Feb 05, 2011 02:18 AM
18318 Views
I am a true-blue BengaLuru huduga and I know my share of good hotels and restaurants. MTR was one such place that my family, friends and I loved to visit for the lip-smacking food they served - some dishes were literally Ambrosia(heaven-like). MTR was a place known for its quality, discipline and no-nonsense attitude towards good pure food. The restaurant was like this for all the(25+) years that I have known it. Alas! Things have changed now and it saddens me when I realize that Namma BengaLuru has lost one of it's legendary places to eat-out at.
I had the chance to visit MTR today with my family, for evening snacks. We reached there around 6:30pm and were made to wait in the all-so-familiar-yet-extremely-dull waiting room. After about 30-45 minutes, we were called in and were seated at our table. When we sat down, the table was not yet cleaned - something that was never seen at MTR. The cleaner boy then came in and lazily swept the traces of food that were on the table. After he left, I noticed that the table was still not clean and had to call him again to do his job correctly.
Later, our orders were taken by a very arrogant waiter who didn't have the courtesy to wait till we finished giving our orders. When we were still contemplating on what to eat, he was already half way down the hall and we had to yell out the remaining orders to him.
After what seemed like ages, he got the food on our table - the regular Masale Dose and Jamoon, all at the same time. The Jamoon was hard and tasted like uncooked dough. The size has also reduced - It's about the size of a Pani-Puri's Puri, but flatter, almost like a smalllll cutlet. It was brought in a saucer which was really dirty(compared to the standards MTR usually maintains). The taste was OKKKK - nothing out of this world(as one would "expect" at MTR). Also, when we asked for spoons(yes - we had to ASK for spoons . the waiter didn't give us spoons when he brought the jamoon), he just gave us those which were lying in a show-case kind of cabinet. They were simply there - no plate / paper underneath. God knows how clean that show-case cabinet was!
After the disappointing Jamoon experience, we dug into the Dose, expecting crispy, yet soft Doses that would just take us to cloud 9. To our shock, and surprise, the Dose was not even hot(like it has always been all these years). It was just cold on the outside and slightly warm at the center. Sometimes, the Dose that we get from other restaurants - packed for home(parcel) will be hotter when we eat it at home. This MTR Dose was cold! Not what one expects. The chutney for the dose was kept in open cups in the same dirty cabinet in which the spoons were. The filled cups were just lying there - open. We didn't even have a clue about what time they were kept there - morning / afternoon / last night?!?!? Who knows?!?!
Coming to the quality of the dose . it was under-cooked. Unevenly baked edges made the dose soft and chewy(leathery and tasted like batter/dough) - not what you'd expect for 42 bucks! I've had better for less than half that price. Later, when we asked for extra chutney, the waiter took 5 minutes to give it to us.which made the cold dose even worse. The size of the Dose has reduced too. The tringular shaped folded dose will now easily fit on a(dirty) porcelain plate that has a diameter of about 6 or 7 inches.
After labouring though a chewy dose, we ordered coffee which was brought in cups that had brown stains on them. I doubt if they were even washed properly. It looked as if they were just dipped in water before refilling them with coffee for the next gullible "MTR" customer. Earlier, they used to give us coffee and sugar, and we could mix the appropriate amount of sugar. Now - the sugar is added to the coffee and is not even stirred. I realized this the "bitter-sweet" way, when my coffee was bitter and strong at first, and later became utterly sweet at the end. The coffee tasted OK. again. I've had better and for lesser prices.
After a disappointing evening snack, I got the biggest disappointment - the bill. The casual evening snack had set me back by about 250 Rs, which was atrocious. I could have had the same amount of(better tasting) food, probably even bigger doses, with almost no time lost in waiting, and with better service for less than half the bill amount.
I think that the MTR is now surviving only because of die-hard MTR fans who would not step into another restaurant, just because they feel MTR is.well. "MTR". It was like that before, but sadly, its not the "MTR" anymore.
Its just an old building with crumbling paint on the walls, dingy corners, plastic chairs(those Nilkamal types without arm rests) for seats, dirty floors, arrogant waiters, unhygienic silverware, open food and a fanatic fan-following that makes it survive in today's competitive world. What's worse is that they dont even have a proper hand-wash area. There is a small(dirty) sink in a corner of the waiting area which has a tap that hardly closes(thanks to greasy palms of dose eating customers). Overall, a great restaurant, now ruining itself.
As a last note, I'd just like to compare MTR with another giant, which is now losing out it's valuable customer base in very similar circumstances - Nokia. Nokia mobiles were known for their quality and build(and later, Symbian software and smart phones). Unfortunately, they never changed and thought that they will still be market leaders in smartphones. Now, after iOS and Android(and the Berry), Nokia smartphones are becoming "expensive regrets". I was a Nokia fan too . I no longer am one. Similarly, I was a MTR fan too .but again, I no longer am one after today's disappointing experience.
That's how I;d like to end this review of MTR - an expensive regretful experience. Dont waste your time and money here - it's not worth it anymore.
