The Grand Thakker, Rajkot

Including Google Maps link to the Hotel as respecting the number of hits from Google Searches: The Grand Thakker, Rajkot


The Grand Thakker is a newly constructed hotel near Jubilee Garden. The owners previously ran Thakker Lodge which was famous for the Gujarati Thali they offered. The newly opened Grand Thakker is lavishly furnished and completly modern compared to the Thakker Lodge and in every way The Grand Thakker is an attempt to lure the cream class of Rajkot.

Now, even though I write reviews on restaurants, I am not a foodie and I don't even frequently visit restaurants. So whenever I do visit, it would be usually on some occassion and likewise this visit was an occassion as well. My father takes the whole staff of our shop at some restaurant once in a year, usually to celebrate the anniverssary of our shop. However, the date on which the anniversary is celebrated variable and so my it was on occassion of the anniversary celebration that I visited the The Grand Thakker with my Dad and the staff, total of nine people, on a Saturday evening.

On reaching the hotel, we found the waiting area full of customers awaiting their turn. The waiting room was beautifully lit, large sofa seating with comfortable hand rests. Overall the waiting area's interior was beautiful, and so were the people seated inside.

I approached the person making the spot reservation and booked a table for us. I asked him how long will it take for our turn to come and he replied in an annoying fashion that it would take atleast an hour. The guy made no attempt to be polite during the brief conversaton which left me with the feeling that indeed the staff has been shifted from the good old Thakker Lodge. 

It took exactly one hour before our turn came. On entering the restaurant area of the hotel, we were finger pointed to the direction of our tables. A group of nine people would definitely need two tables joined. However, it took us some time to explain the waiters two join the two tables and get extra chairs. It took some five minutes before we were seated, and yes no exaggeration here. My father even went to the restaureter to direct the clumsy staff but received a curt reply instructing him to ask the captain, who could not be located at the moment.

The captain was a polite man and took our order. The ambience of the place was great. It was a high ceiling hall and the size of the restaurant was no small. However I did notice that the sounds echoed all over the hall and made the hall feel noisy. We merrily chatted till the food arrived and it arrived within some fifteen minutes time and was served hot and gave out mouth watering smell. We had ordered three saags, all punjabi.

The menu was not very pricey, if not cheap. The food quality was good. However, I would expect more from a place of this sort. One thing that left a negative impression on me was that we ordered for sweet khoya kaju and what we were served was spicy one(the good old Thakker Lodge). However, the captain came to our table, as per his duty, to ask if eveything was alright and we drew his attention to the mistake which he quickly corrected by serving us the sweet khoya kaju. However(once again a however) the Kaju (Cashew Nuts) used in the were roasted and they tasted different from the delicious gravy. But that is just a small mistake to me, the other two saags were delicious and flavoured nicely.

One more thing that left a negative impact was that the waiters were not very well trained. They moved around clumsily, their uniforms were not tidy. One of the waiters couldn't understand what we said to him, since he was a tibetian and must have newly arrived here. But there was noticeable commotion amongst the staff of the hotel again a sign that the good old Thakker Lodge rested in the heart of the The Grand Thakker. However, as any businessman would know, it is not easy to acquire new employees in Rajkot anymore and it is even more difficult in Hotel business.

In the end we left the hotel happy faced, happy for the food and happy since the bill didn't burn a hole in my dad's pocket as he had expected, judging by the hotel's interior. In short if you are planning to dine out with your family on a saturday night, you should consider visitng the The Grand Thakker next time. That said, I'll rate The Grand Thakker with 3.5 stars out of 5.