Agashiye, Ahmedabad

Agashiye,
The House Of MG,
Opposite Sidi Saiyed Jali,
Lal Darwaja,
Ahmedabad
079 25506946

Agashiye is THE place that we take all our visitors to, for authentic Gujarati thali experience. The deluxe thali has an extra chaat item and some extra starters, but the normal thali is extremely filling too. The only restriction here, is that everyone at the table has to take the same type of thali (to make it easier to serve)

The heritage bungalow of the House of MG sets a beautiful mood to the place. We normally take people here for lunch, because its a really heavy and filling meal and personally I can't eat like this at dinner time. So we always choose the air conditioned section on the terrace.

The meal starts with a platter of pickles, chutneys and Gur (jaggery) being placed on the table. You are served a glass of fresh fruit juice (bowl of soup in the evenings) and one of buttermilk. A fresh salad of the day, 2-3 farsaans (bite sized snacks, like appetisers/tapas) and roasted papads follow.

This is then followed by 4-5 varieties of side dishes to be eaten with rotis, both dry and curry type, a dhal and a kadhi (curd curry). There are 2 other varieties of Indian breads served along with rotlis (phulkas/chapatis). This is followed by a rice dish (it could be a pulao or biryani) and khichdi. This is followed by 2 types of desserts and a hand churned ice cream

If you choose the deluxe platter option, there is an additional farsaan, a bowl of chaat and a saarveda platter.

You pay for your meal downstairs and are handed a coupon before you head upstairs in this historic building. the only issue is that if one person wants the deluxe platter, then everyone has to choose the deluxe platter. Given the way food is served, they can't do a mixed table. The regular thali itself is extremely filling and satisfying and already has a lot of variety. The deluxe thali is only recommended if you are trying really hard to impress someone or have a great appetite. Except for the ice cream, everything is served in unlimited quantities.

The fruit juice, the chaas, the myriad little dishes on offer are all excellent, but my perennial favourite is their basundi. I can make an entire meal out of just their basundi. They have different flavours everyday - I've had orange, mango, pista, strawberry, anjeer among others. I'm not a great fan of fruits and there are many fruits whose taste I can't handle at all, but the servers very sweetly give me bowls of plain basundi without the fruit of the day, if I don't like that particular days flavour.

The khichdi with a little ghee and the Gujarati chilli garlic chutney is excellent.

Their hand churned ice creams are also brilliant, the rose coconut and the roast almond are my favourites among the ones I have tried.

The cost roughly works out to around 800/- per person, but its defintiely worth it for an authentic Gujarati meal experience in Ahmedabad (a lof the other thali places mix a lot of Rajashtani food in their thali)

While the items may look similar, they never repeat a menu for either lunch or dinner throughout the week. The service and the staff are wonderful and they staff will happily keep piling on more food into your plate.

I can't recommend this place enough.

Rating : 5 / 5