From Platform to Platter: An Indian Railways Grazing Table Setup
Why Indian Railways?
For a generation of millennials who have grown up travelling by train, the Indian Railways is a core part of their childhood. And this is particularly interesting because currently, millennials are also the generation that has embraced entertaining at home, grazing tables and creating experiences around food.
For many of us, trains are packed with core memories: summer holidays, grandparents waiting at the station, waking up to the sound of chai being poured into little cups, railway platforms, blue-and-red coaches, aluminium food trays, paper packets of snacks, pantry-car meals and the excitement of watching a new city appear outside the window. The Indian Railways is familiar in a way very few other themes can be.
That makes an Indian Railways-themed grazing table almost irresistible. Before guests even taste anything, the table gives them something to recognise. It sparks curiosity - “Wait, is that supposed to be…?” - and then brings back a memory when they realise what they are looking at. Suddenly, the food becomes a conversation starter.
And that is what makes this theme so much fun: it gives you an enormous visual and culinary vocabulary to play with. Different railway stations can inspire different foods, the colours and details of Indian trains can become part of the tablescape, and everyday railway objects can be reimagined as serving elements. You can recreate the feeling of a train journey without literally recreating a train.
Most importantly, it brings together two things that make a grazing table successful: familiarity and discovery. There is something recognisable for everyone, but enough unexpected detail to make guests stop, look, ask questions and explore the table. It is nostalgic and playful at the same time.
It is a table designed to take you on a little journey of your own.
The Table
Once we had decided on the Indian Railways theme, we wanted the table to feel recognisable without becoming a literal railway set or having Thomas Engine props.
Colour - We chose a tablecloth in rust-orange (Cobalt blue might have worked too) colours that immediately bring to mind the iconic Indian railway coaches. This gave us the visual foundation.
Aluminium trays - For serving, we went almost entirely with aluminium trays - the kind most Indian households already have for baking. We simply lined them roughly with parchment paper before adding the food. It was such a simple detail, but it worked brilliantly. The trays immediately echoed the food served on trains, taking us back to those familiar railway journeys when a gentleman would walk through the coaches selling masala vadas, bread pakoras and other hot snacks.
Then came one of my favourite details - The food labels. We designed the name cards on Canva and printed them in the style of Indian railway station signs. This was one of those tiny details that made an immediate difference. Guests recognised the reference almost instantly, and it gave the entire table a wonderfully cohesive feel.
We deliberately skipped flowers. As beautiful as flowers can be on a grazing table, they didn't belong to this particular story. Instead, we let the food and the railway-inspired details do the decorating.
There were plenty of other props we could have added - miniature railway tracks, toy trains, old-style railway tickets, luggage tags, station clocks or vintage suitcases. But honestly, by the time we had laid out all the food, we realised we didn't need much more. The table was already so abundant and colourful.
And that, perhaps, was the biggest lesson: when the food itself is doing the storytelling, the décor can afford to be restrained. A few highly recognisable details were enough to establish the theme, while leaving the grazing table as the star of the show.
Planning the Food: A Little Bit of Effort, A Little Bit of Ease
We were a group of about nine people, so we decided early on that nobody was going to spend the entire day cooking!
The idea was simple: Each person contributed one dish that involved some preparation and one dish that could simply be bought and plated. This made the workload manageable while still giving us a table that looked incredibly abundant.
The fun part was assigning every food to a railway station. We wanted the food to represent the kind of things you might actually associate with travelling across India - regional specialities, railway-station favourites and snacks.
Here’s how our imaginary railway food journey looked:
1. Vada Pav - Mumbai CST
We got large pavs and cut each into four to make them bite-sized. You could also do mini sliders.
2. Deconstructed Papdi Chaat - New Delhi
We plated the dahi and toppings on a platter, surrounded by papdis that guests could scoop up with.
3. Masala Vada - Vijayawada Junction
4. Bread Pakoda - Ambala Cantt
5. Pasta + Garlic Bread - Madgaon
We needed a kid-pleaser, and although it may not be entirely accurate, this felt like the closest fit.
6. Biryani - Hyderabad Deccan
7. Chole-Kulche - Amritsar Junction
We made mini kulche and topped them with dry chole to make them bite-sized.
8. Murukku Sandwich - Chennai Central
Although not commonly found there, this was an adaptation of a recipe by Rakesh Raghunathan, and we felt it could fit the station nicely.
9. Cutlet Chops - Howrah Junction
10. Jigarthanda - Madurai Junction
11. Kathi Roll - Sealdah
We made small ones and cut each into two for easy handling.
12. Dhokla - Ahmedabad Junction
We used smaller pieces and drizzled the chutneys over the top.
13. Cocktail Samosa - Lucknow Charbagh
14. Momos - New Jalpaiguri
15. Bhakarwadi - Pune Junction
16. Fafda - Viramgam Junction
17. Kovilpatti Peanut Chikki - Kovilpatti
18. Jalebi + Rabdi - Itarsi Junction - I would have loved to do oranges here, because that’s a core childhood memory for me on The Tamil Nadu Express - 4 times a year during my college days!
19. Guava - Prayagraj Junction
20. Cucumber - Dehradun
21. Masala Peanuts - Bengaluru City
22. Maddur Vada - Mysuru Junction
We didn't worry about making every association historically or geographically perfect. The aim was to recreate the feeling of an Indian train journey - the snacks you remember buying at stations, the foods you associate with different parts of the country, and the things you might find yourself eating while travelling.
And because we had a combination of homemade and store-bought food, the table had plenty of variety without turning the preparation into a mammoth project. Some dishes took planning and cooking; others simply needed to be bought, arranged beautifully and given their little railway-station identity.
That balance is actually what made the whole thing work.
