Known to be specialists in seafood, orders involving anyother ingredients are taken down in a slightly disgruntled fashion by thewaiters at hand. The end product only justifies their dissent, as the freshseafood is simply scrumptious. Initiated as a part time project in 1992,Vandesh Tilve’s small scale venture has now garnered popularity to the point ofbeing the haunt of several established Marathi film actors.
Having ordered the ever popular fish curry rice, the waitingperiod that is associated with it is completely justified by its sheer quality.Cooked in a coconut based gravy, the preparation has a slightly denser qualitythan your average curry, and leaves a slightly tangy aftertaste that ispleasant to the palate. The perfect accompaniment to the same is none otherthan prawn fried in a rich and thick red masala. The prawn contains a level ofspice so high that it leaves you reaching for an ice cold beverage, andperfectly balances out the acidic pop of the aforementioned curry. As a sideorder, one can’t go wrong with chonak rawa fry. Lightly seared in a pan, thesecrumb-fried fillets of fish tease the taste buds and incite the need to ordermore of the same. The chicken xacuti, ordered merely to test the patience ofthe waiters at hand, while also designed to test the culinary nous of thechefs, proves to be satisfactory at best, while failing to match up to the barset by its sea-side counterparts.
All in all, from the ambience that leaves much to bedesired, to the food, which is world class, Tilve Bhojanalya is worth visitingfor its seafood, even though it is not along the coastal region by any stretchof the imagination.
