Travel: HOTEL PUNNAMI @ SHIRDI

Hotel Punnami is very close to Dwarkamai & Chavadi

Shirdi being a pilgrimage haven, one cannot help but find a number of hotels and restaurants all around. The restaurants sell all kinds of cuisines under the sun while one can never be sure how authentic they are.

Venkat and I saw a few restaurants saying that they served South Indian Thali and Andhra meals. I was quite impressed with the Tamil boards actually. Venkat told me that they could be printed at a cost and did not necessarily mean that the meal was authentic. He was proved right pretty soon.

We walked into a restaurant run by a Maharashtrian and spoke with the manager. He explained that most of the restaurants were run by Maharashtrians and Biharis and they all sold their own versions of South Indian meals. The man was nice enough to tell us that there was one restaurant on the first floor above his that sold Andhra meals. While he also told us that the food was not great, we decided to risk it.

Are we glad that we did!

The table is set for lunch

There were huge name boards written in Telugu and we did not even know the name of the restaurant when we entered its precincts. I could not take pictures of the place or the meal that we ate as our mobiles and camera were at the temple counter.

We asked for a meal and were told that the cost was Rs. 70. This was for two vegetables, pappu (dal), sambar, rasam, rice, avakkai pickle, green chilli chutney, powder chutney and rice – all unlimited, along with a cup of curd. Everything tasted yummy if you like your food a little spicy and sour with tamarind. We loved it!

Venkat pays the bill after a hearty breakfast

The next day morning, we went back to Hotel Punnami – I managed to locate the English name board in broad daylight – and had breakfast.

It was 11 am and they were getting ready for lunch but did not mind giving us breakfast. We asked for upma and medhu vada and were disappointed when both the items turned up cold. We asked them if they could serve us something hot. Without a protest, they removed both items and offered us idli and dosa. Both came piping hot with two types of chutneys and delicious sambar. We relished the breakfast along with coffee and left the place with a satisfied stomach.