Matsya (Motilal nagar 2, near Datta mandir, off Link Road, bangur nagar signal, MG Road, Goregaon West, mumbai)

In a NUtshell:One of the few restaurants that serve delicious Saraswat seafood cuisine, great service and good ambience

Address & other details: Matsya

Meal for 2: ₹400 onwards

Cuisine type : non vegetarian and vegetarian

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I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster

Short description- in case u r in a hurry:

We heard about Saraswat Brahmin cuisine when we first came to mumbai two years back but could not find a place which serves this cuisine. Later when we went for a trip, we searched a lot but cud not lay our hands on this food in Goa as well.

And then all of a sudden we came across this restaurant in a post by the mumbai specialist food blog finely chopped. Wow. Decided to go to this restaurant for lunch on a Sunday – must mention, this is 30 km one way from our house ( nothing much by delhi standards but it’s like crossing two continents in mumbai).

The visit was surely worth it.

On the menu card There are regular maharashtrian seafood items as well as Saraswat menu. We tried a lot of different items here. Except one item all were from the Saraswat cuisine, including the dessert.

The menu card was a 4 pager with detailed description of the dishes.
Service was excellent. The gentleman who took food order from us kept coming back and made us feel absolutely at home.
Interiors were simple and nice. Very well maintained, neAt and clean.
Loved the food. Memorable it was.
Detailed description- in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

Kokum – as we waited for our food after placing an order, they served us kokum sharbat, on the house. It was Intense & robust, had an enjoyable tangy feeling. fresh chopped green chilies gave a twist and a very enjoyable hot aftertaste. Unique. Rate it 4.75/5

The first dish that came was dalitoy – dal made the Saraswat way. Marvellous I Wud say. If u r in the mood to eat a rich gheesome dal like daal Bukhara, this will disappoint u. This one is a very very very simple , home like daal , totally unexpected in a restaurant. Simple daal tempered with curry leaves and basic spices. Spices not on the face. Rate it 4.5/5.

The next dish we had was potato saung. This was also a simple home like dish – aloo ki subzi with Saraswat masalas. The aloo was boiled and made into a curry. This dish was much more spicier and hotter than the dal but still seemed home like. The potato pieces were mid sized and hence the balance of potato and gravy in each bite was optimum. We super loved the texture and the flavour of the aloo. Rate it 4.25/5

Third dish that we had stuffed bombil from the regular menu. It was brilliant- thin slices of bombil wrapped around a green masala prawns and batter fried. The batter frying sealed the fish and prawns and hence the juices were retained inside, leading to the dish being super juicy and flavourful. Fish was melt in the mouth, flaky and excellent to taste. We hv had dishes with the same name in the past but this one stood out. Rate it 4.5/5

We next had surmai pedawan . It takes 15 -20 minutes after ordering. Surmai was marinated, wrapped in a banana leaf, cooked and served in that. The uniqueness of this dish was addition of triphala and turmeric leaf. This combo gave the dish a completely different spin to ‘fish in a banana leaf.’ The color of the fish was fiery red but it was like ‘more show and less action’. The red paste Tasted excellent. It was slightly hot. The fish being covered from all sides, was juicy and flaky. Loved the dish and RAte it 4.5/5

We also had mori ambat. Mori is a longish cylindrical shaped fish. Ambat Gravy again was very different from the rest. It was a coconut based gravy. Fish itself was soft and juicy. Gravy was so good that we ended up having it just like that. Rate it 4.5/5

We next had crab sukke. A crab preparation that completely stood out. The legs were served separately and the body made into two. Brilliant crab meat, as fresh and YUMM it cud get. The gravy had coconut milk, coconut grated and spices in it. By the time we ate this dish we were almost full. So since we did not have space left for breads, we had this amazing gravy just as it is. Rate it 4.75/5

We had all this with rice Bhakri and neer dosa.

Neer dosa was slightly thicker than the plain white super thin version that is served in most places. It had a strong fermented flavour. The edges were a bit burned and we liked it. Rate it 4.5/5

Masala buttermilk was very good – had optimum spices. Rate it 4.5/5

We also tried masala soda with guava flavour. Good strong aerated drink with strong guava flavour. Totally unexpected for me. Loved it for the perfect balance of sweet sour salt