| Hole-in-the-wall serving up Homestyle Indian cooking and lots of sweets. |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 8/1/2005
Rating: 9
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Vikram was telling us about Rajjot and how it was pretty darn close to homestyle cooking that you would get back in India. Terry and I were put up to the test and given specific items to order. Rajjot is behind the Shell gas station at the intersection of El Camino Real and Wolfe. It shouldnt be too hard to find. Now this is what we are talking about, this place is a hole in the wall type of restaurant. This is exactly what jatbar is looking for. There were no white people in site...well except for Terry. Just looking at the menu, I have no idea what 90% of the items were, its a good thing I had my list.
Near the register are the dishes in the heating trays and I believe they change often. They didnt have the chili chicken or butter chicken today so I had to settle for the curry chicken, dahl makhani, and rice. Vikram told me to get a Jalebi and the girl behind the counter gave me a sample for free.
curry chicken - nothing special but it was good. mostly dark meat, very tender, curry wasnt overwhelming and I dont recall if there were other vegetables present. I would probably order it again but only after I try the butter chicken
dahl makhani - this stuff is awesome, spicey, lentils and whatever other beans and spices they had in there was just a super tasty dish. Oh man, just pour some over my rice and you are set to go. I got a little creative and started putting some yogurt into the mix. I love that combo.
rice - flaky white rice with some seasonings. Id say it was just average.
roti - I was able to try some of Terrys and this stuff was great. It was a lighter tasting bread that Ive had at other places, almost healthier tasting with no oil. I should have gotten this over the rice
jalebi - dang this is sweeeeeet, my stomach can only handle so much of this stuff but its definitely worth trying. For $3, you can get a whole lb of this stuff and bring it back to work to share.
Rajjot is a no thrills type of restaurant. Food is served on foam plates and plastic utensils. There is little to no decorations in the place but the real draw here is the food. I'd say the food is probably a 8.5 maybe higher but when it comes to price $5-6 for quality food indian food is hard to beat. There's no question we're making a return visit to Rajjot.
oh yeah, if you want to go out on the limb, try the paan. Its on top counter wrapped in foil. Its suppose to help the digestive system after your meal.
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 723
Reviewed: 8/2/2005
Rating: 9
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Hole in the wall places are what gets me going. Something hidden, something fresh, something off the beaten path. And Rajjot delivers on all fronts for me. Now let me preface this by saying - if you don't like Indian food, ignore the 9 in my review. Its not a place that will make converters out of the unbelievers. If you like Indian food, though, I think you will really like Rajjot.
Rajjot reminds me of an Indian Taqueria. Maybe its not the cleanest, best decorated place, but they deliver the goods. It seems to be family owned, and there's a kind older lady delivering the food out to you. The dishes seem to rotate on a daily basis. I can't tell you what I ordered, but you can look at the pictures and see the sauces with the bread and thats mine.
The two sauces I ordered (the green and the yellow) were both quite spicy. Not Empress of India spicy, but still spicier than your standard Indian joint. The green was by far my favorite. Saag if I recall correctly. I've had it at many other places, but none quite had the same thicker consistency of Rajjot. With the bread, it was a home run. I finished it quickly. The yellow was more of a soupy texture, probably better suited to a rice accompaniment, but I ate it with my spoon anyway. It was great stuff.
The bread was out of this world, very very tasty. They gave me 2 medium-sized pieces and I could have had another 2. The small container was a yogurt sauce that calmed the spiciness a bit.
The small little portion was a weird item. It was a spicy pickled item that felt funny in my mouth. I ate it all up though anyway. Good stuff.
The kicker at the end of the meal was the orange pretzel like dessert I picked up (Rajjot sells a WIDE variety of Indian desserts and sweets). The item is called a Jalebi. Its VERY delicious. Its deep fried dough dropped in corn syrup so was sweet beyond belief. Even if you don't like Indian cuisine, you will like Jalebis. I had about a half dozen of them and could have had another 12 of them if my stomach didn't start getting sugar overload. They are DAMN good.
Overall I was going to give Rajjot an 8.5, but then I discovered there awesome Jalebi and its going up to an 9! The Jalebi are about $1.50 a half pound, and the meal (which filled me up) was a bit under $6. Overall, a good lunch destination. Seems a lot of folks get their meals to go, so even if you are in a rush, Rajjot is a good destination for bringing some goodness back to the office.
Wow, its amazing to think I would ever give an Indian restaurant a 9, but there's a first time for everything. Way to go Rajjot!
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Reviewer: Humbucker
Total Reviews: 11
Reviewed: 8/8/2005
Rating: 8
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Ever since I discovered Indian cuisine a month ago, I've been on the look out for good, cheap Indian food. I knew I had to check out Rajjot after Jason and Terry both gave it a 9. Rajjot definitely has more in common with the more dive-y El Camino Real Indian places like Udupi Palace and Madras Cafe than the slicker joints like Spice Hut and Chaat Cafe, which always lends a nice air of authenticity to the dining experience.
I'm a little weary of steam table places, because frankly, the idea of eating food that's been sitting out under heat lamps or in trays for a while has less appeal to me than getting made-to-order stuff (with the exception of expensive buffets). However, the food at Rajjot didn't have puddles of oil and grease floating on top so it was easier for me to make an exception.
I went for the $5 two item combo with curry chicken, malai kofta, and roti. The curry chicken was just your average chicken curry, not bad, but nothing special. The malai kofta, which is potato and cheese balls in a creamy gravy, was pretty good, but it's hard to do malai kofta wrong. My only beef with the malai kofta was that the counterperson only gave me three or four cherry tomato size kofta balls and a whole lot of gravy. More kofta would have been nice. My first impression of the roti was that it was very much like a bland flour and corn tortilla-- it didn't seem very roti-ish. I guess I'm more used to the buttery, super-thin roti you get as an appetizer at Malaysian restaurants. Consequently, I only ate one of the two roti that came with the combo. The strange thing is, when I ate the other roti a few days later it was really good. I'm not sure what went on with that. The combo also came with a cup of raita (a seasoned yogurt) and a small salad with something that looked like a pickled radish (it reminded me of the radish they give you as a side at some taquerias). I also got a half pound of the Jalebi. The Jalebi was REALLY sweet. If you've got a sweet tooth, I can't see how you wouldn't be happy with this stuff. On the other hand, if you'r not that into ultra-sweet confections, Jalebi will be about as tasty as eating straight sugar cubes. For those of you not familiar with it, it is best described as orange chicken without the chicken or glazed donuts without the donut.
Rajjot offers repectable, if unexciting, Indian food for low, low prices. I'll have to try some of the other items, maybe something off the menu, to get a feel for what they're good at, but I'll definitely be back. |
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Reviewer: Vikram
Total Reviews: 19
Reviewed: 8/23/2005
Rating: 9.5
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I'll start by saying that this is the tastiest Indian food I've had in the Bay Area. Also, this is almost like home cooked food. I've tried almost everything on their daily menu, but their best is as follows:
1. Chili Chicken : This is chicken cooked with bell peppers, chilis, onions and spices. This is quite spicy though nothing that'll make you suffer later. It's got that sweet spicy taste. I just love it.
2. Butter Chicken: The best butter chicken ever. I'm salivating from just thinking of it now. Perfect!
3. Dal Makhani: This is lentil dish. It's not spicy, but there's that hint of spice that makes it so good. Also even though it has butter (Makhani means with butter), you dont see any of it floating on top.
4. Saag: This is also called Palak. Sometimes it will have Paneer (indian type of cottage cheese) and will be called Saag Paneer. Very tasty.
5. Aloo Baingan: Eggplant with potatoes. I love eggplant and there's lot of it in this dish. More eggplant, less potato, very good! This is quite spicy.
These are the best dishes that you should order when you get one of the combos. The bread, 'roti' that comes with the combo is also JUST LIKE the kind I eat at home. I prefer this to eating Naan. The roti is made from wheat flour and I like the texture and thickness of this to a naan(heavy and voluminous) or tandoori roti (very crisp).
Other items to try from the menu are Samosa. If you get it to go it's cheaper!:-) Papri Chat is a good snack. Tough to explain, but it's basically got yoghurt and a mix of chutneys with some potato and papris (cant explain this).
You cannot go wrong with any of the desserts. Try Kalakund, milk cake or kala jamun.
They also have snack boxes which is all fried stuff. It's like the Indian version of chex mix. Awesome stuff! I get this stuff sometime to snack on with tea/coffee.
This is where I go when I want to eat 'real' home-cooked Indian food. This is the real deal yo!
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Reviewer: Dan
Total Reviews: 70
Reviewed: 7/5/2007
Rating: 7.5
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I love Indian food, so when I saw this place on Jatbar, I had to check it out. On my first visit, I ordered the combination plate with 3 items. It included rice, small salad and raita (yogurt sauce). I couldn't order both rice and bread, so I ordered the bread as a side. I received a huge amount of food which I couldn't finish. The three items were: chana masala (disappointing, too thin, not enough flavor, and overspiced) saag paneer (very good, nice and fresh) and curry chicken (delicious and moist). Total cost was $6.50, an awesome price. The raita came in handy since the heat level was pretty high. The interior was very plain and not exactly dirty, but just dive-y and a bit run down. So far an 8.
On my second visit, the reception at the counter was downright surly, and the place was almost full. I was able to grab the last small table left. Having learned my lesson from the previous visit, I went for the 2 item plate this time and avoided the chana masala. I was a bit disappointed that the selection from the steam table was unchanged from my previous trip months earlier. I went with the Saag (no Paneer this time) and curry chicken. I ordered it with bread and added a side of rice. The way the server acted, you'd of thought she was doing me a big favor by even dishing it out. Total was $6.44 which didn’t jibe with my earlier trip here. Did they overcharge me? Did the prices go up? I said nothing. Food was good as before. The bread was excellent, better than I remember, and they supplied a healthy portion. From Vikram's review it seems this is roti. It's a bit different from other roti I've had. I like it better than the Naan that most Indian places dole out.
One of the things that struck me was the amount of trash my meal generated - lots and lots of styrofoam and not a scrap of reusable/recyclable material. I understand it works out cheaper, but geez, it was ridiculous! This is starting to be a big negative for me. I'd gladly pay a little extra for real plates, cups and a dishwasher.
Jason is right when he says 'no white people in site.' I was the only white guy there during both of my visits. On my second visit a two year old boy at the next table stared at me for 30 seconds and finally pointed me out to his dad. His dad said something to him which I'm guessing was the equivalent of "don't point." Kind of a weird feeling, but it made me smile.
This is a tough one to rate. Based on food/price alone I would give it an 8.5. But because of the surly service and other cons listed below, I have to drop it down to 7.5. I may be back someday. Not sure.
Pros: Good Indian food with good heat; great bread (roti); Great prices
Cons: Service can be unfriendly; not much variety; too much styrofoam |
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