Goa gourmet

Noz

Hi there,

As the forum members have been so helpful in my queries, I just wanted to share with you fellow gourmets out there some great places to eat in Goa that I discovered whilst there recently:

Fiesta, Baga - yes there is a place that I recommend in Baga! It is opposite Tito's restaurant which is well known and you walk down a bamboo fenced alleyway to the restaurant which wouldn't look out of place in London's Notting Hill (if they had restaurants al fresco). The menu is Italian and French and executed very well. It also has some good French wines and of course death by chocolate. For treating yourself this well you will spend about 800 Rs including wine. So if its your birthday or if like me you can't help spending money on good food check it out

La Plage, Aswem Beach - a great French restaurant for lunch only. Check out the lobster and fondant chocolate dessert. A kingfish dish with roast potatoes is about 180 Rs. Nice beach too.

Sea View, Aswem Beach - a lovely place to stay with smiley happy staff. Huts were 500 Rs in high season but the food is the best Indian food I have eaten so far. Try the stuffed aubergine - it's sublime.

Basilico, North Anjuna beach road - the pizzas are proper thin crust and the pesto pasta is fantastic. Always full of Italians who know where the good food is.

Bon Apetit!

Noz

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Jorge Reverter

Hi Noz,

Many thanks for the recommendations. There is a lack of information in IM for nice restaurants all over India, only time to time somebody like you gives few minutes of his time.

Jorge

lyndy

Hi Noz

Tks a lot for the Goa food information. We're serious winos/foodies and we're getting real excited at the prospect of visiting your recommendations. Any other destinations with spectacular food?

Great stuff!
Over and out.

goangoangone

Don't get too excited about the wine though......

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evilpoodle

Nice thread. Anyone got a review of that French restaurant at Baga -- up by the creek, I've forgotten the name.

Goan Crazy

Midas Touch - Near Calangute, very upmarket and has a very wide choice menu wise everything from Goan to European.

Sublime - Not far from Midas Touch, food that looks fantastic and tastes even better. A sort of nouvelle quisine type experiance but the portions are bigger.

Tosigo's - Candolim not far from Bob's inn, Great steak and good entertainment on a Tues night.

Sea Shells - Candolim, cracking sea food (I dont like shell fish but wife does) and caters for most tastes.

Kim Fa - Calangute, VERY good chinese.

Golden Eye - Shack on Asvem beach, eggs biriani mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

MoJo's - Arpora, when you are fed up of curries, lobster, pasta, crispy duck etc you can go here and get proper cottage pie with chips and mushy peas. Can also get home made cider by the jug to wash it down.

I will be sampling the above delights and more in 6 days time!

Noz

Hi peeps,

I am very happy to see that fellow IMs are responding and I think this one can run and run. Also I want to go back to Goa now after seeing the other posts and places I missed! A few other Goa recommendations would be as follows:

The Third Eye, Calangute - behind the bus station place, run by a Scottish lady so there is good Scotch and great kingfish with lemon and thyme sauce. Also best veg spring rolls in Goa

Citrus - very well presented and cooked veggie food from around the world, including North Africa, get a table in from the road though as this is only drawback of the place - being on busy road again same road as Fiesta

By the way you can get French wine imported at Fiesta for you wine-lovers

Where I have been since Goa:

Hampi - best masala dosa so far in Ganesh restaurant in Hampi Bazaar - very unassuming place on the right hand side as you head towards the main temple

Gokarna - Sangam, Om Beach - lovely fish curry rice and masala dosa (not as good as Hampi one though), very chilled place with good music

Mysore - since looking for a great place but leaving tomorrow for Coorg then Kerala - any recommendations for food in these places would be great.

Cheers fellow diners.

Noz

Jorge Reverter

Hi Noz,

In Mysore in Sri Harsha Rd: " Hotel R R R " (formerly Rest Ilapur), they have other two rest.in town. Very good Andhra food.

Just beside this RRR another good restaurant: Rest. Park Lane, very good ambiance with live music. It seems that foreigners meet there. Cool place.

lyndy

More......More.......More..... !!

fredericknoronha

This was written some time back. -FN

150 km for a rice plate...

By Frederick Noronha
fred@bytesforall.org

IT MUST have been about the most bizarre assignment in my freelance career of eight years. But guest-editor David Blamey's idea was alluring. He was giving me the chance to review -- without obligation to the restaurant -- a hole-in-the-wall and good value-for-money place I would have gone to myself.

Food critics in Goa tend to look at those outlets rolling out the red carpet, and wanting some cheap publicity. Someone said there's no free meal? Anyway, this writer's main qualification is that he lacks the experience as a food critic....

So, to distant Canacona (pronounced Kaankon, on the local Konkani-speaking tongue) we went. It's at one extreme end of Goa, as any self-respecting traveller would know, and is where everyone heads after Anjuna got too noisy and Baga-Calangute-Candolim got overcrowded.

It takes time to get there. The consolation is that its far faster to travel in slow Goa today than it was even just one generation ago. Knowing where express buses leave Panjim and Margao helps. If nothing works, just catch-up on pending reading material as you head down from North Goa.

'Hotel Mangalore' is by the roadside about a kilometre away from Canacona's main tiny town, Chaudi. The road in question is National Highway 17, which passes through villages and, in parts, gets abysmally narrow.

It's close to Char Rasta (literally, Four Roads, the point where they meet) not to be confused with another restaurant of the same name, that lies closer to the petrol pump.

Don't get taken in by the 'hotel' tag. In Indian English you don't need to have rooms on let to qualify you for this term. Even a tiny 'chai shop' (roadside tea stall) can, and often does, grandiloquently, call itself a 'hotel'. It simply means a restaurant. Even if it's a ram-shackled version of one.

Mangalore is a coastal city under 400 kms further south, in the neighbouring Karnataka state. Like Goa, it shares a love for sea-food, fish-curries -- though with a rather distinct flavour, which would be certainly obvious to the local tongue. Such subtleties would be lost on someone from outside the region.

Hotel Mangalore is a modest place, with a long menu, and worth- recommending dishes.

It's hastily-scrawled board announces a 'deluxe fish c. rice' (the 'c' is for curry) at Rs 80, a semi-deluxe version for half that price, and a 'local' equivalent for one-fourth. Obviously chicken is its specialty. Many local businesses see this as propping up the local bars that proliferate all over in a Goa who's easy-on-liquor policy reflects its former Portuguese legacy.

Of course, Canacona is also surrounded with fishing villages. It has the seashore and also rivers like the Galgibag and Talpona. Fish preparations are the pivot that hold the rice-curry staple, and fish can often be a conversation point here as elsewhere in Goa.

This is the kind of place that locals eat at. But it probably has aspirations to attract the tourist thronging to nearby Palolem beach, some three kms away. The make-believe shack before the 'hotel' -- thatched coconut shacks are more a beachside reality -- perhaps reflects this dream. Liquor is served only outside, in the 'shack'.

But it's food is surely good enough to lure a wider clientele.

As we grew talking, the subject veered to Delhi bellies and Goa gastros... the unsettling impact of good food on a perfect holiday. Of course, in places like these food comes in warm -- if not hot -- and there's little cause fear. Water is something else; but then is the environmentally- hazardous plastic bottle a real option? Besides, sea-food that's not properly cleaned -- almost every self-respecting Goan housewife or cook knows how to do this adequately -- needs to be treated with care.

This place has nearly a dozen-and-half chicken dishes. Fish (prices not
mentioned on menu, the local market for fish fluctuates like the stock-market... depending on the weather and tourist-fuelled demand) and prawn are over two dozen in number.

Then there are veg dishes and rice items too, besides fruit juices.

Of course, the food here is local with a coastal Manglorean slant. Don't expect the watered down, bland versions that are aimed primarily at the foreign tourists in more 'happening' places.

"Eighty to 85 percent visitors are locals," says owner Valerian Viegas. He comes from a village near Mangalore, worked as a waiter in nearby Margao, and then launched this small place with "zero capital", his terms. "I didn't know to cook, but just saw others and learnt," he explains in the local lingo, Konkani. He can afford to spill out the beans; the food tastes good.

We opted for the semi-delux meal... but got tempted and changed that order to the delux fish curry-rice midway. While working on three types of fish -- fried in 'rava' -- and curries garnished with what seem to be herbs to the British eye, there were chapaties and parathas to dip into. Viegas recommended a prawn dish with green masala. He offered to show us how Mangaloreans fry their fish, but as we animatedly exchanged views, the dish had been already served. It ended with a spoonful of 'baddixep' (aniseed/fennel) roasted warm and fresh.

One's idea of a working lunch. It could have been much more elaborate, but this itself was filling.... Cost: Rs 156.

Incidentally, Mangalorean packet-curries (in powder form) for fish or meat are often so tasty to the Goan tongue. One cookbook, written by a Mangalorean Christian called Isidore Coelho, taught the first steps of cooking to many Goan just-married women across generations.... Valerian spoke about the Bapat masala ("best for the Mangalorean style of pork").

This is a Goa which is suddenly seeing many more influences on it's already quaint East-West mix of flood. Globalisation might not be such a bad-word to mouth in such a context! -Frederick Noronha

The writer is a Goa-based freelance journalist. He can be contacted via email fred@bytesforall.org or via phone 2409490 / 09822 122436

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fredericknoronha

And, I must warn you... this is an extreme local perspective of things. A lot of the food mentioned would obviously not be to the taste of a tourist palate ;-) This article was written a year or two ago.

TEN GREAT VALUE-FOR-MONEY PLACES TO EAT OUT IN GOA

Frederick Noronha

SOMEHOW only the big and luxury names ever get written about in Goa. Probably it has something to do with their long reach, persistence and the fact that they simply have a bigger budget for doing PR.

But if you're looking for taste, and not ambience, here's where you could seek. Caution -- some of these places are really rough, though tasty:

o AFLATOON 'HOTEL', near the masjid alongside Alankar
cinema in Mapusa. Be prepared to share tables with the
scruffiest of characters and dig into tasty mutton biryani
(Rs 40), beef biryani (Rs 20), soft parathas (Rs 5), seekh
kababs (Rs 10) and the rest...This is Muslim-style food.

o GOAN-NONVEG fast-food joints (they run out of adapted
handcarts) at Santa Cruz (near the church) and
Miramar (adjoining Clube Gaspar Dias). Meat-based
sandwitches for Rs 10, tasty and easy-to-carry-away.
(Couldn't we learn to use less plastic though?)
Tasty. Real home-style food at down-to-earth prices.
No wonder one outlet at Miramar sells 800 bread a day!
You can also get similarly delicious Goan cooking
at the roadside in Agaciam (just before the bridge)
or sausages ('choris-pao') at the Agaciam market.

o AJANTA, near the Old Panjim Bus Stand, just before you
new bridge over the Pato creek. Typical Pernem-style
Goan food. Simple, tasty fish-curry-rice. Spicy too.
A favourite at our Herald workdays, when riceplates
were Rs 5 in the mid-eighties. We journos had this joke
about writing a book 'How To Get The Most For Rs 5 At
Ajanta'. Now, the standard meal costs Rs 20-25. The special
dishes (chicken, occasionally crab) are fiery hot and spicy.

o ALISHA, opposite the new Goa legislative assembly.
Both these above come from the cuisine of Hindu Goa
(there are some variants among this too, depending on
region, class and caste).

o SAROVAR. What can you get for Rs 20? Two parathas, butter-milk,
three curries, curd, rice, a sweetdish, pickle... Naturally
crowded in the afternoons. Even more naturally, the waiters
can be quite friendly; at this value-for-money it hardly hurts
to give a five rupee tip (fine by local standards) each time!

o GENERALLY, almost every Udupi or 'Kamat' restaurant in
the state. This cuisine finds its origin outside Goa's borders,
along the south Karnataka coast. But, what the heck, the food is
maintains its standards and taste, that even some among the
local Christian population (who's diet is or has been actually
non-vegetarian) have developed a taste for this.
Standard meals average Rs 20-30.

o THE LONE 'shack' (at the time of writing, 2003) on Siridao
beach. This fishing village is tucked away off the
Panjim-Margao highway, just before the Agaciam-Cortalim bridge.
Fish dishes, it's speciality naturally.

o 'HOTEL MANGALORE', by the roadside about a kilometre away
from Canacona's main tiny town, Chaudi. (Don't get misled
by the term 'hotel', this is a roadside eatery. It's close to
Char Rasta (literally, Four Roads, the point where they
meet) not to be confused with another restaurant of
the same name, that lies closer to the petrol pump.
The 2002-end prices were pegged at 'deluxe fish c. rice'
(the 'c' is for curry) at Rs 80, a semi-deluxe version
for half that price, and a 'local' equivalent
for one-fourth. Obviously chicken is its specialty.

o CHECK THE fish preparations of the restaurant that's under
the bridge at the Cortalim end. Traditional Catholic Goan
style, good value for money.

o CAFE PRAKASH, a tiny hole-in-the-wall in Panjim. Near the
Azad Maidan close to the ferry jetty. Nothing exceptional
here, except that some of us local journalists consider
it to be the "unofficial" press club of Goa each
evening (lots of gossip!) and you could dwadle over
a cup of tea (Rs 3) for three hours. No questions asked!

This listing has obviously missed out on a number of other worthy places which do deserve a listing. The bias favouring Bardez and places around Panjim does show due to geographical reasons. Your suggestions and tips for enhancing this listing are more than welcome. Other candidates include the elderly man at the Parra market, selling Goan fast food (boiled eggs, boiled peanuts, etc)...

PS: I did not eat a free meal in any of these places....

After circulating this short-list to a Internet-based mailing-list for journalists in Goa, a whole lot of other suggestions came in. It would perhaps be unfair to overlook the favourite watering holes and eating places of a number of well-travelled scribes from the state.

Reporter Mayabhushan Nagvenkar votes in favour of the oyster-masala at Devata Cafe in Ribandar. Nadia V Menezes, an ex-Herald staffer now in Mumbai, has her own entry for Number 11: "A home-cum-restaurant just behind Kamat Restaurant (towards the old railway station) in margao that serves simply delicious, very coconutty-n-spicy fish curry rice." She's not sure if the prices have shot up of late, but adds that a 'fish thali' used to go for Rs 15.

Vidya Heble, ex-Gomantak Times and now in Singapore, recommends Anandasharam, in the easy-to-get-lost-in lanes to the west of the General Post Office. It's opposite Venite. She calls it a "no-frills, no-pretences eatery ... (run by an elderly gent who's) smile is still as welcoming and the fish still as delicious". Naturally, you get better food in the afternoons, rather than nights when business is slack in this government-servant dominated town.

Vidya mentions another great family-run place for fried prawns at Nerul tinto (marketplace), in Bardez.

Rash Deep, a place for inexpensive fish-curry-rice was also a journalists' favourite in the past.

Indian Express's former man-in-Goa Shiv Kumar had this to say: "Ask me guys! I was scrounging around for some good VFM places in Panjim for two years! My short list is tilted heavily in favor of seafood!"

Shiv adds: "Ajanta is great. Could never have enough of the crabs and shellfish though one had to go early in the afternoon. There is a tiny place next to Sher-e-Panjab, panjim (I think its called Excelsior or some fancy name) lots and lots of fish freshly fried. one nameless shack a little down the Times of India on the slope to Altinho almost near the market -- great fresh coconut prawns curry and lots of fresh fish. for some reason the best place where the fresh fish goes best with the beer!"

Of course, there's a caveat: keep an eye closed on the hygiene. That holds for many of these places.

Shiv also says he chanced upon a home-cum-restaurant in Cuncolim "where on some mornings they make you wait while the owner rushes to the market to get some fish!" Another is a hole in the wall joint in St Inez that served lovely home made food. But take care, for as Shiv says, not long back another journo in Goa "called up from Goa to tell me the 'kokum' in the 'sol kadi' turned out to be a big fat cockroach!"

Margao's Kamat Hotel has some good 'puri bhaji'. Shiv's other favourites include the Khansamah at the Mollem forest guest house, which prepares "some lovely fish, chicken and mutton for guests".

devilishangel

this list of budget dining eateries is awsome!
Would anyone please add to the list?? Maybe some places in vasco? How about some other beach shacks?

bruce3404

This is the second recent excellent thread on restaurants; there is a great demand for this type of info. Once again, I would encourage the moderators to set up a restaurant thread by city/region (much like the hotels are organized). IMers could leave info regarding the good and the bad restaurants along the way.

Since we're on the topic of Goa, can anyone recommend restaurants more to the south in areas like Colva, Benaulim, Varca and/or Margao?

evilpoodle

A few random recommendations to revive this thread.

Le Poisson Rouge in Baga, near the creek. Better setting than their old location opposite the Cavala. Lovely dessert - which is all I had this time round, but the food is great too. They do a set four course meal for a great price.

Soumyen's Kitchen in Calangute/Candolim. Dull and boring looking, with a hideous, shack-like signboard, but the food is super. Not nouvelle cuisine, just very well executed European stuff. Soumyen used to be the chef at After Seven.

Casa Manolita in Candolim. Can't really recommend the food, but a really nice setting for a drink or two - in the verandah of an old Portuguese house. Two large, mostly well-behaved boxers will keep you company.

Fernando's Nostalgia in Raia (near-ish Loutolim and Nuvem) down south. Heavy on the kitschy decor but very good Goan food, including some vegetarian dishes you don't get at many other places. Watch out for the demented goose that attacks diners on their way to the bathroom out back.

Ali-Monbeam

I can recommend Riverview in Cavelossim.
Palm Grove residency and Doms Beach Shack on the Mobor beach tandoori king prawns to die for.
Agonda must try Madhus, the best food yumyum.