Suvarna Mahal

Suvarna Mahal means the Golden Palace, and before it was a restaurant it was the family's own banquet room.

The British architect Anthony Millbank designed it — ivory damask and the finest silk sold in India at the time on the walls, and a teak table built long enough for 80, with a valet standing behind every chair. The chairs are buff velvet, worked with the Jaipur coat of arms.

The ceiling frescoes came later, painted in a post-Renaissance style by an Italian prisoner of war working for Dr Swinton Jacob, the palace's own architect, and alabaster marble lamps light the room from below. Flags and battle honours once hung on these walls; they have since been replaced with mirrors.

Every dish here is cooked slowly, by design, and the ingredients are sourced city by city across India rather than from one place.

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