The Grand Thakar

The Grand Thakar has been trading on Jawahar Road opposite Jubilee Garden in central Rajkot for more than five decades and is the name most reliably given when visitors ask where to eat Kathiyawadi food in the region that invented it. Kathiyawadi cooking is the fiery counterpart to the gentler, slightly sweet food of central Gujarat: heavy on garlic, red chilli, sesame and smoke, built for a dry peninsula where vegetables were scarce and spicing did the work. The lunchtime thali is where that shows. Expect sev tameta, crisp gram-flour sev folded into a garlicky tomato masala at the last moment so it half-dissolves; ringan no olo, aubergine roasted in embers then mashed with green garlic; lasaniya batata, potatoes in a heavy chilli-and-garlic paste; dal, kadhi, khichdi, farsan, chutneys and, crucially, thick bajra rotla served with a lump of white butter and jaggery. Thalis run roughly INR 220-350 per person (~$2.30-3.65), which is outstanding value. The operation splits its day: unlimited thali from about 11AM to 3PM, then an a la carte multi-cuisine evening menu covering Punjabi, Chinese, South Indian, pizza and sizzlers from 7PM. For the regional food, lunch is the service that matters. The dining room is large, plain and functional rather than atmospheric, busy with local families and business lunches, and entirely dry. Rajkot itself is a straightforward stop between Ahmedabad and Kutch or Gir, and the restaurant is central enough to reach easily from the railway station. The line is +91 281 223 0091.