Ankur

Ankur is a restaurant in Colaba which serves seafood from the western coast of India, predominantly from Kerala, and Mangalore. The selection of dishes isn't too wide but they do a good job preparing a limited menu very well instead of spreading themselves too wide and too thin.

Getting There.

Getting to Ankur, especially in the night is a bit unpleasant. It's located on the lane at the back of "Fountain Sizzlers" or "Kandeel" which are between Kala Ghoda and Fountain. Since I was with P and I didn't want to go to a fuck-all shady area, I almost gave up when I couldn't find the place and I saw a fuck-all crowd there. But P persisted and asked random panwalas and we reached.

The simplest directions would be. Coming from VT or Churchgate take the small lane at the back of Fountain Sizzlers. Take a left after that and you have Ankur on your right.

The Ambiance

After the unpleasant surroundings once I stepped into this place I knew it was worth it. The crowd was mostly business class. No not the stock market sub-broker type you find in the area, think "Business Class" as in air travel.

It's a small place where the tables are spaced wide enough to have pleasant private conversations. Waiters are non-intrusive but accessible quickly and the service is overall pleasant. Not too pushy, not too lazy.

The Food

Did I say limited menu? We were actually overwhelmed with choices within that small menu ;-)

I wanted to order one 'Coondapur' dish because I had fond memories of Chicken Ghee Roast at Shetty Lunch Home at 'Kundapur' which is near Udipi. But somehow I didn't get to order that. It's on the TODO when I go back next.

What I did order was excellent!

Seafood Manchow Soup. - Not bad but a bit too spicy for a seafood soup. Lots of prawns, squid etc. We had one by two. Will try the seafood clear soup the next time. Cost: Rs. 90/-

Squid in Butter Garlic Pepper Sauce. - Whooo! I have never had (in my limited experience) 'BGP' sauces this way. Everywhere 'BGP' sauces have been mostly sparse and dry. But this was flowing and there was lots of it like a curry. And the squid was soft and melted in your mouth instead of being rubbery like I've always had anywhere else. Cost 150/-

I finished off the squid in super-fast time and scraped off all the BGP sauce off the plates and the tray it was served in.

Un-named Special Dish - I'm always a sucker for these 'We have a special but it's not in the menu' pitches :) So we went for that. It was Surmai with Garlic and Ginger with red chilly paste and without coconut (I think the guy heard me mentioning my dislike for coconut). Cost Rs. 190/-

When it was served we both let out a collective "Whoah". It had two large pieces of Surmai about 10 inches each. The gravy was looking dangerously spicy but it wasn't. We polished off all the gravy in no time licking our fingers as we finished.

The bad part.

Serving mainly South Indian food they have a serious non-choice of Dosas and Parothas. Only neer dosa was available. And 3 neer dosas (yes, three!!) at Rs.120/- is highway robbery! And at 20 bucks a single Parotha. WTF?! :-(

They have the usual roti / naan / paratha etc but who the heck wants to eat that? I think the way to go will be to have rice the next time after maybe one Parotha.

Also, according to P some part of the fish wasn't good which is strange for a Surmai.

Drinks

The drinks aren't too expensive but not on the cheaper side, maybe consciously to avoid the office going drunkard crowd one sees frequenting the Apurva/Bharat/etc places and "Thank God" for that. I had a pleasant quiet time with P while at Apurva I would have random drunkards around.

Conclusion

Nice pleasant place with excellent food. Ideal for a business lunch or for a quiet dinner with family, girlfriend or friends.