Last weekend some half a dozen of us landed at the Goa Niwas in Chanakyapuri. It is the version 2.0 of Goa Bhawan, and houses Viva o Viva (not that I found this name written anywhere, but if the Chef says it is the name, so must be the name!), a Goan eatery. Being the first bright sunny day after couple of cold, dreary weeks, the prominent light green of the décor added a bright spark to the ambiance.
From then on things started going downhill. We had a booking at 12:30 which was confirmed by the chef himself, but he was missing. The waiter attending to us had no idea about the dishes on the menu beyond ‘red curry’ ‘green curry’ descriptions, and for, good measure, added that some of them can only be cooked when the chef was there! To kill time till the chef arrived to take charge of the kitchen, we ordered Fish Rawa Fry and Mackerel Recheado. The vegetarians ordered the Soup of the Day. We also asked for some coconut water and fresh lime sodas. The coconut water had a weird savory taste which prompted me to ask for the source; I was shown a plastic bottle in the fridge. Serving sizes varied from half a glass to overflowing. The soup we were told was available wasn’t served, and then we were served a dish that we had been informed wasn’t available.
By this time the chef arrived and informed us that he just came after buying fish from the the market. Things started to look up from then on. The Rawa Fish Fry had perfectly crisp coating, and the Mackerel Recheado with typical chilli and vinegar masala wasn’t bad either. Our main course consisted of Chicken Xacuti, Fish Ambot Tik (literally ‘sour hot’) and king fish curry. The Last one was my choice, just in case the ‘tik’ in Fish Ambot Tik was too much for me to handle. I was impressed by use of Kokum rather than some bottled Kokum juice in Ambot Tik. We accompanied our main course with basmati rice and some really fluffy paos. There was a standard vegetarian Thali, which I was told was fairly edible. While we were finishing our meal, we ordered Prawn Peri Peri on a special recommendation from the chef, but I am not sure what the fuss was about. All seafood was fresh enough that even with three vegetarians amongst us, no one complained of ‘fishy’ smell, which is saying a lot for seafood in Delhi.
For desserts we ordered everything on the menu; I tasted the Dodol and Bebinca. I loved the Dodol’s strong jaggery flavor, and the Bebinca wasn’t too bad either (since I did not like bebinca at couple of places I had tried it in Goa, I am not sure if it is the authentic versions that I don’t like!). Coconut pancake, actually a coconut roll, along with chocolate pudding and fruit custard were not anything special, but nice enough to be fully consumed.
This three course meal cost us Rs. 500 per head.
Ed: Front page photo is from Wikipedia.
Viva o Viva
Last weekend some half a dozen of us landed at Goa Niwas in Chanakyapuri. It is the version 2.0 of Goa
Bhawan, and houses Viva o Viva (not that I found this name written anywhere, but if the Chef says it is
the name, so must be the name!), a Goan eatery. Being the first bright sunny day after couple of cold,
dreary weeks, the prominent light green of the décor added a bright spark to the place.
From then on things started going downhill. We had a booking at 12:30 which was confirmed by the
chef himself, but he was missing. Waiter attending to us had no idea about the dishes on the menu
beyond ‘red curry’ ‘green curry’ descriptions, and for, good measure, added that some of them can only
be cooked when the chef is there! To kill time, till the chef arrived to take charge of the kitchen, we
ordered fish rawa fry and mackerel reichado. The vegetarians ordered ‘soup of the day’. We also asked
for some coconut water and fresh lime sodas. Coconut water had a weird savory taste (got me to ask
for the source, and I was shown a plastic bottle in the fridge), and serving sizes varied from half a glass
to overflowing. Soup that we were told wasn’t served, and we were served something that we had just
been informed wasn’t available.
By this time the chef arrived and stated that he just came after buying fish from the the market. Things
started to look up from then on. Rawa fish fry had perfectly crisp coating, and mackerel reichado with
typical chilli and vinegar masala wasn’t bad either. Our main course consisted of chicken xacuti, fish
ambot tik (literally ‘sour hot’) and king fish curry. Last one was my choice, just in case the ‘tik’ in fish
ambot tik was too much for me to handle. I was impressed by use of kokum rather than some bottled
kokum juice in ambot tik. We had our main course with bastmati rice () and really fluffy paavs (). There
was a standard vegetarian Thali, which I was told was fairly edible. While we were finishing our meal,
we also ordered prawn peri peri on special recommendation of the chef, but I am not sure what the
fuss was about. All seafood was fresh enough that even with three vegetarians amongst us, no one
complained of ‘fishy’ smell, which is saying a lot for seafood in Delhi.
For desserts we ordered everything on the menu – I tasted the dodol and bebinca. I loved the dodol’s
strong jaggery flavor, and the bebinca wasn’t too bad either (since I did not like bebinca at couple
of places I had tried it in Goa, I am not sure if it is the authentic versions that I don’t like!). Coconut
pancake, actually a coconut roll, along with chocolate pudding and fruit custard were not anything
special, but decent enough to be fully consumed.
Three course meal for cost us Rs. 500 per head.
