Rajubhai Dhoklawala

Our shop, Rajubhai Dhoklawala, is located at Kandivali West, specifically at number 9 in the Om Sai Ratna Rajul building on M G Ro. If you come by in the morning, you can smell the steam and the mustard seeds from a block away. We start very early, long before the sun is up, to get the first batches ready. Making dhokla is a lot of work, and it has to be done just right or the texture is off. My family has been doing this for a long time. The shop isn't very big, and most people just stand outside on the pavement to eat their snacks or take them home in little plastic bags. We have a few regular items that we make every single day without fail. The M G Ro area is always busy, and we get all sorts of people stopping by—students, office workers, and housewives doing their shopping. Sometimes we run out of the popular items by noon and people get a bit upset, but we can only make so much at a time in our small kitchen. The stainless steel counters are always being wiped down because things get sticky with the chutneys. We don't have a fancy menu or tables to sit at. It is just a simple place where you get fresh food and move on. We like seeing the same faces every morning; it makes the hard work worth it.