“The Konkan” – will keep you coming back for more!

Does the term Konkan food or coastal food excite you? When I hear it, it definitely excites me about the West Indian coastal food of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Here, however the main food is around the Mangalorean cuisine. I really get joyful about a particular dish – Ghee roast chicken! It was for the love of this dish and cravings to try it here that I went with a few blogger friends at this newly opened restaurant on St. Marks Road – “The Konkan”.

AMBIANCE

Located above K. C. Das, this is a pretty decent. A neat and simple place to dine at, not too fancy and not too big.

Here’s my eating experience:

BEVERAGES

Watermelon mint chilli: A drink which had no real watermelon fruit but artificial flavoring, was just alright. Can be better though.

Sol Kadi : This came in almost at the last but a good try. A mix of some ground spices and kokum gave a nice good kick!

STARTERS

Yerlio (silver fish) rava fry: Tiny silver fish, coated with semolina, spices and fried. A nice and simple one with good crunchy texture, but was more like finger food than a starter and a bit dry.

Bandas (Squid) butter garlic: I do not like squid as the texture was quite rubbery and unappealing in my last experiences elsewhere. Thankfully, this was was well made and did have some good flavors, loved the butter and garlic taste.

Bangda (mackerel) tawa fry: Looked very nice when presented. Tasted nice too and surprisingly was quite meaty. Good try!

Sunkta (Prawns) masala fry: Wow! A delicious coating of the Konkan red masala and tasty dish. I would love to try more of this.

Chicken ghee roast: The showstopper of the menu, highlight of the night and a must have item at the restaurant! A delicious and sinful dish to try! The masala was just finger looking good and heavenly as I had hoped for! The ones who’ve tried this, you know what I’m talking about. The others who’ve not tried yet, you gotta try to know!

Neer dosa: Although this was to be tried with a couple of curries from main course, we did try them with ghee roast chicken and prawns and were literally in heaven…such a great combo.

MAIN course

Kundapur chicken curry: A nice and flavorful curry with a coconut base. Did go well with neer dosa.

Fish curry: I believe the fish used was mackerel. This curry flavor was nice too but not spectacular. Had a teaspoon of this for taste and was nice with neer dosa and boiled rice.

DESSERTS

Ragi Manni: I’ve had this dish at another coastal restaurant and loved it but had a memory of it to be rich in texture with ghee and nuts.

Here, the dessert was presented well..almost like a caramel custard. It was pretty simple, tasty and healthy dessert which is great but lacked richness.

I was told this is not made the way I had expected it to and it is supposedly a simple dish made with only 3 ingredients with no ghee, nuts etc. I was surprised and maybe it’s true but internet tells me that it can be made in various ways according to people’s liking. Go for this healthy dessert, good try!

Moong dal halwa: This was disappointing. It really had no great taste, colour, richness or flavor. A forgettable dish.

Overall, my dining experience was pretty good trying some tasty dishes. Oddly though, some of the seafood items which a coastal restaurant has to have were unavailable. Maybe because they’re just about a month old?

The service can get a bit slow and needs improvement..especially, when the restaurant might’ve too many diners..but I’m sure they’ll get there.

Go ahead, give it a try! I’d love to come back to try more of seafood and that sinful ghee roast chicken with delicate neer dosa for sure!