I am not the most punctual of people, but reaching a place ten years late is tardy even by my standards.
‘You should go to Satkar Rice Plate House outside Goregaon station for the best Malvani food in town,’ wrote a reader ten years back. It could have been twelve years, or eight years two months and eleven days. It doesn’t really matter.
I heard more praises of Satkar over the years. I was told that it gets pretty packed at lunch and that one needs to wait for a table. I wanted to try it out but felt too lazy to go to Goregaon just to eat!
I finally did so last Saturday when I filmed at Satkar for my upcoming video series, Machhi Mumbai.
I thought Satkar was in Goregaon West. We drove down from Bandra to Goregaon West and realised that I was wrong. We were surrounded by concrete flyovers which soared over desolate, dusty roads. I stopped and asked a passerby for directions who replied, ‘Satkar? Non-veg wala? Waha ka machhi famous hain. Main jaata hoon. Woh Goregaon east main hain.’
What were the chances of finding a Satkar fan on the other side of the world? Or train tracks?
Our driver looked rather smug as we headed to the west. We both suck at reading Google maps and take great joy in seeing the other proved wrong.
We reached Goregaon station and found out that everyone knew about Satkar. I got down from the car and followed directions that folks gave us but just could not find the place. It was not even where Google maps said it was.
I finally spotted the words ‘Satkar’ written on the wall of the first floor of a building but couldn’t find the place. ‘It’s the gully beside the pan wallah,’ said the umpteenth person that I asked and I spotted the entrance to a tiny alley which led one to the door of an old building. Satkar was on its first floor. I found Srishti, our videographer, waiting for me.
We walked up the tiny staircase and walked into the small, spartan and clean restaurant. It was divided into AC and Non AC sections and the kitchen lay in one corner.
I chose non AC and the weather was cool enough for it.
Srishti took out her camera. An elderly waiter/ manager sat on a bench and looked at us. A middle aged waiter came up to take our order.
‘I am going to order everything,’ I told Srishti. ‘I want to show the variety of seafood that’s available beyond basa! Or even pomfret for that matter.’
‘Prawns fry, mandeli (anchovies) fry, tisrya (clams) sukka, surmai curry, bombil fry, vade, bhakri, rice, sol kadi.’
The waiter listened impassively and then had only one question, ‘should I get the fries first?’
‘All together,’ I replied
He nodded, seemingly well versed with way of social media netizens and their love for flat flay shots that show the entire order at one go.
The place was slowly getting crowded but the staff didn’t hurry us.
I was transfixed by the aromas that accompanied our order. You knew that this was glorious stuff.
I tore into the food once we finished filming. Juicy prawns, crispy mandeli, tisrya (clam) whose meat held its own against the spicy masala that accompanied it, bombil fry whose crisp exterior held inside gelatinous and well flavoured meat and surmai curry which was so good, that I packed a portion for my mom in law. Srishti is vegetarian and I couldn’t finish it all, so I packed and sent some to a fish loving friend of mine.
Mandeli fry & vade
Satkar Rice Plate House (estd 1963) is 60 years old, and the seafood on offer doesn’t get any fresher, and that’s all that you need to take out from this story.
Ps: They serve chicken and mutton too.
Address:
Shop No 15, 1st Floor, Dreamland Building, Station Road, Goregaon East, Mumbai – 400063 (Opposite Railway Station)
