Sandeep Gomantak, Fort I’d clicked this picture in 2010 & posted it on my blog My first visit to this restaurant happened 7 years later |
- Sandeep Gomantak, a Goan seafood restaurant in Mumbai’s Fort area.
- What is Gomantak food
- Of ‘core’ diners and ‘recreational’ diners and how Gomantak restaurants cater to the former
I had first passed by Sandeep Gomantak, a seafood restaurant in Mumbai’s Fort precinct, in 2010. I had my first meal there 7 years later in 2017.
It was worth the wait!
While neither Malvani nor Gomantak food originate in Mumbai, you could argue that they are more ‘local’ than the food served in Mumbai’s more famous seafood restaurants such as the Trishnas and the Mahesh’s as the latter are Mangalorean run. Of course you could also say that Mangalorean, Malvani and Gomantak, though all immigrant food, are an intrinsic part of Mumbai’s dining out heritage today.
The basic menu of Gomantak restaurants. It’s all about ‘eat local’ here |
Sandeep Gomantak (in the pic) is larger than Pradeep Gomantak, the other Gomantak restaurant in Fort |
The food that we had at Sandeep Gomantak clockwise from the left corner: Bombay duck fry, surmai fry, kombdi (chicken curry), vade prawn curry, sol kadhi |
We started with a nice and light and slightly spicy sol kadi. It is a drink made with the juice of kokum berries native to Goa. I like to have sol kadi as an appetiser and sometimes as a post meal digestive too. Goans and Maharashtrians from the coast also add it to rice, and have it just as those in the south eat curd rice, pointed out Maharshtrian lady from Mlavan who was with us in the walk. Sol kadi as a drink takes a bit of getting used to s it is pungent and can be salty. I love it and find it very refreshing. I’ve seen variations in colour, consistency and heatiness (from chillies) in sol kadis across restaurants.
The Maharashtrian lady’s husband pointed out that the Bombil at Sandeep was plump and juicy. The plumpness of the Bombay duck at Sandeep Gomantak was more ‘home-like’ according to this gentleman than what one sees in restaurants usually. The big and happy grin on his face completed the story.
A rare sighting of two happy Bengalis in a Gomantak Joint The trick is to feed them chicken curry or mutton sukha here |
The prawns used in the curry were pretty tiny and didn’t have shells. The prawns were nice and juicy though and not overcooked. These small prawns are a lot cheaper than bigger ones and this makes the food more affordable. The taste of the curry dominated that of prawns and this is typical of Gomantak restaurants in the city. This is not for those who want to enjoy the seafood without much interference from spices and masalas.
Mr Anand of Sandeep Gomantak |
21st May Update: I later learnt that the restaurants share the same family lineage. That Pradeep and Sandeep were both founded by the Late Gajanan Amonkar and were named after his sons. One of his sons, Pradeep and their cousin Anand, run Sandeep. His brother ran Padeep later and now his niece Manisha does so
Here’s a comment from the owners of Sandeep Gomantak on the Finely Chopped facebook page which tells us more about its history:
Sandeep Gomantak Bhojangrah Feeling proud reading your review Mr karmarkar😊 encourages us to do even better. Just an update on some facts abt the restaurants. Both Sandeep and pradeep gomantak were in fact started run and established by Late Shri Gajanan Amonkar who started 3 restaurants in all. In fact both restaurants are named after his sons. Mr. Pradeep still runs sandeep gomantak along with our cousin Mr. Anand. Later pradeep gomantak was run by our uncle and hence now his daughter runs the place.
I was at the SodaBottleOpenerWala at Cyber Hub that day for a book reading based on my book, The Travelling Belly.
Core diners who go to a place to fill their stomach and quell their hunger. This is what characterised the average diner in restaurants in India till recently.
It finally boils down to the plate of food placed in front of you doesn’t it?
I don’t know if you have caught this but I speak to Annie Arakkal on 94.3 Radio One Mumbai on food every Wednesday from 1 to 2 pm on food on Foodie Chat With Kalyan Karmakar. I later upload it on my YouTube channel. Here’s the clip from when we spoke about Sandeep Gomantak. Please do subscribe to the channel if you don’t want to miss out on these radio podcasts:
Do you have a favourite Gomantak restaurant in Mumbai? If you do please write to me about it in the comment section of the blog and lets share the Gomantak love here
With Parvez Patel of Ideal Corner Was excited to see the ‘Featured in The Travelling Belly’ poster there |
Irani Cafe evening favourites at Ideal Corner: Mutton cutles pav, Bharuchi akoori (egg scrambled in cream, ghee and with potato chips and dry fruits and raspberry drink
Taste of Kerala
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Appam with egg roast |
Adapradaman. A payasam made with coconut milk, jaggery and a rice based pasta |
Pic credit: Shiva
Was overwhelmed by the packed house. College friends, family, work colleague, social media readers, journalists, bloggers, chefs, hoteliers and resturanteurs |