The Best Udupi Food 

They have two offerings, unlimited meals served on a banana leaf and a limited portion thali served on a plate. The dishes change everyday and the food is cooked fresh everyday. The unlimited meals served on a banana leaf has three types of vegetables. On the day I’d gone, they were serving an aloo (potato) vatana (white peas), Madras cucumber curry, a dry preparation of Gawar (cluster beans), steamed rice, puri, sambar, rasam, dal, yoghurt (homemade, set in a small steel bowl) and pickle. The dessert was a choice of three – gulab jamun, shrikhand and the seasonal aamras (homemade mango pulp). You’re allowed only one dessert, but one does wish for more. There’s always space for an extra dessert.

The three curries were delicious. Homestyle Udupi food with no extra frills. Just pure flavour. The aloo vatana was a simple preparation, mildly spiced yet delicious. I’m not the biggest fan of the Madras Cucumber, but Ramanayak aces the preparation with this vegetable. Gawar is a difficult vegetable to cook as it’s a very hard bean, but the version here was superb. The sambar was unlike the regular sweet-thickish Udupi sambar that one finds everywhere in Bombay. Simple yet tasty. Ramanayak also serves a chase (butter milk) drink as part of the meal. A much needed drink to counter the Bombay heat and humidity in summers.