Restaurant Review : Banjara Melting Pot , Bangalore

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“I only give expressions to the instincts from my soul”

MF Hussain

Located in the erstwhile Bengaluru home of renowned artist , MF Hussain , the Banjara Melting Pot, is a coastal and seafood cuisine venture of city-based hospitality group , that also operates Goldfinch Hotel. This make me even more nostalgic , as I had met the artist once , and took his autograph during his visit to Taj Bengal at Kolkata , long time ago.

The place still retains the vivid memories of its illustrious owner, that include his picture, some of his paintings print, the old tree , the red letter box painted by the art maestro himself, along with the original exposed brick exteriors . A perfect tribute to the ex-owner , I felt !

THE NEW MENU

Recently ,Banjara Melting Pot , has unveiled their new menu, curated by the Chef Venkat , a Sous Chef with Goldfinch Hotel Bengaluru, a native of Mangalore who expertise in coastal delicacies.He has been associated with this group (MRG) for almost a decade now.

“The new menu has an interesting mix of coastal cuisine , dishes from northern India and the signature delicacies from the Banjara Melting Pot kitchens.“

Seasoned Buttermilk (above)

We had some interesting hot semi-thick soups offerings, like the Palak ka Tulsi Shorba , seemingly nutritiously with strong spinach flavours and the Lemon coriander soup ,with a consistency and flavours to my liking and with abundance of shredded chicken. Accompanied them were the two salads, the Garden Green Salad, my all time favourite with no dressings and the popular cold Russian salad.

Garden Green Salad and Russian Salad (above)

Some of the choicest starters were served to us from their menu like Paneer Ke Shikanje , delectable marinated cottage cheese cubes and baked in earthen tandoors , the Hara Bhara Kabab, absolute favourites among vegetarians with seasoned minced vegetable patties shallow fried till done.

Paneer ke Shikanje (above) and Hara bhara Kabab (below)

The spectacular arrival of the Chicken Angaray , the succulent chicken chunks with marinated with Indian spices,along with the mangalorean Prawn Ghee roast, the anjal tava fry and the pomfret masala that we savoured with the neer dosa , all made our evening.

Chicken Angare (above)

Chicken Ghee roast (above)

No manglorean meal is complete without Neer Dosa (above)

Chicken Pepper Fry (above)

Upon humble insistence from the Chef, we also tried some of the mains ,that included the delectable Kundapur Chicken from Mangalore , the perfect madras chilli tempered Dal Tadka , not so dilli Butter chicken , Palguni subzi , a grounded leafy vegetable (saag) dish and Bhuna gosht from the undivided northern India.

Dal Tadka ( above) and array of mains & Indian breads (below)

The new menu also has some great desserts, the Kulfis in two flavour, saffron and badam , juicy khoya laden Gulab jamuns made in-house, Moong Dal Halwa from the my very own state Rajasthan, and grilled pineapple with ice cream.

Kulfis, Gulab Jamun ,grilled pineapple with ice cream & caramel custard(L to R , clockwise)

VERDICT

As the place is known more for its coastal delicacies , we were very keen to try them and we were delighted with the experience here. With Chef hailing from Mangalore , the coastal dishes had that advantage of essentially local flavours. The starters , too are worth trying here. However some of the north Indian mains were lacking the authentic taste and were more reminiscent of the southern palate.For those who love desserts, the Kulfis , Gulab Jamun and the halwas , both carrot and Moong Dal really impressed me. To summarise , the place is highly recommended for the coastal offerings and Indian desserts.