Bhojan Bhajan

Sree Thaker Bhojanalay
Dadyseth Agyari Lane, Kalbadevi, Mumbai.
Tel: 22069916
Meal for two: Rs 400

haker’s is a cult eating joint, hidden deep in the gullies of Kalbadevi: the kind of place that everybody’s heard legends about, but hasn’t got round to visiting yet. Started by Maganbhai Purohit in 1945, it actually began as an eating club, (hence its nick-name “Thakkar club”). And most of Mumbai’s Gujarati restaurant cooks apparently started life here, under Maganbhai’s eagle eye.

As Maganbhai liked to say, “Pet bhar jaye, par dil na bhare”. It’s true. An over-sized thali is placed before you, and then the adventure begins: first, an array of pickles and assorted accompaniments. Then a couple of different crackling farsans, followed, typically, by four or five sabzis; two different dals, spicy and sweet; a raita or kadhi; a variety of puris and rotis; rice or khichdi, and, finally, dessert. The balance of tastes, textures and sometimes even colours is wonderful: the sweet balanced perfectly with the sour, spicy and bitter; the granular balanced with the smooth, glutinous and liquid.

Bhindi and tendli are not our favourite vegetables, but the way they make them here is magical. Their flavoursome undhiyo is a masterpiece; their thick, biscuity bhakris are to kill for. But most of all, we adore the wonderful, nutmeg-y puranpolis, soaked in ghee, that they serve on Wednesdays. A curious piece of trivia: the cooks are all from Rajasthan—perhaps because the canny Gujaratis themselves would be more inclined to set up their own eatery than to work in one!