Ah! Vegetarian cuisine. You can't be an East Indian and say you hate non-vegetarian food! A lot of people do and get judged. It's nearly impossible for Odias, Biharis and Bengalis to shake off this bag of being avid non-vegetarians. Wherever we go, we make it very obvious how much we love our bhaata and Mutton Kassa or Maacha! I remember how a colleague of mine went on a trip to Rajasthan and complained a hell lot about "the scarcity of food there". To a Marwari, this would appear strange. But to my bhaat loving colleague, not having a plate full of rice is akin to being starved.
I was very impressed with the food I tasted in Mumbai. I don't know if Maharashtrians are avid non-veg consumers or not. But, I can tell you their vegetarian food is to kill for. My Bambaiya friends might be able to give more details. However, me and my family found the taste of vegetarian food in Bombay amazing. Shirdi, being a pilgrimage town, is far worse than Bombay when it comes to good food at a reasonable rate. This is not to say we did not eat chicken while in Bombay since it feels strange not to put a dead animal in our mouth for a whole week. But it was nothing like the food we had at that veg restaurant. A full plate veg thali with everything cooked to perfection without churning your stomach, only at Rs 75. Where do you get that?
Its not to say that Bhubaneswar has no options for proper Vegetarian food. You can always visit the many Suddha Niramisa Bhojanalayas here. However, when it comes to taking your vegetarian friend out for dinner or treating your diabetic relatives, finding a good vegetarian restaurant which has no pictures of Gods and religious motifs in it, becomes difficult. The only place I can think of for such an occasion is Narula's Restaurant. I had to take my family there on my birthday because of Shivratri. I knew it was only this place which could make me feel better about eating veg food on my birthday. Damn!
I don't really need to say anything about the tikkas. Paneer and Mushroom are always veg favourites and they are great at Narula's. What I liked the most was their Kashmiri Pulao and Masala Kulcha. And, thanks to my brother, we ordered just the right sabzi to go with it. I would highly recommend you to go with Narula's Palak Paneer and Kofta curry.
Being an avid non-vegetarian, I haven't had much Kofta. And the many relatives who make it, end up destroying the taste completely and turning it into something else. However, Kofta here was awesome, to say the least. Now I know this is where I need to come for Koftas.
Vegetarian food has less options - that is one of the things people do say. That's true in Odisha, at least. Maybe, we need to give more options to people who switch towards different food experiences and options.