BHARATI PAWASKAR
The ‘Kitchen on Top’ threw open its doors for the foodies in Goa in October 2018 serving North Indian cuisine, marinated and cooked the way it is done in North India. Opened by two partners, Puneet Chandva and Yudhik Guglani, it is their first restaurant in the state.
Puneet, a passionate domestic chef, avid traveler and a foodie joined hands with Yudhik, a marketing expert with over five years’ experience in customer relationship, to venture into the food business and offer one of the best mouth-watering North Indian food to Goans.
Everything about this restaurant is different. No two chairs at one table are similar. Every table and sitting arrangement is different. There are wooden chairs, swings and sofas and one can choose where he or she wants to sit and have their meals. In an open corner, there’s a special kids zone where children, under the supervision of trained staff, can play or be entertained by colourful books during their meal.
The menu card has an array of items with fun-witty names. Dabbewali is the tiffin service that’s available from 12 noon to 2.45 pm offering food items like Fishwali Bai, Marvellous Shanghai, Italian Mafia Mela, Awara Pagal Chicken and Kakke di Hatti. The food of your choice will be served to you at your doorstep.
Chef Prasad leads a team 14 cooks specialising in cusines like Continental, Chinese and Indian.
“Our Parathas are special and a must taste item on our menu,” vouches Yudhik.
Parathe walee gali section serves fish paratha, chicken wiken, Sukhdev ke Jalwe, Mulchand wale, Funde wala Anda and Amritsari Chur Chur. While, Pani Kum soups serves items like Mera Manchow which is classic Manchurian soup with loads of chaska fried noodles in veg, chicken or prawns.
Murg Meatball Shorba is Lahor chicken, clear soup enriched with whole spices and Indian herbs with chicken meatballs. Then there is Chakana, Delhi style salad Kachumber, Chatpata meaning boiled chana tossed with chaat masala, mixed with hand crushed chana-jor-garam served in iceberg cups with Peri Peri Mayo and Peri Peri Papad (veg). Sweet Corn Wala is the classic traditional Chinese sweet corn soup available in veg and chicken variety.
The restaurant has a sitting capacity of 80-100 and is now becoming popular as a party place for the foodies. In fact, on the opening the restaurant played host to a birthday party with the guest enjoying a variety of delicious food. Till now, the restaurant has hosted around 40 parties.
In the evenings, the Bao machine offers steam buns wrapped with wok tossed flavours of crispy oyster mushrooms, schezwan tempura vegetables, sesame chilli plum chicken, sweet and sour prawns. The The Dim Sum machine serves steamed starch parcels filled with Chinese herbs and flavours, prawns, Pak Choi, spicy chicken and green vegetables.
The Mughal Khansama section serves Kakkori Kebab, Murg Malai tikkas, Jamaican tangadi, Bharwa aloo, Arabic shawarma, Prawns barbecued with chef curated dips and Laccha salad.
One of their popular dish in this section is Mussalamm (which means whole chicken). “A whole chicken is marinated, stuffed with eggs, prepared with spices like saffron, cinnamon, cloves, poppy seeds, cardamom, chilli, almonds and silver leaves. It is considered a gourmet dish. And for vegetarians there is Jodha Mahal - a pure vegetarian treat from Jodhabai, Kali mirch patthar ke paneer, Mexican Bharwa Aloo, Cajun Paneer, Malai Broccoli and Haddippa mushroom tikkas one can choose from,” adds Yudhik.
The restaurant is doing good business and attracting food lovers from across the state. It has tiffin service which are delivered through Zomato. Customers can choose fish, chicken, veg tiffin.
The restaurant wants to focus on North Indian cuisine. “We wish to serve the North Indian food for specific reasons “ because there is no place in Goa that serves authentic North Indian food with typical spices and flavour. We cannot compete with authentic Goan fish-curry-rice, and there are already too many that offer that. We wish to maintain our speciality,” admits Yudhik.
Chote Chutkule section serves food items like Kukudu ku- American style spicy buffalo chicken wings flambeed with brandy, Kolkatta Kathi Roll Paneer (chicken) which is a flanky tawa paratha wraped with succulent tikka, onion pepper masala, served with laccha salad and chutney. Tandoori Momos (veg and chicken), Cajun fish fingers, Rock n Rolled (paneer and chicken), Hot cups, Curcure chicken, Caribbean golgappe, Chulbul Brandy tacos chicken, Asian stir fried, Zing Zing Zingat, Singaporean chilli crabs, Green garlic soups and Mongolian barbecued lollypop.
The Kebab Factory section serves Cajun Paneer, Tiger Zinda hai, Indonesian Char grilled chicken, Soya chaap tandoori, Bangkok Streets satay jiva grilled fish, paneer seekh kebab, five Eshtar Tikka, 1925’s Kakkori matter, Chefs Morocco Affair, Nanachi Tang Lapeta chicken, Tikkhan chicken, Sikamouri Kebabs, Malai bro, the 4th of July barbecue, Bharwan aloo, Charmoula grilled crabs and Haddipa mushrooms.
‘Kitchen on Top’ is open on all days except Tuesday. Yudhik reasons, “As most restaurants that serve non-veg, are not open on Monday in Margao, we kept ours open. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are packed and we do not entertain reservation calls after 8.30 pm. And, we see to it that none of our customer have to wait for more than 15 minutes.”
The restaurant plans to have more branches in Goa in the future.
