40th Birthday @MontecasinoZA @ThavaIndian Dinner During Unlock #MissMonte

Hi Friends, 

Who would have predicted that 2020 will have so much in store for all of us? Getting out of houses has become not only difficult but you are taking enough care to protect yourselves and your loved ones too. South Africa has opened up the dine-in option at several restaurants around the country and I too made use of the same to celebrate my 40th birthday with my family. Here I am going to write about my experience of the whole experiment of dining-in as the lockdown relaxations are in place. My mind kept calculating all the risks related to the situation and thought of finally checking out the place. 

I was booked for early dinner at 6pm at Thava Restaurant in Montecasino which offers Indian Cuisine and that is my favorite and my family loves the same too. As we reached, the boom gates were already open in Montecasino and you could park anywhere. The parking was not fully fulled like on the weekends before Covid-19 but it had plenty of cars. The guards on the duty have installed the Sanitizer machine along with body temperature machines passing which he checks your belongings and lets you enter. Mask is a necessity whatever your age is and they won't allow you access if you don't have one. My younger one was not wearing so we had to make one out of the handkerchief so as to enter the establishment. Even in the washrooms, there is one host to spray sanitizer on your hands after and before entering inside Montecasino. 

At the Thave Restaurant too, the manager took the body temperature again and noted down all the necessary details to backtrace you in case of anything. The menus are now on a printed paper which gets recycled after every use and there are no alcoholic drinks available. Though the menu mentioned some of the items won't be available, I didn't find anything which I wanted to order in Vegetarian Menu not made available to me.

The waiter served the famous Boondi snack which you get at all Thava Restaurants as a welcome snack rather than the Papads which you get at all the other Indian restaurants. 

The table counts were extremely reduced and there was a lot of distance between all of the setup at the restaurant to meet the strict government guidelines to opening a restaurant. Many people were eating at the venue and taking away the ordered food too. The staff was wearing disposable masks and was taking all kinds of precautions for the safety of its customers. 

We ordered Chilli Panner and Spinach Chaat which is one of my favorite items on the menu and is only available at this restaurant in Johannesburg. After enjoying the starters and munching them to our heart's content we moved on to the main course and for the first time, I tried the Thava Kerala Parantha which was so soft and loved by everyone that we moved from Garlic Naan to ordering the Kerala Parantha in our second serving. The Vegetable Biryani was also one of the items which were not only tasty but was well prepared and this was the first time I tried it in this restaurant.

We ordered the regular Daal Makhani and Paneer Tikka Masala as our regular veggies which get served with Zeera Rice bowls. After not eating outside for more than 4 months, I loved every bite of the same. For all of these 4 months, we only ordered pizza twice and a food collection twice and totally stuck to our daily regular meals with experimentations in between. So it felt really change of taste and spices as we ate at one of the best restaurants in the city. 

Reyansh kept drinking a lot of water and made us take several trips to the washrooms leaving very little time to finish the dessert and eventually gulped down the plate of Gulab Jamuns I ordered for myself. The Thava restaurant closes at 8pm daily and the casino closes at 830pm daily. I didn't want to leave my share of Gulab Jamuns so I ordered a new plate but it was so hot that it took time meanwhile the staff started packing their stuff.

Overall, it was a full-fledged multi-meal course that I really loved at my birthday and I shall always remember the 40th one in 2020. Thanks to Montecasino and Thava Restaurant for making it possible. Check it out and book your lunch or dinner with Thava @ Montecasino and support all the local eateries around the place you live or work. 

Sawubona!

Contact Aashish Rai Jain at thelifesway@gmail.com or editor@thelifesway.com to send your products, launch event invites, and services to be consumed. #TheLifesWay #PhotoYatra #7YearsofTheLifesWay. Follow me on www.instagram.com/thelifesway for all travel-related photo posts and subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel too. Namaste!