Food at Badshahi Boarding and Lodging House

It was only a chance encounter that I visited this place with a couple of friends, one Marathi and the other Kashmiri, and both my fellow NIDians.

Badshahi Boarding and Lodging is located in the Sadashiv Peth area of Pune and has a seventy year old history of providing good authentic Marathi food and cheap accommodation to the city visitors. The place has an absolutely unassuming air which makes it far more welcoming than most other food joints we come across on the street junctions.

As I already mentioned landing up at Badshahi was pure luck. We were at the Sawai Gandharva Music Festival enjoying to the mesmerizing vocals by Pandit Jasraj, when Girish called us out and decided to treat us here. Initially completely uninterested (the music was too beautiful to be left mid-way), I reluctantly followed my friends, still highly apprehensive about what to expect. A short walk and a mini-auto ride away, we reached the place, it was late night and difficult to even read the name of the place.

Marathi signboard, you can make out most of it!

The dinner-time hustle bustle inside!

The sink!

Near the entrance

Now to eat food at Badshahi, you need to take a coupon and the helper there writes your name on the black slate and gives you the coupons. At this stage you also need to pay him the money. As soon as the seats are empty, your name is called and you get inside on the pre-decided location and wait for the food! For Rs. 30 you get unlimited food - roti, two vegetables, daal and chaas.

Helper takes orders on this black slate!

Thali getting ready...

Final Thali...

I found the food to be quite average, but was completely bowled over by the ambiance of the place. Its almost as if you are eating in a huge house of an old Marathi relative. The staff is friendly and professional, and like most thali places, also very prompt.

The first room for food (there are two such rooms)

An old wall clock and hanging Gods

A man enjoying the news after dinner

We were one of the last guests that day (the places doesn't give out coupons after 10 pm), and by the time we left the staff had already started their food. It was nice to be sitting opposite them and eating food, something very unusual in most restaurants. But then Badshahi isn't the usual dinner place; those who eat here love it completely. Girish and his friends travel 5 kilometer everyday evening to eat the dinner here. By the way you can even rent a bed (one room has three beds) for a sum of Rs. 1200 per month! I think we all ended up eating more than the usual dinner that night, and were too full to even walk afterward!

Girish in a reflection

As no sweets are served here, make sure you top up the Marathi food with Pune's very own (and famous) Mastani at the numerous ice-cream shops in the near-by Vadas. Its a mango ice-cream with more than the usual mango liquid around it. It would taste even more fantastic in the summers. The ice-cream gets its names from the famous love story of Bajirao-Mastani!

p.s. the pictures are all from my phone, and the quality not exactly great.