Gajalee — Restaurant in Mumbai

Gajalee – a seafood speciality restaurant that serves the best fish and crab in town. It has various branches across Mumbai. We visited the one situated at Vile Parle (East). The ambiance of the place gives a typical goan style feel and polite staff adds to the experience. The hotel has a special bib with a photo of crab painted on it that is fascinating and useful while eating crab or lobster, since while breaking the crab with a hammer, it can spill on your clothes.

After settling down at our table, the Captain asked us for our food preference for the dinner, as accordingly he shall show us the variety of fishes available with them. We informed that we would like to have a Lobster and fish for starters. After sometime, the waiter brought different variety of fishes, such as Pomfret, Surmai, Prawns, Lobster and the best part was live crab. We get to first see the fish for its size and if its fresh, and then we can select any one out of the lot. We decided to have the tandoori lobster and fried stuffed pomfret fish.

In the meantime, we ordered the Chicken Clear soup, which was quite tasty and had lots of chunks of chicken in it. We also tried the Bombil fry, which you should definitely try if you visit this restaurant.

The tandoori lobster was cooked in a red sauce, with the head of the lobster still intact. The lobster was cooked through properly, thus making it very easy to peel off the exterior skin. The lobster was soft & tender and tasted really good with the green chutney, which is a speciality of the restaurant. The fried stuffed pomfret was covered on top with a green masala and stuffed with the green chutney. It went really well with the Fish.

In mains, we had the Special Surmai Curry and Chicken biryani. The surmai curry reminded me of the konkan food, it had that specific smell and taste to it and tasted great with a Hot Chapati. The Chicken biryani was a gamble we took since, its a seafood speciality restaurant, but the gamble paid of big time. The biryani was really tasty, since proper dum was given to it and it did not require any curry alongwith it, since the masala of the biryani itself was quite enough.

A must visit place for all seafood lovers.

Note:

1. Cost for 2 people - ₹2000 - ₹3000.

2. The place is generally crowded on weekends, so a waiting time of 15 – 20...

I recently dined at Gajalee restaurant for lunch and had a mixed experience that left me with a few impressions, both positive and negative.

To start with the positives, the appetizers were the highlight of the meal. The fried prawns, bombil fry, and tandoori fry were exceptionally delicious. Each dish was well-cooked, flavorful, and provided a delightful start to our lunch. These items alone made the dining experience somewhat redeemable.

However, the rest of the experience fell short of expectations. Upon presenting the bill, we were informed that the card machine was not working, and the staff requested payment through Google Pay. While this isn't a major inconvenience, it did raise some concerns about the transparency of the transaction. The name on the Google Pay account, "Kishan Kumar Bidhae," added an unexpected and somewhat unprofessional element to the payment process.

Another hiccup occurred when we received fish curry instead of the ordered chicken curry. Although the mistake was promptly rectified after bringing it to the staff's attention, it did contribute to the overall disappointment in the service. Such errors can be forgivable if handled efficiently, but they did impact our dining experience.

The most significant letdown was the slow service. Despite a relatively empty restaurant, the waitstaff seemed overwhelmed or disorganized, resulting in delays in taking orders and serving dishes. This significantly affected the overall flow of the meal and left a lasting impression of frustration.

In conclusion, Gajalee restaurant offers a mix of flavors, with some standout dishes like the fried prawns, bombil fry, Stuffed pomfret fry and tandoori fry. However, the issues with payment processing, wrong orders, and notably slow service detracted from the overall dining experience. The restaurant has the potential to shine with improvements in service efficiency and...

A great place for fish lovers.Vallet parking is available here.There is a lot of waiting place here.I was there with my family.We waited for about 15 minutes on a Sunday afternoon.We opted for thali option.Only Surmai & Paplet(pomfret) Thalis were available.Bangda & Rawas Thalis were not available.(these are served only as a meal=take away, option)Thali serves generous piece of fish in gravy(kalvan).Surmai & Paplet (full fish,small to medium size) were excellently cooked.Fresh to the core.But strangely we got bombil fry in both the thalis.That is the way, it is here.If you want to have fish fry, you can order extra.a La Carte.bombil fry was excellent.We also had a chicken thali.It had a thick gravy and it was with bones(bones are always...healthy !) Thalis are served with 3 chapatis or (Tandalachi) Bhakri.We tried Mutton masala.It was great in taste.Dish had 4 generous Mutton pieces.2 were tender and 2 were not.but it was well cooked.Thalis are served with ample size plain rice and sol kadhi.Super factor was chutney made from ginger+garlic+raw mango. Chicken tikha was without colour (healthy.....) and well roasted 6-7 tender pieces. Rates are great.But what matters is quality of food.So quality comes here with an extra cost. Service is lightening fast. We preferred non ac section.The whole restaurant can be classified into 3 cozy sections.AC, non AC lower and non AC upper section.we were located in upper section. Even though temp was soaring outside,it was fine inside non AC upper section. Restaurant has variety of Crab tandoori dishes.It seems worth trying once . I am ready to burn one more hole to my pocket,again, some day soon. PS: it has a desert counter at the entrance of the restaurant.Mainly contains...