Rajni Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Madison

I tried out the Non-veg lunch thali and a podi dosa on Sunday 03/17/2024. Food review- While the taste was as authentic as you can get in Madison for South Indian food, I felt the quality and quantity could definitely improve. The non veg thali comes with a fried fish, a fish curry and a chicken curry. The fried fish was delicious but I got a mutton (goat) curry instead of the fish curry with a piece that had 45 mins and more than 3 reminders to serve that.

Appearance: needs to have bigger tables . Barely any place to keep dishes especially with the slow service. At one point we were holding the dishes we were served. They fit 6 people in a 4 person table.

Though there's variety and somewhat "authentic" tasting ingredients, chefs need to realise that more spice doesn't equate to better taste and balancing the flavors is key. Management should definitely focus on food quality, quantity as well as training...

01-14-24 Grand opening day review.

Madison had been longing for a South Indian restaurant ever since few of the older ones closed down. Rajni seems to carry hope for those of us who crave for it and often thought of going to Chicago to satisfy those cravings.

I'm a food connoisseur and love critiquing food flavors. We (+friends) went into Rajni with great hopes, however, I would say they are still far from what they can be. Nevertheless, this review will be updated (hopefully) with positives after more visits.

Rajni offers a well-lit, decorated and uplifting atmosphere, perhaps the best in town when it comes to Indian places and welcomes you with a touch of warm hospitality.

Getting to the food, we ordered North and South Indian dishes, Paneer tikka kebab, Kadhai paneer, Dhaba paneer biryani and naan assortment, along with Madurai Malli dosa, Mysore masala dosa, Idli, and Milagai Podi Idli. For desserts, we ordered pineapple kesari, gulab jamuns and Elaneer payasam. Surprisingly, the North Indian dishes were comparatively better than the South Indian ones.

It's rare to see a sizzling paneer tikka kebab laden with spices in a restaurant, the flavor was great and appreciable. Only thing was the paneer pieces were a bit too thick and when you bite into the raw paneer, it was cutting down on the flavor. Slightly thinner (and more) pieces would easily make this dish a popular one. The Kadhai paneer was flavorful, though a bit on the sweeter side but still appealing to the palate, would recommend it. We ordered a medium spicy biryani which felt slightly low on spice than expected, but next time we'll go higher on the spice scale.

The South Indian dishes seemingly were a hit or miss and fell a bit short of our expectations. The Idli was superb, soft and fluffy, but the peanut and coconut chutney could have a bit more kick to them. The sambhar was unfortunately a disappointment. We felt it could have a lot more flavor to be authentic and could've used more salt. The Milagai Podi Idli was good as well, a delicate balance of spice with the right texture of onions executed properly. If I could nit-pick, I would ask for the idlis in it to be crispier.

Idli, dosa and sambar are what defines a South Indian restaurant in my opinion, which always makes me order those dishes first whenever I go to one. The dosas had good thickness, perhaps could improve slightly more on the crispness. The specialty dosas (Madurai Malli and Mysore masala) didn't feel that special, as the chutneys that were spread on them felt tasteless. The spreads/chutneys need heavy improvement in their flavors. Also, it was a bit weird that one of the spot in the dosa plates was left empty, perhaps just putting some lime or onion would also be fine to improve presentation.

In desserts, the gulab jamuns were nice and soft, perhaps a bit too sweet for my taste buds. So was the kesari, didn't feel that much pineapple in it and it was a bit too minced in texture. Elaneer payasam was probably the highlight for us, it had just the right amount of sweetness and a cold desserts feels very soothing with flavor of coconut after a hot meal.

All in all, we're glad Madison now has a South Indian place to go to. However, it can definitely improve. Most of the South Indian flavors seemed more suited to American taste buds, however, some of them were too mild for anyone in my opinion. That being said, the North Indian food almost hit the spot. Besides, we only tried a few dishes and Rajni gives us the opportunity to come back again and again and try all the variety of food that they have to offer. Despite being a bit scrutinizing in the review, we're sure our feedback will be taken positively and welcome Rajni to the arsenal of Indian...

Usually most of the Indian restaurants in the Midwest have more or less the same menu with a little bit of tilt towards north Indian dishes or south Indian dishes depending on the chef and owner. This leaves a big gap for those craving authentic South Indian dishes, and at least in Madison, this gap has now been covered by Rajni!

Their menu has items that you don't see elsewhere barring a couple places in Chicago or other large cities with large Indian population. They even have "south Indian thaali", both veg and non veg, allowing you to enjoy a variety of dishes with rice and parotta (not to be confused with paraantha - north Indian bread variety) without ordering individual dishes! This is a unique offering making Rajni stand out from the crowd.

I love that they don't offer buffet, which in my experience dilutes the quality over time as the flavor/spice/taste profile of the dishes end up reverting to the mean - a mild/safe/whitewashed version.

We ordered South Indian thaali that had fish curry, mutton curry, sambar, rasam, fried fish, chicken biryani, veg kurma, paayasam, rice and parotta. Everything was flavorful and aromatic, giving us an authentic dining experience and reminding us of family restaurants back home in southern part of India. Other dishes we tried earlier in the week were mutton biriyani, chicken fried rice, chicken noodles, ras malai, gulab jamun, rose milk, mango lassi, chicken manchurian and chicken 65. Everything was great! They had their own special chicken dish titled Chicken 555 that seemed like a cross between tandoori chicken, seekh kebab and some type of chicken gravy dish. Thoroughly enjoyed that and has become one of our favorites!

I would definitely recommend you to try this place and get familiar with the cuisine from that part of the country. Can't wait to try more items on the menu. And the place itself was nicely decorated with artwork from Tamil Nadu giving out nice vibes. The staff were super nice, and the owners were around having conversation with the guests making everyone feel at home.

This one's a win for the...