To celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, we chose Ooty for its vast natural beauty and peaceful surroundings. Unlike our earlier days of travel, we now prefer a relaxing holiday to rejuvenate our souls, mind, and body, rather than the typical "point hopping" tourist experience.
We found the perfect retreat at "Mayura Sudarshan," managed by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation. Nestled within a large garden maintained by the horticulture department, the location and tranquil environment made it our top choice.
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| Poori-Aloo |
Breakfast Experience
The breakfast buffet was delightful and sumptuous, offering a variety of dishes each day. The spread included idli, vada, upma, a rice dish (like tamarind rice, lemon rice, or poha), dosa, poori-aloo, bread with butter and jam, cornflakes with milk, as well as tea and coffee. I typically opt for local cuisine, though I did try poori-aloo once and realized it wasn’t to my taste. However, the local tourists seemed to enjoy it.
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| Breakfast at Mayura |
Around 80% of the guests were from the southern states of Bharat, and they particularly relished the piping hot vadas and dosa served directly to the table. Each day, two rice-based items were featured alongside upma, idli, sambhar, cornflakes-milk and bread toast with butter and jam. Sweet is served once a week on Fridays.
Lunch and Dinner
Choosing lunch and dinner options was more challenging for us. We desired our preferred type of food, but the vegetable selection was quite limited, making it difficult to create two distinct meals each day for five days. To simplify, we decided to skip lunch and instead had snacks with tea around 4 PM. Frozen potato fingers and aloo tikki served this purpose well.
For meals other than breakfast, we tried dal fry (made from dhuli masoor dal), aloo-gobhi, gobhi manchurian, sweetcorn soup, aloo paratha, and chapati.
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| Lunch |
Service and Quality
Being a government-run establishment, the service did not match the efficiency of privately owned restaurants. Meal times were not strictly adhered to; although breakfast was scheduled to start at 8 AM, it rarely began before 8:20-8:25 AM. One morning, we needed an early breakfast due to a train departure and requested to be served whatever was ready by 8 o’clock. Unfortunately, our request was not accommodated, and we had to leave without breakfast.
Despite these inconveniences, one positive aspect was the use of high-quality ingredients in their dishes.
While the service at Mayura Sudarshan may have its shortcomings, the quality of the food and the serene, beautiful surroundings provided us with a memorable and relaxing anniversary celebration. For those seeking a peaceful retreat amidst nature, this destination remains a worthwhile choice.
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