Casa Bhonsle Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Goa

Cafe Bhonsle bar and restaurant is a place to visit if you want to taste a fish thali and enjoy nearly authentic Goan fish thali.

Now, I have eaten fish thali/plate in Vasco, Madgaon/Margao, Panjim, Pallolem, etc and I have concluded that the restaurants which target tourists and upscale clientele as their main customers are more focussed on the appearance of the thali, the ambience of the restaurant and the service than the actual taste of the fish curry.

Consequently, the fish curry tastes nearly the same across these restaurants with the slight variation in piquancy.

And, when I compared Cafe Bhonsle with two other fish thali restaurants in Panjim city, I found that Cafe Bhonsle is much better in terms of food taste than the other two.

Of course, the service and ambience are good.

One has a choice of fishes in curry and fried dishes.

Also, liqueur is served here, an added bonus for people who enjoy a drink with their meals.

I would recommend Cafe Bhonsle for the following reasons:

1 - Fish Thali is good and nearly authentic tasting as it can get outside a Goan home.

2 - The ambience is very nice.

3 - The service is good and prompt. The waiters are friendly and offer suggestions if a client (a first time visitor, maybe) is having difficulty in choosing a dish.

Disabled friendly?: No. The restaurant is on the first floor with only stairs leading to the restaurant.

Added bonus: This business has two parts. The ground floor has a vegetarian restaurant and the first floor is the bar and restaurant serving both vegetarian and...

Since it was our last day in Goa, I had already explored many great restaurants in and around North Goa. This one had nice reviews hence we gave it a try. We reached around 2pm. We immediately got a table, but we had to wait almost 15mins for someone to come and serve us water. We tried calling them to take our order but they were on a complete ignore mode. someone would come in between, fully distracted and would rush off before taking orders. It's really frustrating when a waiter runs away without taking orders. Finally someone showed the mercy to take our orders, and when we tried to order fish thali, he said it got over since we were late. All that time waiting in the restaurant won't make a difference 😅. Finally we ordered rice separately with Kingfish masala, mackerel masala and rawa fry and prawns curry. Mackerel was ok.kingfish was good. Prawns curry was mediocre. One thing refreshing was the lime juice with soda. I personally don't like soda, so I told my waiter to bring one without soda. He was so confused and brought 5 lime with soda for 4 of us. 😁. That sums up...

This place is famous for its breakfast and snacks items rather than lunch. But I believe the localities will love their taste more than the tourists. Sukhi bhaji, mushroom bhaji, patal bhaji, halsane, or mix of any of the two bhaji (normally sukhi bhaji + any of the other) with undo or pav is famous. If you are a fan of Puri you can order even that. Sukhi bhaji is non spicy potato bhaji and halsane is a sister of rajma. Goan samosa - flat form of less spicy samosa with white coconut chutney is yummy ! Apart from these the lunch items are also fairly good. During evening there is normally waiting time. And if someone waiting sees an empty space on your table they'll simply join you on your table. No offence to be taken. It's normal. The quality has been the same since the time I first came as a toddler. My earliest memories include my mother feeding me smashed potatoes of the sukhi bhaji. The snacks items are quite cheap. The lunch items are decently priced with quantity of the dishes...