When it is time to give your taste buds a treat and delight your pallets with delicacies, we more often than not, think of eating out. Coming from Bangalore, that should not be too much to ask for at all. Moreover we always relate eating out to lunch or dinner. What if you wake up one morning and realize entering the kitchen is the last thing on your mind. Well, then all you have got to do is go out for breakfast.
Sounds weird? Obnoxious? Breakfast date? Chillax, it is not that absurd! It is just that we are so caught up in a quicksand of fast food, fried chicken outlets, cafes, pizzerias and burger huts that the idea of going out to eat our very own indigenous cuisine doesn’t quite fit in.
Well before you give me a look of consternation let me tell you what I am getting at. Well, it is the mouth watering Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR) situated at Lalbhagh, Bangalore. A traditional restaurant that serves a spicy, oily, crispy and calorie rich cuisine. A succinct menu consists of dosa, Idly, and upma. Along with the coffee and tea.
Our country has always been a labour oriented one. In which men & women were supposed to eat a lot. Men to till the soil and women to produce children. Loads of high calorie food has always been a part of our staple diet. Plus ours was a country where status was judged by a potbelly rather than fancy hats. This rich, yet yummy tradition is carried on to date. Foodstuff prepared in a lot of oil, garnished with a lot of ghee, lots of spice are a common thing for us. There is this other myth that the more you eat the greater will be your strength and stamina.
MTR is one of the oldest restaurants in Bangalore and it has proudly stood the test of time. People throng MTR like bees are attracted to cosmos or dahlia stalks. This is testimony to its quality. It has only two floors. The ground floor is like a fast food place with no seating available. The first floor has seating for families & gatherings. let me warn you that this place is known for its food.the place is renovated now but still you cannot go there and find waiters in uniforms or dim llighting and calm ambience.
You have to reserve a table (after going there), wait in the lounge (build up an appetite) before you can treat your taste buds. People from all walks of life frequent this place. Families, friends and oldie goldies. Not many youngsters come here although.(perhaps coz they don’t wake up early)
The discovery channel series ’Globe trekker’ featured this place on their show when they covered India and did a special on Indian food specialities.
The food: triangular dosas , crispy crunchy and perfect. They also give you very soft idilies and uppma as well. Everything is prepared in limited amounts. If you are not early enough in the mornings you probably won’t get dosas. (In demand!)
The service and treatment rendered is commendable. They do not accept a TIP.
So you can rest assure you are ensured prompt service.
They open now only for breakfast and are closed on Mondays. A MTR bakery has come up right beside the restaurant a couple of years back.
The next time you are ravenous in the morning and want to go smack smack over dosas, you know where to go. Do remember to be there early; coz the early bird gets the worm, or dosas!
Consider this:
The early bird gets the worm, but look what the worm got for being early.