Dining with a sense of travel

Friday, March 9, 2012: Today evening I went to the Steam restaurant at Hotel Rambagh Palace for dinner. I had been planning to visit a new place for a long time and I invited along a couple friend of mine. Steam is one-of-its-kind restaurant in the country located on one side of the Rambag Palace property in a permanently stationed rail car on rail tracks with three carriages coupled to a steam engine.

The entire place gives you a feeling of being in a train with classy interiors. It combines dining with a sense of travelling.

By the time I was seated, I was told it was the restaurant's ninth anniversary day. Maharaja Prithviraj Singh had brought the small-gauge train carriages and the engine from Kolkata. These rail carriages and the engine were manufactured in London in 1915. The name of the UK-based manufacturing company can still be seen emblazoned in brass inside the engine.

The well maintained carriages with its curtains, paintings, period lighting recreates the old world colonial grace of travelling Raj style. The restaurant serves Brit-India cuisines like cutlets and bakes which is a big hit with the foreign guests who stay at Rambagh. The railway platform-like space outside the carriages also doubles up the restaurant's lounge bar and adds to the Raj-era ambience.

Though the rail car were stationed there on rail tracks since 1999, the restaurant started operating only from March 2003. In fact, this used to be Jaipur’s first night club. The area bang opposite Steam has a posh lounge bar. I think the best pizzas in Jaipur are available here over live counters.

ess bee