Tridents Haveli, Nandhana Grand Hotel, Koramangala (Gujarati/Marwari)

Overall Rating:
We are two Gujaratis in search for a good Gujju/Marwari restaurant in Bangalore. After several clicks and searching around on the Internet, I found a Gujarati/Marwari restaurant located at Hotel Nandhana Grand in Koramangala. I called up Vandan and we decided to give this place a try.

We were glad to have been able to reach the hotel easily. There was a board with an arrow and a phone number at the Sony World junction on the Inner Ring Road, so we took the proper turning and then called up the hotel. They directed us and we got there with ease.
Ease of Getting There:
We were impressed at first when we entered the hotel. One doesn't usually associate the name Nandhana or Nandhani with something somewhat classy, but this hotel looks descent. We then climbed the steps to the first floor where the restaurant is located and that's when we got the first shock of the day. It was a tiny, cramped-up L-shaped room, with a seating capacity of only 16 people, which gave us the feeling that this restaurant was never part of the initial plans, but was an idea that they thought of later on and converted a corridor because they had no other space.

As we walked in and slid past the bigger tables in search of the buffet spread, we couldn't help but draw our attention to the TV screen that had been hooked up to the wall and was playing a fairly loud hindi movie. Don't get me wrong, I love hindi movies, but I would never think of one being played at a restaurant. Would you like to see Amitabh Bacchan making mince meat of a bunch of dacoits, with blood oozing out all over the place, while digesting a hopefully sumptuous meal? One usually expects light music in the background!
Ambiance / Decor:
We then proceeded to investigate the buffet items. I usually do this wherever I go in order to build up my appetite and plan out my "attack". I have to let you know that we had planned this lunch since around 3 to 4 days and I'd been dreaming of dishes like Sev-Tamatar saak, Kambhat style Thoor Dal, Ghatta saak, Srikhand, Moong dal seera, Bajra Rotla and Ringra(Brinjal) Oro (for those of you who are not Gujju, this is a Brinjal preparation from the Rann of Kutch and it is absolutely delicious), to name a few. Yes, as strange as it may seem, I do dream of food, among certain other things that I wouldn't wish to talk about in public.

We were actually not very happy to see the limited number of items and the fact that the dry sabzi was that of Aloo and Capsicum. I agree it was kind of Gujju style, but come on, I'd have expected something that is usually not too easy to make at home. The starters were good and I relished the Gujju style Aloo pakodas seasoned with jeera. They had nice fresh dahi. As for the rest of the main course, there was Tuver saak (black eyed beans), a Gujarati and a Rajasthani dal, rice and rotis. The dals were not too bad. They had the right idea making the Tuver and the dal kind of sweet, but then again, we Gujaratis don't make absolutely everything sweet.
Quality of Food:
A Gujju meal isn't complete without desert. To our dismay, there was nothing Gujju or Rajasthani about the sweet dish. They had layed out a bowl of Gulab Jamun, and when that got over, they hoped to satisfy me with a Bengali sweet. We love all kinds of sweets, but we were expecting something authentic.
Authenticity:
On the whole, the meal was quite tasty and the price of 100 rupees per head was not bad at all. Maybe we went on a wrong day. They probably serve what I dreamt of, on other days.
Value for Money: