MTR Restaurant

For decades we've been hearing great things about MTR..but somehow, I was never impressed be it in the 80s or of late. Time and again, we end up visiting the place, mostly to accompany friends and relatives from outstation, who have this on their agenda very much.

No doubt that the food is good. But the attitude and outlook towards customers really puts us off. The staff make us feel that we are desperate for food and have no choice but flock to them. They assume that we ought to have known the menu, the timings for various items etc, as well as the procedures before visiting them.

Parking facilities - poor. Hygiene - poor. Ambience - poor. Service - poor.

I really pity the celebrities and other famous personalities who seem to be patronising MTR over the decades. High time Bangalore citizens (that includes me) wake up and take a look at so many other wonderful joints that have come up in the city of late. Most of them match up to international standards.

One of the activities to consider if you are visiting Bangalore on a holiday and have leisure time to spend time experiencing the city. Food is very tasty except for the waiting time which sometimes takes more than the time taken for relishing food ;)

MTR’s speciality is Medu vada, Masala Dosa, Plain Idli, Rava Idli, Poori, Upma (uppittu), Kharabath, and of course don’t miss Gulab Jamun’s at the end.

First of all, there are two private pay and park for cars- thats good. Of course the line is there to get into the dining room. Once you are on the table, you can order your choice from the menu. I visit MTR with my family atleast once in 3 months. Especially Upma is prepared with nothing but pure ghee. You are free to visit their kitchen to view their cleanliness. However MTR was known to serve food in silver plates and tumblers in late sixties, this is missing now. You get the best brew of coffee in MTR. Dosa's are really good. However thali meals is not so impressive, as they serve too many dishes and one needs a good appetite and liking to enjoy that. Water is served in clean glass and it is crystal clear. Priority is given to cleanliness, hence there is no need to worry about infection etc. By and large it is a good family restaurant, serving good vegetarian food. I remember long back, the serving staff never used to accept tips on payment of bill at the table. I am not sure if it is the same practice now, any way I shall check up the next time I am there. I suggest, you visit MTR once, if you have still not visited them. MTR was and is still being run as an Industry, and they are professionals. Good MTR. Keep up the good work. we shall keep up our patronage.

I am from Bangalore have visited this hotel plenty of times from the past 35 years.Its located at the char raste of Urvashi theatre .As soon as we enter this hotel,we need to register our name and number of seats in the waiting list, then we need to wait in the waiting room.It ll take about 15 - 40 minutes approx. Coming to the food,the quality of the food is absolutely outstanding and MTR has always maintained consistency in quality and taste.These people are specialists in Rava Idli, Medu vada,Plain Idli,Masala Dosa,Poori,(Upma)Kharabath,sweets & south indian meals available only during specific timings). Not many miss the deserts here especially the gulab jamoon never miss or you have missed some thing the very best in your life time so as the fruit salads and ice creams...Hmmm Yummy!!! These people are very clean and maintain cleanliness in every small thing.They wash all the plates and vessels with hot water to avoid communicable diseases.There is no need for one to be skeptical about cleanliness of this hotel. 6 cheers to MTR!!! Rocking since 1924 my good vishes to them keep up.

Ali , 31st July 2008.

This review is not to hurt the food lovers of MTR, but an honest attempt to review their servi9ce and the food quality.

I have heard people talking about MTR and their presence for pretty long years. Even people say when you visit Bangalore and if you dont vist MTR, they say you have missed something in your life. With such an expectation, we (me, my wife, mother, grandma and my brother) went to MTR to have lunch on a Saturday. After reaching there, we realised that we should not have gone on a Saturday after seeing the mad rush waiting in front of closed doors !!!!. Yes the doors open only by 12.20 PM and first they issue tokens on a first come first serve basis. Even this is fine. I was standing seventh in the queue and i asked others to go upstairs so that they can take some place to sit. To my astonishment after getting the tokens again we were asked to wait for some time. My question is they are closed between 11.00 AM and 12.20 PM. Why cant they arrange everything and keep it ready so that as soon as we get the tokens we can occupy the seats. Even though seats were empty, they kept us waitng for around 15 minutes and by the time we were shown the tables, it was around 1.00 PM and offcourse they started serving the food immediately. We were hoping to taste some real good food so that our waiting will be meaningful. but to our astonishment, the quality of the food was not up to our expectations. They first served Poori along with other side dishes. It was good. Later they served Bisibelabath which is made of sambar and again after that they served sambar on the white rice. BB was okay. Offcourse againw e did not have sambar rice and went for rasam which was not at all good for their standards.Then came the curd rice and it was okay.

They can follow the old tradition of giving tokens and asking the people to wait to taste their food, but atleast they can maintain the quality of the food which they used to maintain in late 80s.