On one of those evenings when we were in the mood for our very own Mallu food, we decided to check out a place that had been on my list for a while now – Malabar Bay. This is on the Dairy Circle side of The Forum and off Taverkere Road. (map) There used to be a Kairali here if I’m not mistaken. We reached there by 7.30 and could choose a seat, but it did get crowded later. The place is quite large and portions of it have quite the Kerala touch when it comes to decor. We chose to sit in the AC section upstairs but you better be prepared for Siberia-like temperatures if you plan to do this. I wasn’t!
From the menu, we ordered a Koondal (squid) Roast. This was our second choice since mussels weren’t available, but turned out to be a good one. It was spicy and the squid was cooked just right. We also ordered a Podhi Chicken, since this wasn’t something we found on the standard Mallu menus. Wrapped in banana leaves and moderately spicy, this was quite fantastic too. It isn’t boneless though.
I’m of the opinion that Mallu food needs to be consumed in largish quantities to do full justice. It helped that we were hungry. We ordered a Meen Mulakittathu, (fish) Telicherry Chicken Curry and a Thattukada Mutta Puttu to go with it. The fish curry was more tomato than spice but was decent despite not delivering on the Mulaku (chili) promise. The chicken curry was much better – the bias is also due to the coconut paste! The last item is actually a street food specialty that has puttu (steamed rice cake) mixed with peppercorn and scrambled eggs. We then asked for a pathiri, appam and finally a Chicken Kothu Porotta. The first was just decent, the second quite good, and the third rarely disappoints. There was an Aval milk shake I wanted to try but by this time we were quite sated.
The service is reasonably prompt and know their dishes despite (them) not being Mallu. The meal came to a little over Rs.1350. That, I think, would be one of the first times we crossed Rs.1000 in a Mallu restaurant, but we did stuff ourselves.
Malabar Bay, 43, Krishna Nagar, SG Pallya Road, Near Christ College, 080 49652800