In a nutshell:

Super interesting eatery with a super quirky name , super serious about the food they serve

Address & other details: second wife kitchen

Meal for 2: ₹100 onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian & non 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

When our friend Sanhita heard we were in Puri, she suggested that we try ‘handi mutton’ on the highway connecting Puri & Bhubaneswar. That sounded great. She did not name any restaurant though. So we asked our driver later in the day to take us to a place that serves handi mutton on the highway. He took us here.

I won’t say it was the best food ever had. Neither wud I say this was the best mutton dish I have ever had. However, would surely say it was a very honest effort at making great food without use of too much of excess oil or masalas on the face – it cud probably not be more home like than this, in a commercial kitchen – the meat Curries did not have an overkill of spices or oil, they were cooked with care & passion, they were tasty & hence the lunch made great memories.

Food at this restaurant was being cooked in wood fire on ovens that had been made by stacking bricks. The handi mutton which this restaurant is famous for, was cooked in metal pot & finished in large burnt clay pots called handi.

I asked the owner gentleman about the name – how do you come up with this. he said ‘it’s just a funny and quirky name which will attract people’s attention and it’s easy to remember.’

the eatery ceiling is made of thatched roof. The structure of the building is made of bamboo The furniture is basic, Spartan. There were handis hanging from the ceiling in different parts of the restaurant.

Water Was being served in Earthen cups that was disposable. Water was brought to the table in earthen jugs. water was machine filtered and we could see the machine on the floor of the restaurant.

In general the eating area as well

As the cooking area was very clean neat and clean.

We enjoyed our conversation with the owner as he appeared to be a food lover. He used to do a regular technology job in a big company earlier. A year and half back He decided to start this restaurant. His approach seems to be to To find good authentic recipes and also his family recipes to then to serve serious good food.

In a blackboard outside it was written ‘wastage of food for yesterday’ – Total weight of wastage is 11.6 kg. They monitor wastage over time & try to rework the portion size to reduce wastage.

They were celebrating with a cake of 100 kg food sold the previous day. Since we were the first customers, we got a slice of the cake too.

this is not a place to sit and chat or catch up with friends. we realised this midway to our meal when the place completely Got full and there was a queue of people who wanted to take away.

I don’t remember seeing a menu card because they came and explained the items on offer.

the food was excellent and absolutely loved it

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

The Papad we had at the beginning was deep fried, crisp. It had some spices & was a bit hot but not too much.

Kachumbar was simple, nice & home like

Crispy fried thinly sliced karela was excellent- perfect seasoning we repeat ordered this 4.5/5

Mixed vegetable curry with beans, tomato, potato etc. beaiuty of this dish is no spice powder / spice mix. No gravy, not deep fried . Slow cooked in low heat. One or two full spices.

Home like rate it 4.5/5

Dahi baingan very different from what us eaten in bengal the curd retained it’s texture & flavor much more reminded of pachidi outstanding rare it 4.75/5

Daal with saag was very good. Flavours if both daal & saag made their presence felt. Rate it 4.5/5

Daal mutton had small chunks of mutton & potato in it. Flavours of mutton had seeped in & co existed nicely with the flavours of daal 4.25/5

Handi mutton, the main ‘talk of the place’ was very good. It had super soft pieces of excellent texture & great taste mutton. Rate the mutton pieces 4.75/5

The gravy was almost home like, simple, yet flavorful. The flavour of spices slightly overpowered the flavours of the meat. Very good to taste. Rate it 4.25/5

Overall rating of the dish averages out to 4.5/5

Mutton liver kassa curry was outstanding- it was amount some of the finest mutton liver Curries I have had in a decade. Small pieces of mutton liver perfectly cooked. Flavours of both the spices & the liver was there. The best part was the tight dry gravy that stuck to the pieces – slow cooking magic. Rate it 4.75/5

Mutton keema kassa curry was excellent. Roughly chopped, big chunks of keema that made our day. So much better than the uniform , machine pressed , small , almost on the verge of losing texture, keema served in most average eateries these days. Rate it 4.5/5

Mutton jhola- thin gravy of mutton was excellent too. Simple, strong , thin, flavorful gravy of mutton with super soft mutton. Not many cuisines have such thin yet flavorful gravies. Rate it 4.5/5

For rice they had two choices – one par boiled & another aromatic, fine polished one. I loved the former.

Overall rating of food at second wife kitchen averages out to 4.5/5

Will surely look forward to revisiting, in our next trip to try the biryani that we missed this time.