In a nutshell:

Very focussed tiny menu, some great meat curries that test ur CQ (chilli quotient).

Address & other details: Gulmandi

How to get there: When I was told ‘Just go to Gulmandi & ask for Maratha Hotel’, I was surprised. Gulmandi is a market place in Aurangabad. How is it possible to go to a market & ask for the shop? Anyway, with no better option we reached Gulmandi & asked three people in succession with a gap of 1-2 minutes & all of them actually knew it !!!! So I guess u too will have to take this Indian GPS route – ‘Bhai sahab, where is Maratha Hotel’?

This seemed to be a cult restaurant in that area.

Meal for 2: Rs. 150 onwards.

Cuisine Type: Nonvegetarian

Description:

The shop is small & there are simple basics chairs & tables. We went in the time of low traffic & hence got a table of six for two of us but in rush hours, six people sit in a table. So even if u do not know someone, he / she might be sharing the table with u.

There is no menu card. The menu is hand – written on a board hung on the wall. 4-5 items. Mutton curry, kaleja curry, dum biryani, tandoori roti, plain rice.

I found the service to be fast & the staff pretty warm. They are obviously not trained for serving in a restaurant. Good behaviour by the guests were being reciprocated by them.

We opted for Mutton curry & Kaleja curry. Hoped to order dum biryani post this if still hungry.

As mentioned above, the curries were a true test of ones CQ (Chilli quotient). I have had a lot of hot food but this one was real hot.

The Mutton curry was very hot & very spicy & was very very tasty. The gravy was thick & robust. I saw people in other tables reordering only ‘rassa’ – gravy to eat their rice or roti.

The pieces of mutton were tinier than u cud imagine (I guess to keep the costs down).The pieces were also not well cut. For the uninitiated, a large part of the taste & texture of mutton is dependent on how well it is cut. There is a science in doing this. Butchers in Delhi are very adept at this & seem to be one of the best among many cities I have been to, in India. However, inspite of that the pieces were super soft, melt in the mouth & very good to taste. Enjoyed it.

The kaleja (goat liver) curry was also super hot but it tasted completely different than the mutton curry. This was a bit more reddish in color. What was stunning is that the kaleja pieces were as soft as that of chicken!!!!! Loved this.

Post this, we were over full to try the biryani. Maybe next time.

With tears in our eyes (hot food), we left……………..kidding.

Must mention that thruout our stay in the restaurant we were sensing a stench nearby. After leaving the place we spotted a roadside urinal nearby that was contributing to the stench!!!!