In a nutshell:
A sweet shop that has been around for more than 200 years, serves some unique & some popular YUMM sweets till date.
facade of the shop. notice the 200 years written on top red panel
Address & other details: Ram asreys
Meal for 2: Rs. 50 onwards
Cuisine type : vegetarian
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I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.
Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:
This Foodie madness post is a part of a series called Culinary pilgrimage – On a weekend in Jan 15 we decided to travel to Lucknow on Culinary pilgrimage. A 2 day trip to Lucknow just to eat out at the numerous streetfood shops that have survived over time……….We ended up eating at 9 places in a span of 26 hours & spent a total of approx Rs. 1200. The cost of staying at Lucknow & travelling to Lucknow from Delhi was, needless to say, many times more.
Ram Asreys current shop has a large Hall & sweets are displayed in a long glass counter. Am sure 200 years back the shop used to look very different – they did not attempt to put up a history wall or talk much about it. So the only place that mentions this long existance is a panel on top of the façade.
showroom Hall
The people manning the sweet counter were pretty knowledgeable about all the sweets. They were warm and nice to us as we ordered 1 piece of several sweets & then packed some more.
sweets display
They had I guess 50 varieties of sweets. We tasted the most unusual looking ones & also the ones that this shop is famous for.
more sweets displayed
They also sell a range of namkeens that we did not review. Hv heard some of them r fabulous. Leave it for next time.
I loved reading that
Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:
We started with Malai ki gilori – A silhoutte look alike of paan ki gilori (paan leaf with paan masala inside & a metal foil on the top). The sweet had a malai (layer on top of milk) in place of paan, khoya , mishri and dry fruits in place of paan masala. The taste was interesting mix of unidirectionally sweet outer layer & an intense taste filling that had a tinge of salt in addition to being sweet. Loved the sweet & rate it 4/5.
Malai ki gilori
We next moved on to Kale til ke laddoo – laddoo made from black til (sesame)!!!! A black colored laddoo. Did not quite remember anything Indian that was close to this. Have had sweet food in China made from Black sesame.
The laddoo was intense to taste, surely different from the rest, had texture similar to khoya based laddoo, had flavors of both sesame & khoya. Liked this laddoo the most. Rate it 4.25/5
Kale til ke laddoo
Browned khoya laddoo was another one in which the milk was reduced till it became brown & then taddoos were made from it. Liked that quite a bit but must say that it sounded better than it tasted. Rate it 3.5/5
Browned khoya laddoo
We also had the Daal & dry fruits laddoo. Daal was in the center & dry fruits clung to it from all sides.
cross section of Daal & dry fruits laddoo
Dry fruits were good to have but what deserves a mention is the quality of the daal & the daal laddoo. Grainy, intense, flavors of daal intact & just very good. Rate it 4.25/5
Daal & dry fruits laddoo
Overall rating of food at Ram Asrey averages out to 4/5
Look forward to revisiting. Will keep u updated. Pls share ur experiences as well.