The one thing that distinguishes a great restaurant is the quality of food they prepare and serve.
Most of us would agree that it is the awesome food that matters when all the makeup (read ambience, fountains, allergic rhinitis causing perfume drenched stewards, lipstick dhari ‘how may i help you’, big massive paintings, extra cold air-conditioning, extra flabby lobby etc) is discounted.
It is also important to remember what Chef Gusteau famous motto was, “Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.”
Bombay Lucky restaurant is one such humble place, which serves pure non vegetarian cuisines that are a wonderful blend of Kerala and Mangalore style of cooking.
The 85 year old two floor restaurant is open from 0915 hrs to 2330 hrs on all days, with multiple members of the family running the three shifts with a set of dedicated stewards and cooks. There are two neatly maintained rest rooms (one Indian style and the other one western style).
Mr. Kumar, Sanjeev, Bhaskar, Prabhakar, Moieen and the elderly Mr. Sattar are some of the folks behind the industrial strength show. For many of them, this is the second or the third generation of the family member working in the same establishment.
The cutlery is always is always ceramic white, the hot beverages are always served in transparent glass and the drinking water is always warm to moderately hot.
With twice a day, fresh shipments of vegetables, chicken, mutton and eggs, the food served is always very fresh, the coconut in the gravy is fresh, not to speak of the soft melt in your mouth dum-style cooking of meat, till its tender. With the unique usage of Mangalore and Kerala spices, the food has a distinctive taste.
Since my 3.5 year old daughter cannot spices at all, we just order the chicken curry and then wash the chicken off the curry. It is so well cooked, that she can cut the chicken with a spoon and eat it all by herself.
Having visited this restaurant for more than 14 times, the new year eve visit being the 15th visit, i felt that the restaurant merited a review with photographs.
The stewards speak fluent Tulu, Konkani, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and a little hindi too. Even though we dont speak or understand any of the languages, the awesome food speaks for itself !
Did i mention the location ? Bombay Lucky Restaurant is located opposite to the Police station at Bunder, Mangalore.
Did i mention about the tea ? Well, this is one place in Mangalore, where you’ll milk tea (aka brick tea), lemon tea, black tea till 2330 hrs.
What about the bill ? Three plates of Mutton Korma, eight parathas and two cups of tea will cost your wallet exactly INR 197 only !
There is a world of difference between Korma and Curry !
