Mumbai Food: Mahim’s new seafood grill is a good catch

Crab Thali

There are many things that Mahim is famous for — a iconic single-screen Paradise Cinema, a signboard outward St Michael’s Church, a Wednesday novenas and concomitant fair, bread pudding during a progressing Crown Bakery and of course, good seafood.

Interiors

Recently, another space assimilated a ranks of a restaurants charity uninformed locate from a sea, prepared in conflicting coastal styles. We chose a Monday for a cooking during Saibeni Gomantak. We entered, pausing to review about their caramel custard, and were immediately ushered into a ‘family room’ or a AC section. There, underneath a blast of a AC, we staid in for a formidable charge of selecting from among a different seafood options.

Tisrya Pakoda. Pics/Joanna Lobo

Cast a net
Is there some-more to a sea than rawas and surmai? Saibeni Gomantak positively thinks so. The menu had mori (shark), tisrya (shell fish), prawn, bombil and crab served fried, dry or in a gravy. They also offer vegetarians equipment — dal and aloo and a ilk, and duck dishes, that we chose to ignore.

We were there to see fish, and eat it; that we did. We started off with Tisrya Pakoda (Rs 160), that had bombard fish coated in a light gramflour batter. We couldn’t sign a ambience since a tangible beef was little, and we finished adult scraping beat off a shells.

The Tawa Prawns (Rs 250) came to a list smelling like a sea. A punch in, and we were in adore with a Malwani staple. The prawns were uninformed and nonetheless swimming in a covering of oil, a onions-and-tomatoes gravy had a tangy, garlicky flavour. We mopped adult a final dump with Bhakri (Rs 30). Despite a red colour, a gravy wasn’t spicy.

We found this was unchanging via a image — a food wasn’t burning notwithstanding a red colour and complicated use of masala. The customarily tears that night were of fun when we saw a check (minus any tax).

Fish tales
The Mori Dry (Rs 160) astounded us since it wasn’t dry during all though had a light onion and coriander gravy; a fish was soothing and unequivocally tasty. Bangda Tikhla (Rs 150) was ostensible to be green though incited out to be a elementary fish curry, reduction a coconut.

The pièce de résistance was a Crab Thali (Rs 290) starring one big, luscious crab in a thick, perfumed masaledar curry, served with wade — fried, puri-like bread that lacked flavour, and a complicated coconut curry. Our loyal exam of any gomantak or seafood place is their luminary kadhi. Here, a luminary kadhi that accompanies a thali was thin, flowing and not green enough.

Tempted by a many advertisements for their Caramel Custard (Rs 40), we systematic it and were immediately unhappy during a gooey and too-firm dessert.

Saibeni Gomantak has a starkness customarily compared with new spaces. It doesn’t caring about interiors, that are a brew of lifeless grey, brownish-red and white. The top walls, inexplicably, have a names of famous monuments in a world. There’s no impression to a place though it doesn’t matter. The food creates adult for it, nonetheless we consider we will hang to a common haunts.

Time: 11 am to 4 pm, 7 pm to 12 am
At: 1, Lilian House, Bhandar Lane, LJ Road, Mahim.
Call: 24325181

Fresh Catch: Seafood soiree
It has been a Mahim establishment for dual decades though there are many things about Fresh Catch that have stood a exam of time. The pelican with fish in a bill that proudly stands outward a restaurant, a print wall with sepia-tinted images of all a celebrities who’ve eaten there, another set of photos display beaches and fisherfolk, a 1980s and ’90s English music, and owners Francis Fernandes’ warmth.

Bangda Huggay. Pics/Shraddha Uchil

The taste, luckily, stays a same too. Fresh Catch was started by Fernandes, a Karwar resident. It is his mother’s recipes that supplement essence to a seafood — prawns, crabs, bombil, pomfret, surmai, rawas, mackerel, calamari, oysters, ladyfish and shark. The food here is a brew of Karwari food with a peculiar Goan dish.

Sol Kadhi

On a weekday, we headed there for cooking to find a place to ourselves. As a instrumental chronicle of Stevie Wonder’s we Just Called streamed over a speakers, we staid in. We started a image with Sol Kadhi (Rs 80), that was a frothy, flowing splash with a good green flog though too many salt. The Prawns Sukka (Rs 380) was value a weight in a oil it was lonesome in — a softly sharp image had crunchy, luscious prawns coated with a juicy onion and tomato gravy. The Bangda Huggay (Rs 350 for dual pieces) had dual boiled mackerels pressed with a sharp masala, suggestive of a Goan rechead bangda. The fish was uninformed and a masala not too spicy. Our favourite image of a night was a Calamari Dry (Rs 425), that had a many proposal squid served adult in a thin, chilli-based curry. We mopped it adult with a softest Neer Dosa (Rs 90).

Our dual picks from progressing visits incited out to be a biggest disappointments. The Crab Meat Butter Garlic (Rs 725) came bubbling on a banana leaf, surfaced with a covering of boiled garlic. The crab indispensable some-more seasoning since on a own, it wasn’t luscious adequate to reason a dish. The Seafood Pulao (Rs 435) was packaged with prawns, crab beef and squid though lacked flavour.

To finish a meal, we systematic a Caramel Custard (Rs 160) — tawny custard dressed with a dim honeyed caramel.

On a approach out, we gave a meaningful curtsy to a pelican. After all, we did know what it meant to be pressed to a gills with fish.

Time: 12 pm to 3.30 pm, 7.30 pm to 11.30 pm (Mondays closed)
At: Lt Kotnis Marg, nearby Fire Brigade, off LJ Road, Mahim (W)
Call: 30151696

Sushegad Gomantak: A cut of Goa
We’ve been to Sushegad Gomantak some-more times than we can count, simply since it never fails us. Over time, we’ve found a favourites, dishes that we keep going behind to.

Tisrya Suke Thali. Pics/Joanna Lobo

The matchbox-sized restaurant, located conflicting Paradise Cinema, is run by a Goan Hindu family that changed to Mumbai in a 1940s. The aging matriarch, Savita maushi, helms a kitchen, and can be found rattling off instructions to employees while she slips plates heaving with food to a waiters during a pass.

Makli Fry

This time, we began a tarry with a Stuffed Bombil (Rs 200). Fried Bombay ducks are laid prosaic on a plate, slathered with a green prawn chutney, and lonesome with another covering of a fish. The Prawn Cutlets (Rs 150) comprised tiny, spiced potato patties filled with baby prawns and onion, crumbed and boiled to perfection. We also favourite a Makli Fry (Rs 250), squid coated in semolina and boiled compartment soft.

Next, we sequence a image of Tisrya Suke (Rs 150), which, nonetheless not unequivocally “suke” (Konkani: dry), was still delicious. The clams were juicy, and a gravy aromatic with spices and coconut, vagrant to be mopped adult with soft, prohibited Bhakaris (Rs 15). The Solkadhi (Rs 20) was a tad watered down though was a luscious splash of green kokum, spices, and cooling coconut milk.

It was a image estimable of a nice, prolonged siesta.

Time: 11 am to 4 pm, 7 pm to 11 pm
At: A-11, Mahim Shivsagar Society, LJ Road, Mahim
Call: 24445555

- Shraddha Uchil

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