food journey, we had ICE gola and kulfi.

In all, the ambiance is very good but food is not at all up to the mark. Its a good place to spend time in a big group of 10+ people but if you are looking for good food, there are lot many other options

Ratings:
Ambiance: *****
Service: ****
Food : *
Value for Money: **