Restoran Dharshinee Food @ Rawang, Selangor

In the past few months, I have been making an attempt to visit all the South Indian Restaurants located along Jalan Welman which is typically the Little India of Rawang and as part of that effort, this is the last remaining South Indian restaurant and I am glad that this too had been visited this afternoon. Restaurant Darshinee Food is located at the mid section of Jalan Welman, just before the turning heading North. This is a 24 Hour restaurant. I wanted to try their Banana Leaf Meals and that is why I turned up here this afternoon. 

Restoran Dharshinee Food located along Jalan Welman, Rawang

Restoran Dharshinee Food located along Jalan Welman, Rawang

Due to the extension right up to the road curb, the restaurant is quite spacious when compared to the other players here along this street. The frying stations for noodles etc. is located on the outside which is covered and that leaves the dining hall to be a smokeless environment which is good. I do remember some cramped restaurants whereby the frying is done inside and the smoke emanating from the stove gets into the restaurant and irritates everyone there. This effort is one that needs to be applauded and can only happen when thorough planning is put into place. Kudos to these guys for thinking through thoroughly. I do not have any photographs on the interior of the restaurant as any form of photography is strictly prohibited by the management and this includes even those food items that are on display. I was here slightly before noon and quite a number of dishes were still being prepared.  Nevertheless, their lunch offerings were almost 80% ready and the available variety looked good to me and so I just decided to proceed with lunch here. I wanted to take more photographs of what's available but was informed by the restaurant manager that photography was not allowed, and so I just followed suit, not wanting to create an issue out of it. They had approximately twelve vegetarian dishes and roughly seven to eight non vegetarian dishes. They also had a choice of going for the plate or Banana Leaf Meals. I am always attracted to the latter and without any hesitation, just went for that. With that I took a place at one of the table's and waited for the food to be served. The waiters here were quick to serve customers and they were constantly accompanying me, clarifying any questions that I had raised to them earlier while checking out the dishes. It was just a matter of minutes and all the relevant food items were laid before me. 

Basic Banana Leaf Meal @ RM 5.00 + Chicken Perattal @ RM 2.00

Being a Mutton fan, I would usually go for that but the cuts here seemed to have a mixture of fats and meat, something that I am trying to avoid these days and therefore, went for their Chicken Perattal to accompany my basic Banana Leaf Meal. They also had a variety of Fried Fish but it was not too appealing, hence my decision to stick with the Chicken was carried on. Their Basic Vegetarian set costs RM 5.00 and this comes with a choice of White / Par Boil Rice, free flow of curries / gravies, 3 refillable vegetables and Rasam. I did not see any Papadam or Pickles being served. Perhaps they had, or perhaps those were still being prepared as I arrived slightly earlier than the usual lunch time. The price of RM 5.00 for the Banana Leaf Meal is the norms here and therefore I would say that it was very reasonably priced.  I also added a plate of Chicken Perattal which was priced at RM 2.00 . I shall speak on each of those items shortly below.

Cabbage Perattal

Their Cabbage Perattal was nothing great actually. Standard vegetable cooked the standard way. What was good however was that the vegetables used were very fresh and crunchy, not overcooked as well. For this, I would appreciate them. Otherwise, it was plain. I would rate this Cabbage Perattal at 5/10 .

Long Beans Perattal

This was definitely better than the Cabbage Perattal as this preparation had flavours, unlike the earlier one which was bland. Do not get misled with the portions of all the vegetables please as I was the one who had requested them to put a little first, to be topped up when and unless I wanted more later. In summary, they do serve good portions, just that I told to go slow with it as I wanted to avoid any form of wastage. As for this Long Beans Perattal, I would rate it at 7/10 .

Kirai (Greens)

This preparation was very delicious, one that I enjoyed very much. It was bold in flavours and had a delicious aftertaste to it. Crunchy, slightly salty and slightly spicy. Very delicious and I would rate this at 9/10 . Very good indeed!

Sambar

Their Sambar today was a flop! It was quite bad, bland and had no character of it's own. It would not be wrong to say that the Sambar disappeared completely with the flat taste of the rice. I would rate this at 4/10 . Below average stuff!

Chicken Kulambu

Their Chicken Kulambu was rather good! I really liked the taste. The spices were lavish, not too spicy and tasted just nice. One that I enjoyed very much. In fact, it was with this Kulambu's help that I finished the entire helping of rice. I would rate their Chicken Kulambu at 8.5/10 .

Chicken Perattal @ RM 2.00

This was impressive! It was impressive both in taste as well as price. Come on, everywhere else they serve it in the same sized container and it is usually priced at RM 5.00 , sometimes even more. Some places in this very street charge the same at RM 3.50 and so I shall take the latter as the standard pricing for Rawang but RM 2.00.....that was like really cheap. As it tasted quite good too. The Chicken chunks were meaty and not merely bones and the gravy at the base was delicious. I could just drink a glass full of that. Excellent stuff. I am not saying that this is the best in Rawang town as taste buds can differ from one to another but I am saying that this was very good as well. I would rate this at 9/10 .

Rasam

Rasam was provided complimentary with the Banana Leaf Meal and it was served piping hot, which is exactly how it should be served. Their Rasam tasted nice but it was not great. Can definitely be improved greatly by playing with the spice contents. I would rate this at 7/10 .

Overall, the food here was selectively good. Some tasted average, some very good and some were terrible. Would I return? Maybe and just maybe..... and that too shall solely be for their Chicken Curry, Kirai and Chicken Perattal. Never for the rest. The others were just okay if not bad. The prices however were quite reasonable if not cheap. Well, just having the prices cheap would not do any good for them in any way as Adaikalam Mess which is just opposite them is even cheaper and the food generally tastes much better there. In a nutshell, this is an above average place only!

Address: Located along Jalan Welman, 48000 Rawang, Selangor, Malaysia.

Opening Hours: 24 Hours Daily

Telephone: +6012 327 8484 (Mr. Aru) - Catering Services Are Also Available