Prawn Pulao, Homemade Feni & Beach Vibes: Why We Are Gaga Over This Goan Restaurant

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Lady Baga brings a very Goa shack-like vibe to Bangalore, right here on Lavelle Road. But think of it as a posh upgrade of a regular Goan shack, with authentic as well as some fun twists to Goan food and drinks.

Beach Please

The two-floor restaurant, located above SodaBottleOpenerWala {belongs to the Olive group of restaurants}, is done up with plenty of Gujarati mirror work beanbags, big mirrors, beaded curtains and lots of trippy, psychedelic 70s style murals and colours on the wall. Upstairs is a semi al fresco kind of space with a bar, while downstairs also comes with a bar. A section of the restaurant has been filled with sand and a giant screen actually shows scenes from a beach in Goa from day to night. Oh and we loved the cool light and water effect made to look like those showers that can be found at Goan shacks, to clean up post your sea dipping.

The restaurant also has a shop that offers resort wear {reminded us of Greek restaurant in Goa, Thalassa} where you can shop for free-flowing dresses, kaftans, cover ups, evil eye jewellery and footwear. The brands curated might keep changing from time to time.

Sunshine Drinks

Coming to the F&B… the menu is actually massive. So start with a few drinks perhaps. We tried the We Like Big Coconuts And We Cannot Lie, a refreshing mix of coconut water, litchi, lime, mint and vodka. The coconut water balanced out the alcohol rather well in this version of a classic mojito. The Litmus Test with two kinds of options — tiny bottles of Kala Khatta and Lemon, were just too sweet for us. For best results though pour it into a glass of ice and drink away. We would strongly recommend a shot of the chilled Moonshine & Hooch, Lady Baga’s in-house cashew feni {Feni is not allowed to travel beyond the Goan borders unfortunately to restaurants}. This was potent, sweet, fruity and nutty. We also tried a mocktail version of the Fisherman’s Tonic, with kokum, lime, curried leaves and soda {you can get gin added to this}. We loved the tangy, and spicy flavours from the kokum and curry leaves.

Go Goa

Let us tell you that the Goan dishes on the menu have been done by the folks behind Bandra’s iconic Soul Fry restaurant. We recommend you start with the Prawn Loncha, a slightly pickled, peanutty and coconutty masala tossed with fresh prawns and chillies. This rockstar dish was followed by the Sungta Maria, Goan-style masala prawns piled onto mini fried toasts. Perfect finger food. We also tried a Shrimp Hoagie Roll, shrimp and scallions tossed with recheado aioli and stuffed into a hotdog-style roll. Vegetarians, you could try the Piri Piri Paneer and the Chatpata Tamde Aloo. The Wild Mushroom Voul-au-Vent was a bit of an anomaly on the menu though.

For mains, look no further than the fragrant and all kinds of wonderful Goan-style prawn pulao garnished with fried onions. Then there was the classic King Fish curry and prawns curry to go with your steamed rice. Plus some chicken Cafreal and Paneer Xacuti. The fish curries are pretty authentic here, and so is the wonderful Goan dal, which can be mopped up with plenty of steamed rice.

We finished off with a Cardmom Creme Brulee topped with dark caramel and the really decadent Varlhona Dark Chocolate Fondant, a molten lava cake. The traditional Serradura was unfortunately not available that day.

 

So, We're Thinking...

We are definitely going back to tuck into Goan sausages, Pork vindaloo and the Konkan thalis. This trip was all about prawns, the next one will be about meats.