Vada Pav! India’s answer to Mcdonald’s and the like. Stuff which made Mumbai famous. The best in street food, that crosses all class boundaries. A chain called Goli Vada Pav has tried to convert this dish into an organized fast food format under the same name. And they have tried to add a lot of unique flavours to this simple but tasty dish. They have opened outlets across Bangalore and I happened to visit the one in Jayanagar, very close to Cool Joint signal. They have your regular Vada Pav for 17 bucks (costly by Mumbai rates). But they have added various items such as mix veg tikki Pav, cheese tikki pav, schezwan tikki pav. I have nothing against these fancy combos but I would any day stick to the regular Vada Pav.
Anyone who has eaten this before, knows that 3 crucial things make up the dish. The Pav, the Vada and the chutney. Goli has managed to do a good job with the Pav. They have it fresh and closely resembles the Pav available in Mumbai. What is the difference between the packaged Pav available in stores and here? Cant explain. Either you have to learn by experience or u need to be from Mumbai to know the difference.
The Vada, unfortunately is a the sad part. What they do is, they deep fry frozen vadas. As a result you can feel the rather stale effect of the batter as if its been re-fried. Its a little to crispy to be good. Taste wise, the vada is spicy but the outer batter kinda kills the fun. They chutney is good. Overall a decent deal. Ok for trying it once in a while, nothing great.
The service in the Jayanagar outlet is pathetic. Probably the staff is learning the ropes. But they took a long time to serve just 2 customers and not sure how they can manage the weekend evening rush.