This small Mumbai cafe promises to serve big hearted Deccan curries and food. Kari Apla, Bandra

I went there a week back on an invite. I reached and stood in front of the door of the restaurant and wondered how to go in. There were no push or pull signs or a door handle.  The aromas of two (Indo) Chinese restaurants enveloped me as I stood there. Kuai Kitchen on one side and 5 Spice on the other. This was rather tempting and I had half the mind to go into one of these! 

That’s when a young man with a smiling face, came to the door and slid it open. This was Mathew Varghese, chef and part of the husband duo who runs Karia Apla along with his better half, fellow chef and business partner, Ebaani Tiwari.

Chefs Ebaani and Mathew

Ebaani was in the kitchen in the inside section. Lest you get some wrong impression of Kari Apla being a large two-sectioned restaurant, let me add that the outer section has only 5 tables including high chairs and offers 14 covers. It has been air-conditioned recently. The kitchen is an open kitchen with bar seating and is located in the inside section. 6 people can sit there. There is very little space for someone to move behind you once you have sat down. The food is cooked and plated before you and then handed to you. Unless you are in the ‘outside section’ which has table service. Being in close contact with diners means that the chefs cannot do a Gordon Ramsey Hell’s Kitchen there. Not that one could imagine Ebaani or Mathew losing their tempers and screaming at the staff! It was a happy kitchen and this was reflected in the comfort food on offer.

Mathew and Ebaani with their team at Karia Apla in their open kitchen

‘Kari Apla is self-funded. This space is all we can afford now. We could not even find restaurant designers who could design such a small place. We designed it ourselves after looking at restaurant models in cities such as Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong, etc,’ said Mathew.

The place reminded me of the small ramen bars that we went to in Tokyo and Osaka. The sort where you point at a picture, place your order and hope for the best. The sort where you invariably end up with a great meal. It also reminded me of our first kitchen after we had got married. This was in a tiny rented apartment down the road from Kari Apla. The verandah had been converted into a kitchen. It was so small that K and I could not pass behind the other.

Mathew and Ebaani had both started careers as chefs in kitchens which served international cuisines. Taj Land’s End Hotel in the case of Mathew; Bastian in the Chef Kelvin Chung and Chef Boo days for Ebaani. Like many young chefs of today, they wanted to do something around the food they had grown up on after having served their time cooking global food. This was the genesis of Kari Apla.

“The name is a combination of Karivepila, curry leaf in Malayali and ‘kari’ and ‘apla’ which means ‘our curry’ in Marathi,’ said Mathew. Mathew has Syrian Christian genes while Ebaani’s mom is Maharashtrian (technically from Karwar in Karnataka). Ebaani is a Mumbai girl.

They define the food of Kari Apla as ‘Deccan food’. The menu offers a balance of traditional recipes and their personal sensibilities and cheffing skills.

Here is some of what I tried:

1. Angamaly pork pepper roast The dish starred pork belly and largely fat at that. Ebaani said that they had trained their supplier to ensure that the fat was maximum in the belly chunks provided. The pork dissolved in your mouth. It had a nuanced pepper-based spicing to it. Ebaani suggested that I try the pork with their scallion and chilli, and rather chubby Malabar porotta. The porotta was crunchy and yet soft. It had the inherent sweetness of shallow fried maida (refined wheat flour) with the punch of scallion and chillies elevating it to the next level. The combination was crack!

I recreantly realised that my favourite dishes are those which are full fat and that’s a problem given my age as well as the heat outside. I must learn to stick to very small bites in such cases. I inhaled it in this case. That’s Millennial/ Gen Z speak for ‘wiped the plate clean’.

Angamaly pork with porotta. Kari Apla

2. Madurai mutton cutlets: The cutlets were served with a thick, refreshing pachadi (raita) and an onion salad. The chilled yoghurt pachadi complemented the meatiness and spiciness of the cutlet. The cutlets are traditionally made with minced meat. They used pulled mutton at Kari Apla to give it a shami kebab-like texture, said Mathew. He added that it is a common practice to make cutlets in Keralite homes with tuna cutlets being the most popular.

3. Fried prawns served with chilled curd rice. The red masala of the juicy prawns blended into the dahi rice to make a soothing and lip-smacking taste experience. It was perfect given the heat outside.

4. Kadala curry hummus with fennel and coriander seed lavash: They used chickpeas for hummus, not the kala channa used in kadala curry, as the latter would be rather grainy.  The spicing used is that of the Kerala dish, kadala curry. The resultant hummus is creamy with a distinct desi (Indian spiced) flavour.

5. Mangalorean chicken sukka with coconut bhakri. They added coconut milk to the rice dough.  This gave the bhakri a softer texture than bhakris and it has a prominent flavour of coconut oil. You could have the bhakri without the chicken as it was quite tasty in itself. What I liked about the chicken was that they used leg pieces. Mathew said that they only use leg pieces of chicken in the restaurant, just as they use only belly cuts for pork. Indulgence is key here!

Mangalorean chicken sukka with rice bhakri. Kari Apla

6. Thetcha Avocado with potato papad. The thetcha was creamy and well-seasoned and was inspired by avocado salsa. Hidden in the thecha, is the spicy kick of the chillies green chillies which made it too formidable for me to eat. Thecha means chilli paste. You can ask them to tone down the chillies as this is made on order. The papad was delightful. It was ‘locally sourced’ from a Sindhi shop in neighbouring Khar Market

Fiery avocado thecha

7. Dessert: I tried the filter coffee ice cream with banana cake for dessert. The inspiration for this was the filter kaapi and bananas that they would have during family train travels, said Mathew. The ice cream had a very distinct coffee taste which overshadowed the cake. If coffee ice cream is your thing, then this would win you over.

The other dessert that I tried was the tender coconut pudding which had a delightful panacotta-like texture with subtle mango flavours.

Coconut pudding. Kari Apla

They have a full-fledged coffee menu. Ebaani made me a passion fruit soda without sugar.  It was nice and refreshing. They currently do not have a liquor license. They hope to get that and move into a larger space. For now, it is baby steps.

Passion fruit soda. Kari Apla.

In sum, Kari Apla offers delightful, comfort food. While it represents flavours from the ‘Deccan’ region,  one would enjoy it regardless of where one hails from in India’ or abroad. The quality of ingredients used is good and nothing is too oily or spicy. I did not feel bloated despite the large number of dishes that I tried. That is the best compliment that a Bengali can give given how we are obsessed with the state of our digestive system, or ‘gut’ as it is called these days!

With Chef Eebani and Mathew

Kari Apla reminded me of the food scene in Bandra when I moved into the suburb in the late 1990s. Several small eateries came up and were run by earnest young folks who put in their blood, sweat, tears and money to give shape to their dreams. The food on offer was novel and offered a lot of variety. The vibe in these restaurants was warm, casual and not intimidating. The price did not break the back of us early jobbers. These were fun places. Where one went to have good food and a good time. Something tells me that Ebaani and Mathew will revive that Bandra tradition with Kari Apla.

Now can someone please pass me some pork belly and porotta when no one is watching?!

The reason why they ran out of pork belly on 24th April, 2024 in Kari Apla. Stat warning: pork lard in excess is not good for you.

PS: This visit was by invitation. Big thanks to Lynn who organised it.