This new restaurant in Lower Parel aims to recreate the royal dining experience

There are restaurants you visit for flavour and then there are those you step into for a feeling The Silver Train we heard belonged to both Itrsquos a place where the servers call you hukum and regale you with royal kahaniya stories Interestingly the name itself is inspired by a miniature silver train of Gwaliorrsquos Jal Vilas Palace that carried cigars condiments and crystal decanters as courtiers watched in awe It wasnrsquot just a party trick but a symbol of how Indian royalty turned meals into moments of pleasurePista KulfiThat sense of drama and delight is what restaurateur Shravan Juvvadi and chef Anuradha Joshi Medhora wanted to recreate mdash not in some faraway fort but in the heart of Palladiumrsquos Gourmet Village The space hums with quiet opulence a farcry from the brocaded grandeur one might expect from royal dining but something more understated mdash like the palacersquos lsquocool wingrsquo where indulgence was effortless and stories were shared over long unhurried mealsBorn in Indore and raised amid the aromas of royal kitchens Medhora brings both scholarship and soul to the restaurant mdash just as she did with her earlier venture Charoli Foods Here her food isnrsquot about nostalgia but continuity mdash every dish feels like an edible secret passed down through time restored with precision and quiet pride rather than pomp ldquoRoyal kitchens never asked why only what nextrdquo she laughs introducing us to a menu that revives the daring eccentric legacies of Indiarsquos regal courts Years of research have gone into decoding royal menus interviewing old khansamas and unearthing culinary codes once treated as state secrets ldquoIn those daysrdquo she says ldquoa recipe was guarded like a throne Sometimes two cooks knew only half of it mdash to keep it saferdquoRampuri SeekhThe food here reinterprets the luxury of Indian palaces for the modern mindful diner From the Junglee Maas Chaap a rustic fouringredient shikaar dish born when a king lost his way on a hunt to Ande ka Halwa a cook lsquos attempt to coax a prince into eating them as with the Benami Kheer made with garlic The Taaze Masale Ka Maas uses no dry spice mdash only fresh coriander green chilli onion and garlic mdash a Bhopali method where fragrance replaces fire The Rampuri Sheekh Kebab echo the delicacy of Mughal grills The best part mdash you can let your appetite and mood dictate your orders for starters and mains available in portions for one two or fourThe restaurantrsquos crown jewel is The Silver Thali a sevenday rotating menu that bridges history season and forgotten recipes No two days are alike For Juvvadi founder and CEO and the man behind Hyderabadrsquos Tabula Rasa restaurants cultural archives are disguised as experiences He sees food as a form of belonging ldquoa way to make people feel part of something timeless yet newrdquo The Silver Train he insists was never meant to be nostalgic ldquoItrsquos about the present in dialogue with the past mdash food that remembers but also moves forward I wanted to reimagine our royal legacy not as a museum piece but as a living breathing story for todayrdquoShravan Juvvadi and Anuradha MedhoraWe ended with the Curious Kalakand a clever medley of orange kalakand betel leaf and brandy snap It tasted like memory meeting mischief Then came the Pista Kulfi Dubki its pistachiowhite chocolate shell cracking open to reveal a hint of sea salt and surprise As we left it felt as though we hadnrsquot just dined mdash wersquod been invited into a secret a continuing conversation between a majestic past and a reimagined present