Rang Mahal restaurant: Ucchi dukaan, feeke pakwan!

Amazing ambience. (This pic is taken from restaurant website)

My brother-in-law, being foodie, always has some foodie plans ready whenever we meet up. Yesterday, we decided to go to Rang Mahal. Located at a posh and swanky Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore, the expectations were high. Pan Pacific has seating pods over a pool in lobby and the concept is a delight to eyes.

Rang Mahal has a unique style of ambience with dim lights, high ceiling and traditional-contemporary interiors. It is welcoming for a great dining experience. Great care has been taken in making ambience perfect, working on each minute detail.

Dhoklas served with a stick.

Papad and Khakharas.

The Menu Card boasts of several awards and recognition and it was flattering but not so true about the menu itself. Since I am vegetarian, I keep my comments on Non-Vegetarian food reserved. After lot of flipping and flapping pages, we settled down with Veg Sampler – a bouquet of three veg starters. We were presented with Dhokla in a stick with some Papad and Khakhras as complimentary starters. “Dhoklas and Khakhras...Is that a Narendra Modi effect? I refrained from connecting such an extended dots.

Options for Vegetables in Main course is very limited. It was as if forcing to order out of some regular choices. We did a “majority wins” and ordered one experimental and one safe veggie.

Presentation: With TV shows like ‘MasterChef’, our understanding about food presentation and platting has gone up significantly, not that it is new to us. I remember my mom garnishing Chhole and Dal with fine-chopped Coriander leaves and making a design out-of  cream on veggies like Panner Butter Masala or a Kofta Curry. That was Indian home-maker's definition of food platting and presentation! Sorry to say, the Jodhpuri Panner Makhani had no presentation of any kind. Starters were dressed with some vegetable leaves, unimpressively. Two expert ladies with us were of the same views.

Taste: Lets ignore the presentation part. What about the taste? I guess all of us were refraining from saying negative about food and giving enough time and chances to our taste buds. Not everything could go wrong. But once we started discussing, we realised that none of us liked any of the dish that we ordered. We were trying to be appreciative and wanted to like something, but we ended eating plain breads and leaving almost half of the portions of vegetables as it is. Issue was not with limited variety in Menu, issue was with taste.

Taste-bud neutraliser served between starter and Main course was the only saving grace.

Customer service: I don’t think the staff was anywhere close to comforting or welcoming. They were eager to take order with approaching us in every 5 minutes. We had three little kids with us who were not attended or asked even once if we needed anything for them. I don’t think it costs much to smile unless they are told not to do so.

Overall, I would still say we had good outing because of the people we met and the way we enjoyed. No marks for the food, we all left the place full of disappointment. My brother-in-law came up with a phrase in Hindi – Ucchi dukaan, feeke pakwan (rich shop with little to offer), which sums up the dining experience well.

Ambience: Excellent.

Price: Expensive but acceptable only if food is good.

Quality: Average.

Quantity: Average.

Taste: Lot of scope for improvement.

Service: Could be more attentive, appreciative and involved.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10, just because I don’t want to sound harsher.

fOoD fOr ThOuGhT: I am fully aware that hospitality industry is among the most difficult industries to work in. The customers are ever demanding and it is difficult to please everyone with same amount of satisfaction. Factors like our mood, our choice of dish, time we have in hand to spend, all plays a role in overall experience. I want to sound milder and don’t want to be discouraging. Above is my (and our) personal experience and can just act as an added information for the diners.