As working professionals, we have always searched for an eating joint that can provide us with clean, healthy and yet tasty food. My long search for such a place ended the day we walked into Mast Kalandar, a restaurant on Bannerghata road. Mast Kalandar is a vegetarian restaurant which serves north Indian cuisine (essentially the entire north of the Vindhyas and not just Punjab). Though the cheerful ambience of the restaurant was quite relaxing we were not ready to be easily impressed.
As me and my friends entered we saw that the menu card was certainly different – the names of the Parrantha and rice combos like Fully Loaded Mix Veggie, Pickeld Paneer, Give Me Green, Biryani with a Twist or Balle Balle Pindi Cholle, were strictly imaginative and tempting – thankfully nothing like the Shahi’s and Kadhai’s available at many other places – Ugh! Just the name reminds you of the ounces you are going to gain after you have them.
When we read no added colors or flavors written on the Menu, it made me give another cynical smile - another tall claim. Can a restaurant ever survive without colors? We thought. Putting our cynicism aside we set out to appease our growling stomachs and to begin with we decided to experiment with Aam ka panna - a Rajasthani drink made from the juice of raw mangoes with some spices. Our first pick at Mast turned out to be quite good – ah! It was refreshing and we loved it. Next was the main course – Having hogged on rich and oily food for several weeks the word healthy and low Cal on the menu caught our attention – maybe having something green and with low calories would help us feel a little better. We did not expect the food to be tasty – well when did ever health go with taste – but anyway for a change we were prepared to make that compromise for the sake of ourselves. My friend ordered a “Give me green” Parrantha Combo supposedly very healthy as per the Menu. I decided to go for Low cal Palak Mushroom Corn curry combo served with Dal Tadka and Tandoori rotis. I was almost 100% sure that the green palak curry would bust Mast Kalandar’s claim of, “No added colors”. But to my disappointment, my cynicism received a major set back when I saw my platter, the palak curry did not look crispy green in color as at other places - it looked exactly like the one I cooked at home.
The food was really good, the thought of having a Parrantha had seemed scary sometime ago but when we saw the Parrantha was not dripping butter like the usual ones you get at other places we felt a lot better. My Palak Corn was tasty and without too many spices – and thankfully no garam masala which is a regular for every dish in every restaurant. The Dal tadka was exactly that – boiled dal and on that jeera tadka – Oh! it was nice to have such simple and light food. My friends“Give me Green” parranthas he claims is the best he has had till date. Believe us when we say that the food was far more tempting than the menu – the restaurant’s parrantha combos are to die for.
One look at the food served at Mast Kalandar and you know it has been cooked with a lot of care to ensure there is no compromise with your health or your taste buds – you won’t see any oil floating on the top of your curries, you don’t taste excess of masala’s, or you don’t see butter or ghee dripping off your paranthas. I always felt that healthy and tasty can never co-exist – well they definitely do at Mast Kalandar.
The best thing about the place other than its ambience and warm and smiling service - is the quality of food. Once you eat here you realize the quality of ingredients like oil, flour, freshness of vegetables, masalas etc. have not been compromised with. Everything seems to be freshly cooked and served. Another thing that we loved about Mast Kalandar is the combo system and the price factor. The platters are a complete meal for a single person, even when alone you can come and eat here without worrying about wasting food and priced at Rs. 50 – Rs.80 the combos are easy on your pockets.
For all of you dear friends who have been struggling to find a decent and healthy place to eat to your stomach’s content, here is another good news, Mast Kalandar is opening its branches in Kormangala and CMH road by next week – so walk in to enjoy a tasty and healthy eating out experience. Mind you, it might just change the way you eat it out!