Guru Sawant Malvan Katta Vimannagar — Restaurant in Pune

Konkani / Malvani food is a buzz word in Pune, many restaurants choose Malvani and specialist tag without bringing the authenticity of the flavours to plate. Guru Sawant's Malvan Katta breaks that jinx, they bring pure joy of malvani food without compromising the flavours and Spice to suit the metro crowd.

This branch at Viman Nagar happened to open on 21st November 2019 but the Karve road branch has been there forever.

Ambience

At the moment this is very new and not ready, its more of pre launch state, but they have kind of made it partly ready. Around 30-40 people can eat any time, its a bit cramped up but I guess once they are ready they will be ready.

Food

Sea food and Malvani cuisine has taken a big hit due to flood of food joints claiming the authenticity, Malvan Katta ensures that the foodies is not disappointed.

We tried the Kolambi Thali (Prawns Thali ) which included the fried prawns were subtle, not really a big fan. The Prawn masala in the thali was a flavour bomb. thick coconut gravy , stir fried prawns and the lemon steer in it made things gobble.

,Bangda Thali (Mackeral Thali) almost same with the Mackeral fried and a cocunt base gravy with a few cooked pieces that sounded pretty decent.

Surmai Fry : The King fish is like huge in size. The Manager recomended us to only go for a single one i.e. 1 per plate. But I wasnt disappointed. The flavours , texture and the cooking done was nice.

Solkadi : If you ever have a solkadi that is sweet you know you are been conned. Here solkadi is a treat. a small glass but a good one.

Other Dishes: The menu has a bunch of other Thali and fry options but unfortunatelly we took only one stomach with us. The next would be the clams, Sukat (dry fish)

Staff: The staff is courteous. The Manager is a Sawant himself, guessing a relative of the owner, walks to each table, seen giving good suggestions, found to be interactive. Staff is all boys but pretty quick.

Service Quick, Quiet quick as opposed to other restaurants.

Overall

Good experience. Worth a try.

Location: This is just beside a small lane beside Shakti Sports, named Kargin Nagar. The Restaurant is placed on the ground floor...

So, I'll rate the experience individually 4/5 is the overall rating.

*) Service 5/5 Very patient staff, very polite, gave us personal attention. They were genuinely interested in knowing our views on how they could improve. Excellent behaviour. A big thumbs up for the level of decency...we actually came here hoping of one vegetarian option which we then realized wasn't available.

NOW THIS IS A REVIEW OF A MANGALOREAN/ GOAN MIX PERSON EATING MALVANI FOOD FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. I've given ratings according to my tastebuds. Maybe they cooked phenomenonal Malvani food , the typical asal Malvani food...but in some parts it didn't suit me.

1. Ambience - 5/5 A quiet, beautiful, HYGIENIC place not much of a hassle even though it's so close to the main road. However it might be a little difficult to locate as it's inside. It's a sea food restaurant yet you won't find a single fly.

2)Food - 4/5 We ordered the following items

1. Bombil fry - 5/5 great taste, best item on the menu. Very very crispy and crunchy. No compromise on the taste. Optimum amount of spice which enabled both the taste of the fish and the malvani masala to blend in well.

2. Prawns fry - 3/5 Actually the shell from the tail part was still in it (I'm not sure if they (malvani's) keep it or not but mostly I prefer it removed). The salt was on the lesser side so we didn't really get that juicy taste of prawns.

3. Surmai 5/5 I've never enjoyed Surmai to that extent. Everything was excellent along with the salt.

4. Pomfret thali 2/5 Pomfret - 3/5 salt was good. By this time I felt that due to the coating batter being the same for each and every fish, those fishes that have a very delicate taste dies down. The original taste of pomfret wasn't really prominent, I could only taste the batter and hence didn't really feel that I'm eating something different than the other fishes.

All the kadi's (fish curry) including sol Kadi - 1/5

The curry...it just gave me the feel of the impending acidity on a whole new level. Floating oil, no thickness, and some masala that was both khata (slightly) and teekha. I...

A bit difficult to locate from the main road, it is just besides the Shakti sports lane, bang opposite yo VTP house. During peak hours parking your car will be a task. Ample parking for two wheeler though. It seems a small parking area is converted in to a hotel

For Lunch the restaurant is open from 11 Am to 2.45 Pm, last lunch order is taken by 2 PM. The menu is short sweet and to the point. Few dishes are available only on specific days.

The fish was fresh and tasty. We ordered 1 prawn thali, 1 surmai thali, 1 Pomfret thali and 1 Bombil fry! For 3 people it was morr than enough, we visited during lunch hour, service was fast, there was 1 manager, 1 serving guy and 1 person at the counter. Seating capacity is for 45-50 people at a time. The interior is pretty basic with white walls and big windows and glasses which makes the room feel big and airy.

First they brought Pomfret thali, then Prawn thali and then Surmai thali. Each thali had 1 big full and fresh fried piece of fish 🎏. A small bowl of chicken curry, another fish curry plate with one oiece of either bangda, surmai or prawn. One sukat chatni and one sukat dry, one onion and one bowl of Solkadi. Rice given with thali was NOT indrayani, which was a relief. I personally prefer normal rice with fish and not indrayani.

Cost of Pomfret thali was 600, surmai thali was 500 and prawn thali was 350. Bombil fry was 230, with close to 3-4 pieces.

For 3 people the bill was 1680 rupees. Service was quick and fast. Rice served was steaming. Every fish piece was properly fried or cooked, not more or less spicy. The spices used were to the point, just TO THE CLOSEST...