Tomba Kitchen (Manipuri Cuisine) — Restaurant in Bengaluru

"Authentic, Unique, Polite Staff, and Moderately Priced."

Food: This place serves authentic North-East Indian (Manipuri) cuisine. The food is quite unique, that's for sure. There are a few elements of Naga cuisine here as well! We ordered Shrimp Fry, Pork Sausage, Ngari and Uarok, Smoked Pork Bamboo Shoot Thali, and Fish Thali. We also did try their Tharoi Thongba.

Smoked Pork Bamboo Shoot Thali: Comes with Eromba (Fermented Dry Fish and Mashed Vegetables), Shingju (Salad), Uti Thongba (Green Peas Curry), and Chamthong (Stew). The pork however was full of fat which was a little disappointing. Eromba isn't for everyone either. It is a bit spicy and the fermented taste could be difficult to get used to for certain people. Uti Thongba is a very pleasant green peas curry, quite tasty! Shingju is like any other salad but a bit spicy. Chamthong is basically a vegetable stew, quite subtle in flavour.

Ngari and Uarok is basically Fermented Dry Fish and King Chilli Pickle. It is the spiciest thing I have ever eaten. King Chilli is also called Ghost Pepper and is at the top in terms of hotness by Scoville Heat Units (SHU). It tasted very weird to me and couldn't complete it at all!

Shrimp (Khazing) Fry was difficult to eat because we had to remove all the inedible parts of the shrimps by ourselves.

Tharoi Thongba is basically snail curry (and snails tasted a bit like clams to me) and I didn't really find it very enjoyable. It was unique and interesting certainly but not something very delectable.

Ambience: Very simple, nothing fancy. Quite a chill place. However, the area around the restaurant is quite dirty.

Service: Polite staff but quite slow in service!

Price: Moderately priced.

Summary: If you would like to try some authentic North-East Indian food (Manipuri, Naga cuisines), go...

This is one of the rarest places in Bangalore serving authentic manipuri style food. I had ordered: Smoked pork thali: which came with rice, singju (a salad), a few other sides including Eromba (made from fermented fish and was very spicy), a comforting soup and a bowl full of smoked pork curry. All the dishes were new to me, very flavourful. They were given in very good quantities. Almost felt like one thali can be shared by two light eaters. Chilli pork: tasted similar to the normal chilli chicken that we have, only that chicken was replaced by pork. Was tasty and the quantity was also enough. Can't complain much. Pork noodles: again, similar to any hakka noodles available, only that pork was added to it. This was also good in taste and enough for one person. Passion fruit and strawberry orange mocktails: both were good and refreshing to have. I also ordered the following for takeaway. Tharoi: snail curry. It was definitely a new thing for me. But not very impressed with it. Though the quantity was huge. Smoked pork curry: similar to the one in the thali. Flavorful and a little spicy. Some pork pieces were chewy while some were soft.

The service is not bad. The lady who served us knew the ingredients and everything very well and explained me about them because I was a newbie.

Prices were definitely economical.

The place is a little small though. Not sure how they manage crowds at peak hours.

Overall, if you think about trying authentic manipuri cuisine, this place...

I frequently order from this restaurant online because the food is authentic and delicious. It’s one of the best places for North East cuisine. I’ve visited the restaurant twice. On my first visit, there was a young girl serving who had some communication difficulties, but she managed to understand my order, and I had a pleasant experience.

However, my recent visit on November 6th didn’t go as well. Since I was nearby, I decided to stop by and ordered the same thali as before. I mentioned that I had a meeting soon and requested quick service. Despite this, I ended up waiting for 41minutes. When I inquired, the staff brought out the food packed for takeaway, assuming I was there to pick it up. I explained that I wanted to eat in, but it felt like there was a communication gap. I also noticed that the staff seemed surprised to see me dining alone, which is normal for me as I often grab meals alone during office breaks.

And also staff’s attitude was disappointing. They seemed unfriendly, with no smile or warmth, almost as if I was an inconvenience. I always try to be friendly with restaurant staff, so it was discouraging to see that courtesy wasn’t reciprocated.

The food is still great, but the service and communication need improvement. I hope the restaurant can work on these areas to make the dine-in experience as enjoyable as the...