Get prepared to feast on a Bohri thaal during this arriving grill in Bandra

(Clockwise from left) Bheja Hara Masala, Nalli Nihari, Paya Soup, Tandoori Roti, Dal Chawal Palidu, Pizza Naan and Bohri Biryani (centre)

The Hill Road’s hubbub is drowned out by balmy Middle Eastern song as we step into The Tha’l Co, tucked in a residential building off a bustling street. We soak in a dark blue and mill grey décor, with desirable latticework, candle-lit tables and epitome art adorning a walls, half awaiting a opening of swell dancers. Instead, dual staffers pierce out a massive, 33-inch Bohri thaal, brimful with 9 forms of starters, 4 pickles and dual salad options.

Pineapple Halwa, Kesar Pista Sancha Ice Cream, Amba Roti, Paan and Mukhwaas

Owner Avinash Bhatia gets a greeting he’s anticipating for – a gaping mouths. “Bohri food has always been tighten to my heart, as we grew adult with friends from a community. we sourced normal recipes from them,” says a Sindhi businessman, who hails from a family of skill developers. He also has knowledge of using a family-owned Club 9 during Pali Hill, that transposed Hungry Bunny, a cosy café that his father had launched behind in 1990s.

A village call
The Tha’l Co offers à la grant and set menus, a latter in a form of thaals for a solo caf� and even a family. They also take catering orders. “The family thaal feeds 7 guests. It includes mains and desserts too,” he says as he ushers us to a low-seating list with chair cushions. It represents a community’s normal dining set-up where a family sits on a building around a common thaal. However, we opt for a table-and-chair set up, deliberation we’re in for a prolonged haul.

(Clockwise from left) Bheja Hara Masala, Nalli Nihari, Paya Soup, Tandoori Roti, Dal Chawal Palidu, Pizza Naan and Bohri Biryani (centre)

After a normal flitting of salt and a punch of sodhanu (rice and sugarine to start a meal), we puncture into Dhungareli Tangdi, wrapped in foil and baked in coals. The plate stars fall-off-the-bone duck legs baked in tawny gravy with a graphic unsound cheese hardness that teases a palate.

Then, we pierce on to fried-till-crisp Chicken Kheema Samosas and Chicken Shahi Roll, where crumb-fried barrels detonate with meaty, cheesy flavours. They’re cleared down with refreshing, watermelon-flavoured Bir Soda, as constituent to a village as Pallonji’s is to Parsis.

For veggies too
The vegetarian options embody Soya Chaaps, where a ridicule beef is slathered with a makhani-like gravy. We also suffer a salads – Kokam Bateta, featuring well-cooked potatoes dark underneath a thick, tangy-spicy coating, and Kachumber laced with silken, crushed brinjal.

The highlights are a melt-in-the-mouth minced lamb Galawati and a skewered Seekh Kebabs, where a soothing and luscious mutton packs in robust, sharp flavours.

Dance to DCP
The mains embody Nalli Nihari, Bheja Hara Masala, Bohri Biryani and a vegetarian DCP aka Dal Chawal Palidu. The Nihari wins us over with a soothing and tender lamb baked in a well-spiced batch with a spirit of fennel seeds that we penchant with feathery Pizza Naan. The Bheja Hara Masala scores for a tawny coriander-based gravy, whose flavours are dripping in by goat meat.

The dum-cooked Bohri Biryani, with tender chunks of mutton and potatoes, turns out to be a lighter chronicle of a north Indian sibling. It’s prolonged rice grains are laced with a right volume of whole spices and slight spice from a curd. A smoking-hot square of spark on a bed of softly flavoured rice and lentils takes a medium DCP to a subsequent level. The essence lingers in a mouth prolonged after we’ve tucked into a comforting plate with Palidu, a drumstick meal gradual with cumin and thickened with Bengal gram flour.

By a time we strech a desserts – a abounding Pineapple Halwa and tawny Sancha (hand-churned) ice cream in kesar pista essence – we feel too pressed to move, realising a loyal definition of food coma.

Opens: Next week, 12 pm to 3.30 pm; 7.30 pm to 11.30 pm
At: Pooja Society, Chinchpokli Road, Bandra West
Call: 8956988888
Cost: `786 (single thaal), `986 (per chairman for family thaal)

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