In a nutshell:
We were blown over by his old Bangalore food, garnished with his stories & the stunning venue of ‘we the chefs’ experience center. We loved the food so much that we ordered a portion of the same food again the next day!!
Address & other details:
Instagram – Kalyan Gopalakrishna
Facebook – Kalyan Gopalakrishna
Google –
Phone for reservations / enquiries at we the chef: +91880988490
Meal for 2: ₹5500
Cuisine type : vegetarian & non vegetarian
Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.
YUMMRAJ rates all the food items & then gives 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
Ever since we had a fabulous meal at a pop up by Prima Kurien, at ‘We the Chefs’ experience center, we have been getting selected updates on special pop ups. Few of such pop ups were on days when we were travelling & we had to reluctantly give them a miss. And then this unique one popped up in my WhatsApp inbox – Gems of Old Bangalore Naati Cuisine !!! That sounded real interesting.
Lemme first explain how ‘We the chefs’ works…. In short, in my words, they are a ‘Zomato for home chefs’ – a marketplace for offerings by more than 250 home chefs in delhi NCR & Bangalore, across a really wide range of cuisines.
‘We the chefs’ does catering for home events , friends get togethers, corporate events & in all of the events the food is cooked by some home chef who is associated with ‘we the chefs’.
The food is served by the team of We the chefs at the experience center & also at get togethers (to be pre booked).
We the chefs also do pop ups at their experience centers in Gurgaon & Bangalore. This post is about one such pop up by chef Kalyan Gopalakrishna, who flew in from Bangalore only for this pop up!!!
Chef Kalyan is from a family that settled in old Bangalore next to Cubbon park around CE 1850. Many families from adjoining & faraway areas had moved in to this area that time, either to work for the British Army Cantonment, the ancillary establishments, religious, educational & social organisations or to run a business in & around the Cantonment.
The families brought together different cultures, beliefs, customs & cuisines. Over the last 175 years, a pattern emerged – inspite of differences in food habits of a vegetarian family & a non vegetarian food eating family, the food has developed the pattern.
Chef Kalyan was earlier an investment banker. His friends used to love eating the food cooked by him. So few years back he decided to showcase his food to the world & he started his food delivery business Karnivore.kitchen & also started participating in pop ups & catering services.
We loved listening to stories of food & old Bangalore culture that evening, from Chef Kalyan.
Chef introduced us to the meat of a special kind of sheep – Bannur mutton. Some call it the Wagyu of India. We think that’s a bit of exaggeration as the wagyu is a highly marbelled meat while the Bannur mutton is fairly marbelled & has a good amount of fat below the skin (like pork).
The fat content in the Bannur mutton is very high & the marbelling also ensures that the mutton cooks very fast, is extraordinarily soft & has strong & robust meaty flavours.
The meal also had chicken & prawn but what completely stood out was the Bannur mutton. The chicken & prawn dishes vs Bannur Mutton were like the ‘best’ qawwal of London singing before Nusrat Fateh Ali sahab walks into the stage to perform at the Royal Albert Hall.
We attended the pop up on a Friday night. There was another pop up on Saturday noon. We loved the food so much that we requested a call back from We the Chefs if there was any leftover. They had 1 portion extra & we bought it – enjoyed this as Sunday breakfast!!!!!
Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:
Kothmiri chicken with mini dosa was the first dish we had. The chicken pieces were very soft & enjoyable. The pepper made its presence felt as an aftertaste. Flavours of kothmir (coriander), spices & curry leaves complimented the mild flavour of chicken. Rate the dish 4/5
Loved every millimetre of the mini dosa. Everything was just right. Rate it 4.95/5. For once we loved the dosa more than the chicken!!!
Pepper prawns with mini idlis came next.
Pepper prawns on day 1 were somewhat soft (mildly chewy) & good to taste. The pepper had a robust aftertaste. Rate it 3.5/5
The pepper prawn on day 2 was super soft & just too good. Rate it 4.5/5. Average rating of pepper prawns is 4/5.
The mini idlis were good. Rate them 3/5.
Chilli bannur mutton with akki roti came next.
The Bannur mutton was super soft & falling off from the bone. It was immensely juicy & had a robust, meaty flavour. The scoville factor was quite high. Yet we could not stop licking off every drop of the gravy that came along. Rate it 4.75/5
Akki roti was very good. Soft & textured. Rate it 4.5/5
Chicken curry with ottu shavige arrived next. The shavige was thin & perfect cooked. A chicken curry gravy was poured on top. It was so nice having this simple home like food. The gravy was cooked with chicken but the dish was not about the chicken pieces. Rate it 4.5/5
The next dish was Bannur mutton chops & Pongal.
Loved the Pongal. Everything was just right. Rate it 4.75/5
The Bannur mutton chops were the best mutton chops I have had in years – super soft texture, very very juicy, strong robust meaty flavour & fantastic to taste.
We got to know that 26 spices were used to marinate the mutton pieces & it took only 15 minutes to cook the bannur mutton chops. It was cooked with mutton fat only, No oil !!!!
Rate it 4.95/5.
Bannur mutton pulao was the last dish for the evening. The pulao used basmati rice contrary to the other short grain varieties of rice used in the Southern states. Chef said this is how his family biryani has evolved over the decades. He thinks the use of this rice was an influence from their neighbours who came & settled from the North or West of India.
The rice was super soft, moist & had incorporated the meat flavours very well. The mutton pieces were pure love. I am salivating as I write this post 5 days later!!! Rate the rice 4.5/5, the mutton pieces 4.95/5 & hence overall biryani at 4.75/5.
Overall rating of food at this pop up averages out to 4.4/5
We are looking forward to signing up for a nose to tail Bannur mutton pop up either in Gurgaon or in Bangalore when we visit later this year.