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Meraaki Kitchen| Best Vegetarian Fine Dine In Jaipur

I first heard about the Meraaki Kitchen in Jaipur during this year’s Jaipur Literature Festival where they set up a pop-up cafe. Running short of time, I chose to skip it completely at JLF. The rush at their set up in JLF was another reason to reserve it for the visit at a later date

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Meraaki Kitchen at Jaipur Literature Festival.

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It wasn’t before this weekend that I heard about the launch of Meraaki Kitchen in Jaipur. I chose to visit Meraaki Kitchen for dinner, a day before Valentine’s day.

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Jaipur is witnessing a mushrooming of cafes during the span of the last few years. While some people feel that it’s a good thing to have many options, my opinion differs. Most of these new cafes offer a similar menu at a similar price, playing their success largely on the ambiance & interiors. While I do admit that interiors make a lot of difference, but it’s never a strong reason to revisit. With the new cafe’s opening every fortnight, one is spoiled for choice, if an interior is what attracts one to a food joint. In my opinion, most of the new cafe’s fail miserably on food. Ultimately, it’s the food and overall experience that really counts. This is one reason why I have become extremely selective in choosing a new cafe or food joint.

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Entrance, Meraaki Kitchen, Jaipur

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The striking thing about the Meraaki Kitchen is space! It’s not the usual restaurant tucked inside a concrete structure. The restaurant is spread over a large area which is imminent the moment one enters Meraaki Kitchen.

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The walk to the gastronomic treat! Meraaki Kitchen

The look is contemporary with very interesting art installations adorning the walls.

Also Read: The Feast Cafe, Jaipur/ Best Bakery in Town

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Contemporary, slick and warm interiors dominate the main dining area of Meraaki Kitchen.

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Ain’t this beautiful?

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Meraaki Kitchen serves vegetarian fusion food and includes Thai, Burmese, Lebanese & Indian cuisine and therefore Merraki Kitchen Jaipur’s Menu lists many unique preparations.

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The Menu card

Many regular sounding items are prepared & served with a twist! So a Pizza becomes Naaniza. Dahi Papadi weds Wasabi to become Wasabi Dahi Papadi and Sev Puri gets Mexican with Sev Puri Tacos!

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We started with an appetizer.

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This is what we convinced ourselves to order.

Pav Bhaaji Fondue!

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Pav Bhaaji Fondue.

KhaoSuey

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Burmese Khao Suey

We ended up ordering this great looking dessert – Melting Chocolate Ball served with hot caramel sauce. It tasted heavenly! I’m more than sure that chocoholics will find it hard to resist!

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Melting Chocolate Ball.

Here is a short video of Melting Chocolate Ball as the hot caramel sauce is being poured over.

This turns out to be awesome. Here’s another picture after the hot caramel sauce is poured over the chocolate ball and it breaks up to reveal vanilla ice cream and brownie.

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Chocolate Melting Ball with hot caramel sauce

As we were having dinner, Meraaki Kitchen owners Shivika Kothari and Neha Deepak Shah walked in to check with us if everything was in order and whether we were enjoying the food and experience at Meraaki Kitchen. How great! Neha Deepak Shah is the winner of Master Chef India. And it shows… on the food and choice of dishes.

The restaurant has a big open to air sit out which is a great place to chill and enjoy food during the perfect weather.

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Lovely outdoor seating
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Perfect for catching up with long lost friends!

A lot of thought & effort has gone into the interiors. And it shows!

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Looking for a perfect place for a selfie?

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The zen of good food!

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Jaipur lacks choice among good fine dining restaurants and finding one among the growing list of cafes is difficult. Currently, there is no vegetarian fine dining restaurant in the city. Meraaki Kitchen menu serving world cuisine surely plugs this gap with beautiful inviting interiors to go with good food.

Also Read: The Feast Cafe, Jaipur/ Best Bakery in Town

We were delighted with the overall experience at Meraaki Kitchen. The food was great despite being not exceptional. The service and ambiance were perfect. I do hope that the team at Meraaki Kitchen keeps innovating to come up with an array of new fusion vegetarian platters, to make sure every visit is exciting. I do feel Meraaki Kitchen is one of the best restaurants in Jaipur.

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Merraki Kitchen Jaipur Review Menu Jaipurthrumylens

 

99 thoughts on “Meraaki Kitchen| Best Vegetarian Fine Dine In Jaipur”

    1. Cornelia the restaurant was inaugurated last week. I’m hoping you’ll plan another trip to the city which you loved and experience the restaurant during this trip. 🙂

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      4. Though popular in Gujrat, it’s a chapati which is roasted using ghee or edible oil. It’s shelf life is greatly increased, lasting for few months. It’s not made using white flour so it’s much better than naan or pizza base. Can be prepared in 5 – 10 minutes. Do Google on it, Mick 🙂

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  7. I’m sure it was good?

    Yet the graphics of interior, show a typical N. American restaurant. Which now seems to pass as global, these days. I know one may not turn the clock back. Yet, I enjoyed the eateries of India in 1970’s. Which were usually seating around an open kitchen. Where one could watch the order being made. All food, it seemed then; was vegetarian in these places. Though there were some that would offer carnivores their flesh fix, if asked for it. I seldom ate out in those days as today also. Much preferring my own cooking to anything churned out in a commercial kitchen. Especially, when the kitchens are hidden away.

    I digress, but a about ten years ago. Myself and a friend were dining at a restaurant that came recommended, to us. It was a little early for the usual crowd. So as we ate, the kitchen staff gathered at another table for a coffee break. I was appalled to notice the disgustingly dirty aprons worn. I went to the bathroom. Which passed by the open kitchen door and the state of the work area. Left a lot to be desired. Needless to write. I never went there again. I was not surprised when a few years later there was a fire there. One that almost destroyed the whole building.

    Lastly, back on subject. The desert looked scrumptious. Set in it’s nest, of seeds and spices. Cheers Jamie

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    1. Jamie, the interiors of most cafe’s are international. Only few of the newly opened restaurants serving Indian food are patterned in local style, called dhabas. I understand the hygiene part. I know it’s most important but only few eating joints take that seriously. Thanks for sharing your views here Jamie. 🙂

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  9. An interesting post, Arv. The Meraaki Kitchen looks fabulous and I’d love to try it out. The interior is very tasteful and the dishes you chose looked delicious – especially that amazing melting chocolate ball. I do agree that there can be too many restaurants in any one city, especially when they all offer similar menus.

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    1. Thank you Millie. I’ll try to post a video of hot caramel being poured over this chocolate ball. Let me work on how to do that. Will keep you posted. Have you ever tried Indian food?

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      1. Yes I worked there many times, sometimes Sous chef/kitchen manager and 1st cook (back in the 90’s) , no, that’s not how I was injured…my body just decided enough was enough…it’s a tough job! 🙂

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      2. I understand that food industry is very demanding specially when everyone’s taste differs and you have to please everyone. I hope things are better for you now. 🙂

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      3. Very demanding work, but loved it! Sad I can’t do it anymore. but Now I’m trying to find something new to be my career, not sure yet…but it will come to me! 🙂 Go back to school maybe! 🙂 T.

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  12. Thank you arv! for the culinary journey through your recommended Meraaki Kitchen! I like that you are bucking the modern trend to go to cheap and more of the same places in your beloved city. I was impressed with the ambience of the Meraaki Kitchen that your fine images are transmitting. For an ordinary,not overly well-to-do person is it very expensive to eat there?

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    1. I would like to point out here that most of the new cafe’s springing up in the city are not cheap. They are priced almost similar, with varying serving sizes. So some are smart by reducing the price in menu card while shaving off the serving size. And lot of customers fall for this trap. While this may not be a major issue, what matters is how you click with customer? whether they’ll come back? the experience…that’s where most of them fail. To be honest, it’s difficult to generalize given the huge variations we have in income distribution, I’ll try to answer from an average urban middle class person. In most other cafe’s, the benchmark would be approx.US$ 5-8 but in a fine dine like this one, it’ll be close to US $ 10-12 per person.So yes, in a way it’s more expensive. But i’ll prefer this to many other overpriced cafe’s. 🙂

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  14. Really Impressive place, lovely pics and write-up, loved the stairway and the wooden roof ambiance. It sure is my kinda restaurant to visit to celebrate something special. Yet to taste the Pav bhaji fondue but have read and heard a lot of this fusion food, but wonder does one relish this kinda eating of the Pav bhaji?
    The dessert is Superb!
    The tourist me would be always up for the authentic desi local food places that I would love eating at when touring Jaipur! 🙂

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    1. Ashu, I’m happy to know that this is the kind of place you love to dine. The interiors are certainly beautiful. We need to look at fusion food, differently! It’s a variation. It’s good for a change! True, it’s not an authentic place you associates with the city, but many people actually like to have such option. Thank you for sharing your views Ashu. I’m sure you’re spoilt for choice in Dubai when it comes to such restaurants.

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      1. Oh yes, Dubai spoils us with the amazing food choices and the Restaurants. Been fortunate to experience some fantastic Gourmet and regular foods too, and also celebrated birthday dinner at my fav chef Vikas Khanna’s Junoon here in Dubai.

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  16. I think this is close to the Civil Lines Metro station (probably before it). You have made it sound so lovely, the food experimentation looks interesting too. Will surely visit it in my next trip to Jaipur.

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      3. It is. I have no clear clues why it happened. Perhaps it’s because of the caffeine or the sugar. And some friends said that it’s part of commercial things. I think I like’em because their taste is so good 😃

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  18. Meraaki Kitchen sounds like an absolute treat. The interior looks amazing and good to hear the food was amazing too. Pav Bhaaji Fondue looks very savoury and divine – it looks liike potato and some kind of curry sauce to me… 😀

    That chocolate ball looks divine too. It looks big…like the size of your head 😀 Love all the sweet stuff oozing out of it. I am sure it was all very filling and hit the sweet spot.

    Here in Australia we also have many new modern eateries opening up, the ones with unique decor like this one that you pointed out. But not always is the food up to par. Quite a few of these places I’ve visited, it is clearly evident that the food is prepared beforehand and reheated before served to you. That would be okay if it tasted nice, but many times for me it is just average or at worse, not nice to the palate at all D:

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    1. Mabel, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this fusion food. Your guess is right Pav Bhaji is a potato based preparation. Yes, the chocolate melting ball was amazing. Food is a good long term business but only for those who are passionate about it. It’s a laborious work. It’s really bad to hear that people are resorting to short cuts. What ever their reasons might be, it’s surely not a good strategy. Losing your customers is not a sane approach. I always look at my experience in sum total. Sometimes, one can forget shortcomings too, if they have tried hard and are genuine. Similarly, those food joints who try to connect with their customers will always do well than those that only treat them as a number. 🙂

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      1. Yum. I love potatoes, be they fried, baked or steamed. Love eating them with pasta. Wise words there, Arv, and that would explain why so many eateries these days close down some time down the track after opening. If service is good, chances are customers will keep coming back.

        When I lived in Singapore, dad took the family to Saturday evening dinners at a restaurant that was a 20 minute drive away from our place. The food was so-so only, yet most Saturdays we’d be there. The staff always welcomed us and knew the typical Chinese dishes we like 🙂

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      2. That’s surely a good reason to come back…Mabel! It made a lasting impression on you all. Potato is one of the most popular choice, across the world. 🙂

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      4. Lol! That shows you are a foodie, Mabel. Yes, compared to the European cuisines or Chinese cuisines, Indian preparations are lot more spicy because we use variety of spices in our food. I trust you have tried Indian food in Australia or Singapore. 🙂

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      5. LOL. I am actually far from a foodie, Arv. Whenever I travel, I would rather see a good view or experience a good hike than have a good meal 🙂 I have tried Indian food in Australia. Not spicy at all :’D

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