Review: Ran Baas The Palace, Patiala: Review

Why book?

For an unforgettable experience of beauty and pleasure that marries cutting-edge conservation and design to luxury and the finest Punjabi hospitality from the age of the maharajas.

Set the scene

As my car meanders through Patiala’s narrow lanes and bustling markets and turns through great metal-spiked wooden gates into a cobblestoned courtyard flanked on all sides by monumental buildings, I know I’ve crossed the threshold into the deep state of old India. In the white facade of Ran Baas, glossy as Himalayan snow because of the traditional technique of araish plasterwork, I see an eclectic mix of Sikh, late Mughal, and Rajput architecture, a testament to its 18^th-century origins. Sikh guards in pearl-pink sherwanis welcome me into a complex that was derelict as recently as a decade ago but radiates lustre and spectacle once again. Statement chandeliers designed by Klove Studio are a riff on strutting peacocks and the dangling earrings of the queens who once lived here. The tune in my head is already slow, stately and very Patiala. At dawn and dusk, a statuesque granthi sings beautiful tunes from the Guru Granth Sahib as pigeons and parakeets flit across the chajjas (eaves) and cupolas of the fort palace.

The backstory

Originally, Ran Baas was a royal guesthouse occupying one wing of Qila Mubarak, a 10-acre complex where the royal family lived with scores of darbaris, domestics and a treasury of diamonds (there were 2930 of them, for example, in the Patiala Necklace made by Cartier for Bhupinder Singh in 1928). At its zenith in the early decades of the 20th century, during the reign of the epicurean Maharaja Bhupinder Singh (the first Indian to own a private jet), Patiala breathed a grandeur and excess that made the tongues of every royal in the land wag and the heads of viceroys spin. After independence, the property, like so many palaces around India, slowly became derelict.

In 2014, the Punjab government began a long-overdue restoration project of the qila complex, overseen by the lauded conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah. This took on a new momentum in 2021 when Priya Paul’s Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Limited was chosen to revive Ran Baas’s rich history of hospitality. Lambah came on board once again for what was a passion project, setting up an eloquent, no-expenses-spared conversation between the 19^th and 21^st centuries about the meaning of opulence. Finally, the new Ran Baas opened its doors to guests in November 2024, the jewel in the crown of the Park Hotels portfolio. Paul, whose family has its roots in nearby Jalandhar, described it as a “homecoming”. Astonishingly for a land so rich in riyasat or princely states, it’s also Punjab’s first luxury palace hotel and we can foresee this property becoming a new favourite for destination weddings.

The rooms

Lambah’s elaborate and thoughtful interior designs have yielded 25 one-of-a-kind suites in four colour palettes. Some have a soothing white-on-white scheme matching the white of the Ran Baas facade, showcasing marble flooring from Rajasthan with black marquina inlay work. Other suites have keynotes of sapphire and coral. Last, there’s an explosion of modernist colour and exuberance in suites such as room 314, where I drink my morning cup of Darjeeling tea gazing at the teal walls, mustard-coloured upholstery, and funky black-and-white striped floors as long as a cricket pitch. Some front-of-stage rooms allow you to wake up to vistas of the fort without and old frescoes on the walls within, such as the gorgeous cheetah in the Shikarbagh suite and the dozens of coaster-sized narrative paintings in the Nakkarkhana suite. Most rooms are over 1000 sq ft, with capacious bathrooms and walk-in closets encouraging a most regal and pleasurable toilette. And the niches that once served as chinikhanas for the display of porcelain and ornaments have now been turned into quirky alcoves with desks. 10 more rooms will soon be added to the stock, in the Gatehouse Block just outside Ran Baas.

Food and drink

In its heyday, the Lassikhana, or kitchen, at Ran Baas was said to feed 35,000 people. That scale will never be replicated again, but Chef Jayanto Ghosh’s tandoor serves up a fine selection of robust Punjabi classics at lunch and dinner (bhatti da murgh, kandahaari raan) and enough kababs to ensure that you don’t have room to eat two of the same kind. In time, there will surely be a bigger canvas for the regional specialities of Punjab but even now a spread with dishes like kathal ke shammi, dahi badam ke kabab, wadiyan di sabji, and Ambala Cantt mutton curry made me look forward to every meal. In my taste test across multiple locations of Patiala’s heartiest breakfast, the hotel’s chhole, redolent of anardana, came in second, which is no mean feat. Pickling fruit and vegetables is another great Punjabi tradition. At breakfast, I was delighted to find, among the pastries, fruit, and cheese platters, ceramic jars of exceptionally good fruit murabbas: bel, nashpati, lauki, karonda, bans. A touch of plaintive and piercing Sufi singing livens up evenings in the restaurant. But before that, there’s no way of not soaking up the blacks and pinks, the arches and tasselled chandeliers, of the seriously funky two-level The Patiala, a masterly example of adaptive reuse to transform the gravitas of the 19^th century into the brio of the 21^st.

Service

GM Deep Mohan Singh Arneja’s career spans over 25 years at heritage properties around India, and in a previous perch as Executive Chef at the Oberoi Udaivilas, he came to count Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver among his friends. His 18 months on-site setting up the new hotel makes him perhaps the longest-staying guest in Ran Baas’s history (and therefore a very knowledgeable host). Executive Housekeeper Subhash Anthony takes an infectious delight in showing off his (admittedly fabulous) inventory of rooms and is among the warmest I’ve ever met on any luxury property in India. Many of the staff are young and still finding their feet in such an imposing environment. But this is where a little empathy and understanding—there is such a thing as the hospitality of the guest, too—can go a long way. Food and Beverages is especially well-stocked with charm and flair. Over four days I became so simpatico with the young service staff Shaurya and Mukund that they supplied fine insights and backstories about every dish (and recommendations for where else to eat in Patiala) from the all-knowing perspective of young graduates from IHM Pusa who have chomped their way through every food street in Delhi.

Accessibility

Most of the common spaces are wheelchair-accessible, and so is Room 303 on the first floor via a lift.

Activities

Don’t miss the chance to have breakfast at the Rang Mahal, Ran Baas’s 18th-century art gallery, rich in frescoes in the Pahari and Mughal styles. A spa is in the works, and not many swimming pools in India let you show off your form to green Alexandrine parakeets and the dome and finial of a fortress. One of the more unusual members of the Ran Baas line-up is the precocious young historian Simar Singh, whose knowledge of Patiala's history is encyclopedic and whose passion for the city’s palaces, gardens, and food and drink is infectious. When in town, Singh leads guests on a heritage walk around the property and then into the warren of markets around it. With a repertoire of Punjabi juttis, choodis, jewellery, glassware, brassware, sweetmeats, street food, spices, and phulkari work, each bazaar street offers a deep and highly browseable history of its speciality. Further out, I particularly enjoyed, on the recommendation of Priya Paul herself, a trip to the Art Deco-style Phul Cinema, built in 1947 and still in great shape. There’s also much to savour at Heritage Panjab (@heritagepanjab), where the young entrepreneur HP Singh has set up a workshop offering a feast of traditional jewellery (saggi phull, bajubands, pipal pattiyaan, panjanglas) inspired by the royals of Patiala in its pomp.

All photos by Rahul Kizhakke Veettil

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