Swad Thali Restaurant

Our place is in the Kamla Smurti Building on Sane Guruji Marg. It’s a quiet enough area in Thane West, near the Santoshi Mata Mandir. We get a lot of people from the Brahmin Society and Shivaji Nagar coming in. The whole idea here is the thali. We figured it's easier for everyone if we just put a bit of everything on one plate. It saves us time in the kitchen and the customers don't have to think too much about what to order. We start early in the morning to get the different vegetables and lentils going. By noon, the smell is everywhere. We aren't fancy. The chairs are just basic wood and the plates are stainless steel. It’s what we could afford when we opened. My cousin helps me out with the accounts, though he’s not very good at it sometimes. We have had some tough months, especially when the rains are heavy and nobody wants to walk down the street. But we stay open. People need to eat regardless of the weather. We don't have a big menu because we’d rather do a few things decently than a lot of things poorly. It’s just a small shop in Thane. We know most of our neighbors. It feels like a small community here, and we’re just happy to have a spot in it. It’s not much, but it’s our place and we put in the time every single day.