Thali (Hindi, meaning "plate")

Thali, contrary to what Wikipedia says, are offered throughout India, including the south. (The h is silent, pronounced TA-lee).

In our experience, these were generally served on a round steel tray, sometimes lined with banana leaf, occasionally replaced by banana leaf. Small steel bowls hold a number of curries, dhals, and curd (plain unsweetened yoghurt). Sometimes the dessert bowl is served at the same time, sometimes it is separate, occasionally it is omitted. There is also roti and/or naan and/or chappati, papad [pappadum] and plain basmati rice, and usually one or two pickles/chutneys too. Some have unlimited refills, some don't. Either way, you'll be stuffed silly by the end.

Many restaurants serve veg and non-veg forms, although some serve only veg [vegetarian] ones.

Here are the ones from Malabar Serenity:

Malabar Serenity veg thali

Clockwise from bottom: folded chappati, curd, dessert (vermicelli-based) (with spoon), ?banana curry, ?coconut based curry, pickled cabbage (not quite sauerkraut, but in that direction), two mild vegetable curries, pappadum.

Malabar Serenity non-veg (seafood) thali

As for the veg thali, but also with prawn curry dish (at 5pm) and fish cutlet (under tomato and onion, at 4pm)

We had fantastic thali at Bangala (well known on the foodie trail), also with unlimited refills (and they tend to be pretty pushy about giving you more - your standard Jewish and/or Italian grandmother has got nothing on these guys).

Bangala (non-veg) thali

Top row, from left: pappadum, yoghurt and red onion raita, cabbage dish, ?potato curry; bottom row: curd, chettinad chicken, pulau (spiced rice), a coconut chicken curry, and pepper chicken (I think). When you're done, you put your spoon to the side, and then fold the leaf in half away from you. This is the only effective way to get them to stop trying to top you up.

As Bangala is in Chettinad, Tamil Nadu, in the steamy south, some of the dishes are cold; Kenam/Serenity is in the Kerala foothills, and is much cooler, so most of the curries/dishes are served hot.

We've dined with the locals in Udaipur at Natraj Hotel. There we had unlimited veg thali for Rs80 (around $1.60). We've dined with the pilgrims at Ranakpur Temple. There we had unlimited veg thali for a recommended donation of Rs50 (around $1). We ate at a local fast food place in Jaipur, El's thali was around Rs120 (?) More typically, a non-veg thali at an upmarket/western-oriented restaurant would be around Rs500-Rs800 - still stupidly good value for a bloody huge, delicious meal.

Waiting for the pilgrims' lunch, at Ranukpur (photo by El)

Pilgrims' lunch, Ranukpur Jain temple (photo by El) - rice, roti, lime pickle, a fairly thin curry of some sort, a drier whole lentil (or other pulse) curry, the cabbage sauerkraut-type thing. All excellent.

Veg thali at Jodhpur (photo by El). Clockwise from 5pm: lime pickle, red onion, spinach-based something (v yum), tomato and paneer carry, something else, flavoured rice, curd, unfried gulabjamun, with ?chapatti and roti in the centre