Dining aboard the Palace on Wheels is not an afterthought to the journey — it's one of its central rituals. Twice a day, every day, for 7 nights, guests gather in one of two dedicated restaurant cars for meals that blend Rajasthani royal cuisine with international classics, served as the desert and forts of Rajasthan roll past the windows. This guide covers what dining aboard Palace on Wheels actually looks like, from the restaurant cars themselves to the food, service style, and what to expect if you have dietary restrictions.
Two Restaurant Cars: Maharaja and Maharani
Palace on Wheels operates two dedicated dining cars, named Maharaja and Maharani, each seating a portion of the train's guests for every meal. Both cars are finished in the same richly decorated style as the rest of the train — carved wood paneling, ornate ceiling work, and table settings that lean into the royal theme rather than a generic hotel-restaurant aesthetic. Guests are typically assigned to one of the two cars for the duration of the journey, dining at the same tables with the same fellow travelers across the week, which many guests find becomes one of the more social aspects of the trip as you get to know your dining companions over successive meals.
What's on the Menu
Meals aboard Palace on Wheels draw on Rajasthani royal cuisine — the historic cooking traditions of the region's princely courts — alongside continental and international dishes for guests who prefer more familiar options. Breakfast is typically a substantial buffet-and-a-la-carte combination covering both Indian and Western items. Lunch and dinner shift toward multi-course, plated meals showcasing regional specialties alongside international standards, giving guests who want to explore Rajasthani flavors the chance to do so without committing every single meal to unfamiliar cuisine.
Because the onboard kitchen car prepares meals fresh for every seating rather than relying on pre-made catering, the culinary team has some latitude to adjust and vary the menu across the week, so guests generally don't find themselves eating a repetitive rotation of the same few dishes over 7 nights.
The Kitchen Car
Behind every meal is a dedicated kitchen car, staffed by chefs who prepare food fresh throughout the journey despite the obvious logistical challenge of running a full culinary operation aboard a moving train. This is worth appreciating on its own terms — coordinating fresh ingredient supply, food safety, and consistent quality across 7 nights and roughly 20 meal services, all while the train itself is frequently in motion, is a genuine operational achievement that guests rarely think about but that underpins the entire dining experience.
Dietary Requirements and Special Requests
International travelers frequently ask whether the onboard kitchen can accommodate dietary restrictions — vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, allergies, or religious dietary requirements. Rajasthan itself has a strong vegetarian culinary tradition, so vegetarian guests are generally very well catered for, often better than they might expect. For more specific restrictions, it's best to notify your booking agent well in advance of departure so the culinary team has time to plan accordingly — this is standard advice for any premium train or cruise dining operation, since accommodating specific requirements is far easier with advance notice than as a same-day request.
Beyond the Restaurant Cars: The Lounge and Bar
Dining aboard Palace on Wheels isn't limited to the two restaurant cars. The train also features a dedicated lounge car — sometimes styled with mirror-work inspired by the Sheesh Mahal palaces of Rajasthan — where guests can enjoy curated cocktails and premium spirits before or after dinner, often accompanied by live Rajasthani folk music performances as the evening progresses. This is where much of the trip's social atmosphere develops, particularly on the evenings between destinations when guests have finished dinner and the train is underway to the next stop.
A Typical Dining Day Aboard
To give a sense of the rhythm: breakfast is served aboard the train before or shortly after arrival at that day's destination, giving guests a proper meal before heading out on the day's excursion. Lunch may be taken either aboard the train if it's convenient to the day's schedule, or in some itineraries as part of the excursion itself. Dinner is almost always aboard the train in the evening, often coinciding with the train's departure for the next destination — so guests frequently find themselves enjoying a multi-course dinner while the train pulls out of one city bound for the next, watching the lights fade as the meal progresses.
How Palace on Wheels Dining Compares to Other Travel Styles
For travelers used to independent trip-planning — booking restaurants, researching menus, worrying about reservations — the Palace on Wheels dining structure removes all of that entirely. Every meal for 7 nights is pre-arranged, included in your fare, and delivered without any planning required on your part. This is a meaningful difference from a typical hotel-based Rajasthan itinerary, where guests are responsible for finding and booking restaurants at every stop, with inconsistent quality and no guarantee of catching the regional cuisine at its best. Aboard Palace on Wheels, the dining program is designed specifically to showcase Rajasthani royal cuisine at a consistent standard across the entire week.
What's Included and What's Not
All meals — breakfast, lunch, and dinner across all 7 nights — are included in every Palace on Wheels fare, regardless of cabin class. What typically isn't included is alcohol beyond any house pours specifically bundled into the fare; premium spirits, wine, and specialty cocktails in the lounge car are generally billed separately, and it's worth budgeting for this if you plan to enjoy the bar car regularly across the week.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of Dining Aboard
Approach the week with some openness to trying Rajasthani dishes you may not have encountered before — the menu is specifically curated to showcase regional cuisine, and guests who stick exclusively to the more familiar international options miss part of what makes the dining program distinctive. If you have any dietary restrictions, communicate them as early as possible rather than waiting until you're aboard. And take advantage of the lounge car in the evenings — the combination of live folk music, curated drinks, and the desert or countryside passing by outside is one of the experiences guests most often mention as a highlight of the trip afterward.
The Bigger Picture
Dining aboard Palace on Wheels reflects the same philosophy that shapes the rest of the journey: rather than treating meals as a logistical necessity to be handled efficiently, the train turns dining into part of the royal heritage experience itself, served in carriages designed to evoke the grandeur of Rajasthan's princely courts. Combined with the lounge car's evening atmosphere, dining aboard becomes less a break between excursions and more a continuous thread running through the entire 7-night journey.
For more on what to expect throughout the full journey, see our complete Palace on Wheels Route Guide, or check current departure dates to start planning your trip.
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