In a city like Pune-Mumbai, or indeed any big city in India, running a restaurant successfully is not very difficult. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean people like Mahesh Lunch Home have it easy. Running a restaurant is hard work. But it is a business which rewards those who work smart (and hard), innovate, prepare delicious food and have good service with a smile on face. If a restaurant is failing in a fast Growing Indian city, it must be doing something horribly wrong.
I visited one such hard working, delicious seafood restaurant, Mahesh Lunch Home (Pune Branch) in last years Diwali Chutti. From M.G Road catch the Road going towards West End Theatre you will get to the desired site.
Mahesh Lunch Home started off in Fort (Mumbai) as a lunch home, i.e a simple place where people come just for having a fixed lunch menu. Today it has grown to be a model establishment. A good meal (with Scotch Whisky) will cost you about 400-600 per head. Yet, the restaurant is doing deliciously well. Getting a table there is difficult even on weekdays (so make it a point to call and reserve on weekends).
At Mahesh Lunch Home you can literally mop up your plate thanks to their perfectly prepared Koliwada Prawns and Teesrya (We call it Teesrya its close to Oysters). Its a tribute to seafood :)
The most popular among the lot is pomfret. They say the restaurant cooks and serves 20 to 25 kgs. daily, deep fried, as curry, tandoored. In our Konkan Belt Curry (Little thick) is made with grinding coconut with handfuls of red chillis, plus jeera, dhania, tomatoes for taste, kokum and tamarind water, thereby assuring that the taste is both hot and sour. The gravy is boiled and the pomfret gentle immersed into it, taking care that it does not flake. Slowly the curry acquires the taste of the fish, and the fish acquires the taste of the curry. The pomfret curry is my favourite (and and surmai fish and yes Bangda Fish too).
Crabs the lunch home serves are curried, Rs.110, and tandoored, Rs.180. Each serving gets you a full crab, legs and claws flopping over the sides of the plate, or, if the crab is not big enough, two medium sized crabs. Give finishing touch with Kokum Curry or Filter Coffee.. WoW !!
Everything is incredibly fresh, but favorites include surmai fry, pomfret curry, and tandoori pomfret -- all outstanding. Must try the mouth watering prawns Koliwada, the crab tandoori, the pomfret in green masala, Mutton Sukka, or any of the fish curries, all first-rate.
On Ghas-Phus (Vegetarian) side must try the scrumptious NEER DOSA’s, (I have not tried personally but its one of recommended items), Can have Chinese, Mughlai, Ice-Creams, Filter Coffee etc etc
Next Holidays I will be trying out the kheema and mutton chops at Golconda, ABC farms (in Pune)..
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