It’s tea time when I step into Rajila Hotel, a non-descript restaurant by the road side. The numerous cars and bikes parked out front however, give a hint of the popularity of this tiny eatery.
Although, it’s an odd hour, I am surprised to see occupied tables at the restaurant. The plaintive cries of goats tied up at the back of the joint has me quickly shifting my seat to another corner of the restaurant.
I order a bowl of mutton soup and am soon sipping piping, hot soup. The soup is too mild flavoured for my taste buds and I find myself reaching for the pepper shaker.
The proprietor of the joint, Muhammed Rafi, joins me at my table. Rather shyly, he says that the sans frills restaurant was started by his uncle, Abdul Rahman more than 20 years ago. Rafi took over when his uncle passed away. The restaurant, he adds, serves the same dishes his uncle used to serve.
“We use only goats that weigh between 10 to 12 kilograms to prepare our dishes. This could be a reason why our customers find our mutton preparations delectable and why our dishes are not as fatty as the mutton dishes served in most other restaurants.
“We make our own masala and no colouring is added to the dishes. All the ingredients used are fresh. We also prepare the dishes on a firewood stove. Everyone, right from residents from around the neighbourhood to celebrities such as Suraj Venjaramoodu and Bheeman Raghu frequent our joint. Those who try our dishes seem to keep coming back for more. We have a lot of VIPs ordering our dishes as take away,” says Rafi.
The restaurant, which opens at 5 a.m. starts functioning ‘properly’ by 10 a.m. and closes by 8.30 p.m. “We serve black tea and coffee at 5. By 8 a.m. we start serving appam and mutton curry and by 10 most of our other dishes such as mutton fry, mutton chap, liver fry, brain fry, parotta, oratti and pathiri are ready. We don’t serve mutton biriyani or any other meat or vegetable based dishes,” says Rafi, who prepares the dishes himself.
“I learnt how to prepare them from my uncle and we haven’t altered any of the recipes.”
Empty seats are quickly filled with new customers at this eatery. Not feeling particularly hungry, I decide to order a few dishes as takeaway. “Make sure you try the mutton curry. I have been having it for years and the taste is always the same, delicious,” says a diner, who claims that the mutton dishes served at Rajila is the best he has had in town.
I order a mutton curry, mutton fry and parotta. The aromas from the sealed packets whet my appetite and I cannot wait to dig in when I reach home.
The parotta is nice and flaky and goes well with the lightly spiced yet flavoursome curry. The mutton fry, however, was not a hit at the tables as the masala tasted a tad raw.
Rajila Hotel is at Poonarappaalam, near the domestic airport. It is closed on Fridays.
Contact: 9995072797/9995081183
