Cheapmax

As they say, nobody goes to Goa to eat veg food.

But what about pure vegetarians (like the author)?

Research and enquiries threw up the name of Nav-Tara, supposed to be one of the best (?!) for veg southie dishes. We (a gang of 7 comprising 3 senior citizens) went there at 9-00 AM one morning.

At all times, the staff assume that they are doing you a favor. Grumpy and rude.. sample this : we ordered idli. It came ice cold.. believe it or not. When we requested the waiter to get us hot idlis, his response was classic:

" you will get idlis at this temperature only; if you dont want, then don't eat it"

and without even waiting for our response proceeded to lap up the plate of idli on our table. Atrocious !

At 9-00 AM in the morning you get cold idli-s !!

While exiting the place, I approached the manager (I assume so; he was the only staffer wearing a tie !!) who was on the phone, going on and on to his caller about how this particular DVD player has better features, with a remote control that has colorful buttons.. etc.. TOTALLY neglecting a customer who wanted to talk to him DURING THEIR BUSINESS HOURS !!

I prompted.. "Excuse me, Sir.. just a minute, pls"..

He went on and on with his phone talk, looking through me as if I was thin air !!

I prompted again.. "Excuse me, Sir.. just a minute, pls"..

He went on and on with his phone talk, this time je just turned his face away !!!!

I waited for exactly 180 seconds and then barged out.

Visit NavTara, only if you want a perfect way to destroy a simple veg dining experience.

In contrast, there are joints in Bombay which courteously dish out STEAMING hot idlis even at midnite tme.

For all the BUDGET TRAVELLERS to BANGALORE (BENGALOORU)
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Food expenses can range from mega cheap to expensive. I am refering to pure veg south indian stuff.

But Halsur is the mecca for real cheap southie food. Outlets located
along the Old Madras Road are the haven for cheap madrasi veg food. Checkout the roadside shops near the bus stand.. they taste helluva great and are very easy on the pocket.

Filter coffee for INR 5 !! served piping hot over the counter in small steel tumblers.. Forget starbucks.. u cant beat the taste of a hot tumbler of FC !!

Idli-s, Dosa-s, Bhajji-s, Bonda-s.. none of them above INR 20 (USD 0.50)
and the taste is heavenly and they are gentle on your gastric system.

Just tip the staff handling the works inside 2-5 bucks and see the ROYAL treatment meted out to you !!

Sachin is a very old establishment in Dadar. It is a small joint with minimal decor with no pretensions to being anything but.

We had a bunch of things, a prawn masala which was good (altho i personally thought it could have been fresher). The rava fried surmai was excellent, as was the pomfret despite being relatively small. friend ordered a tomato salad( chopped tomato and chutney and curd) and that was a hit, we ordered seconds.

Chicken sukka was good, spicy and garlicky but not very oily. The egg masala was excellent (had some black masala, which gave it a sangli/kolhapuri flavour. We also ordered the mutton vada, supposedly their speciality. The vadas were good (if you like them in the first place) not oily, or chewy. The mutton was disappointing. The gravy wasn't as appetizing (the egg on was better) and the meat was badly shredded, nice bigger chunks would have made a big difference.

the butter milk and sol kadhis were soso.. chapatis were excellent, light and fresh.

overall total value for money. 5 of us ran up a tab of 516 bucks, and everybody except me confessed to overeating.

no beer.

Very shady bar at the Brigade Residency Junction. Used to be open till late in the night earlier but nowadays only gives parcels at all times of the night.

Cheap booze, bad food, dirty ambiance, rowdy crowd. That's about it.

40 bucks an old monk quarter. The food (dal tadka) tastes good but you invariably have a stomach upset the next morning.

Comfortable seats. Dark shady bar ambiance.

Durga is the place where one should definitely visit once and always. I have drank the most wonderful coffee ever over there. The price of 200ml glass for coffee is only 8/-. (really unbelievable). The place is hygenic and clean, but, the only part is that there is no much place to sit. So just go have a cup and stand anywhere u like for the sip of the coffee. Theres lot of rush, i thought thought for a while that i was standing in crowd for taking glass of sugarcane juice.
But when i tasted the coffee i had no words to say.
So visit the place definitely and reply your reviews depending on it.
Gaurav Duvedi
(Gogo's Catering Services)

A Bombay Frankie stall chain. You get them all over Bombay at Churchgate Station, near Sena Bhavan Dadar (which is the best one), Linking Road Bandra, etc.

While the Dadar one is actually very good (good enough to go for by itself) and the only one I would recommend. Yet somehow all stalls manage to have that similar unique flavour.

I spotted one on Brigade Road in Bangalore recently and sure as heck couldn't avoid eating there although I didn't have much expectation from it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I bit into it. That same soft spongy flavour although the "roti" is crispy on the outside and the wet (as in not dry;-) chicken with gravy which keeps dripping down into the plastic thing they give you to hold the frankie in. That's probably the difference between these and the dry Kathi Rolls. This feels more like actual food the wet gravy and soft roti which just taste better as you eat them compared to a Kathi Roll which feels dry and requires to be forcibly gulped down.

This is probably personal preference. That's why I like the Chicken Bhuna Roll at Bade Miya compared to the dry Seekh or Boti Rolls. But then everyone who I introduced the Chicken Bhuna Roll to has been a instant convert ;-)

Delicous! The taste was so similar to the Bombay ones that I was instantly reminded of Bombay! Anyone who has eaten at the better Tibbs Frankie stalls in Bombay will know what I mean.

The only con -- there were two bones in the chicken. Ugh.

Tiny Dhaba near Ulsoor Gurudwara with very simple, homely Punjabi food.

The Baingan Bharta and Plain Parathas were excellent while the Channa Masala and Alu Parathas were just average and avoidable. Since we reached when it closes, (11:30PM) the Paneer was over.

I read about Sarvi in a recent issue of "Time Out Mumbai" which listed down the best dishes in Mumbai - ranging from a Rs 1500 Camembert Dariole at Taj to a Rs 25 seekh kabab (at Sarvi). A collector's edition - but hey, we're not reviewing Time Out - we're reviewing Sarvi.

And being the adventurous sort when it comes to food, I took time off from work to seek out this curious place which serves the "best seekh kabab" in Mumbai.

The toughest part of the whole adventure was locating the restuarant. As instructed by the reviewer in Time Out, I got down at Nagpada Junction. Looked for a signboard sponsored by Pepsi or Coke with giant "SARVI" in garish colours. Didn't find one. Walked all over the junction. There were many restuarants, but didn't find Sarvi.

Wait. From where I was standing, I smelt delicious Tandoor smoke. Yes, I turned around - ahh - there it was. No signboard, nothing. Just a place with as many doors as there were windows. All open, probably to let the noise and vehicle fumes in ;-)

This is a typical Muslim place in a predominantly Muslim locality. Vegetarian food just doesn't exist. Neither do good manners, clean tables, or polite waiters. It's all rough and tumble and yell, eat, eat more, pay and go. It was love at first sight!

So I seat myself in a round two-seater in a corner, opposite a gent dipping tandoori roti in greasy curry. A waiter comes and looks. "Kya hai?" I could make out only "Alu Gosht" in his distracted, rushed reading of the menu. So Alu Gosht, tandoori roti ("Kitna?" "Ek") and seekh kabab it was.

The anticipated seekh kabab comes in a small plate with a generous helping of "kuchumber" and mint leaves. I break off a piece - it breaks easily. And the first taste is just awesome. The texture is just right. I can't describe the taste of meat, but this was just the best meat I ate. It was so soft, I almost didn't need to chew. I just let the taste seep in, savouring every morsel.

Apparently the secret of the Sarvi seekh kabab is the use of animal fat for cooking, and turmeric, instead of maida that many restuarants use to economize on the quantity of meat. Just to know the difference, I took home a couple more seekh kababs, and bought another couple from a reputed restuarant in south Mumbai. Sure enough, it was the Sarvi kabab that brought out the full taste of the mutton. It was much softer, even when cold (I live an hour long train journey away!) while the other one had become quite chewy. I'm no chef, but I suspect it's the flour and the oil that makes the difference. But am not sure whether animal fat is healthy :-(

So back to Sarvi. The rest of the food is nothing to write home about. The Alu Gosht was only okay - it was just something to dip the Roti in. I ordered one more seekh kabab. I've also tried a couple of other chicken and mutton curries on later visits. But I'll recommend only the seekh kabab here.

And yes, the atmosphere of old Bombay, at its chaotic best.

I only had dosas here which were half burnt. Not going back here anytime.