Monday, March 9, 2009

A Lazy Afternoon at the Mavalli Tiffin Rooms

This Sunday we decided to visit the famous MTR near our house. We reached at about 12:30 to find a huge crowd sitting outside waiting for their turn to get in. Our hearts sank even though we were prepared to wait because we had heard that half of Bangalore turns up there for a hearty meal, and the breakfast disappears at some ungodly hour in the morning before you can say- idli,vada, dosa! However the crowd was very disciplined and there was none of the pushing shoving and line breaking that we were used to seeing in such cases in the North of India. Finally we had to wait only for about 20mins. There were comfortable benches for the waiting public. We had to wait for sometime on the first floor. It was evident from the height of the room and its large window that the house is about a hundred years old- solid and imposing. The young lady who has inherited this establishment is doing quite well- she was felicitated by some commercial organization recently. We saw atleast a 1000 people and about the same number were having lunch and throngs were at the gate-and each meal is for Rs100 so you can guess what kind of mullah the establishment is raking in!
The meal was excellent and had true blue Kannadiga flavours- the sago and bisi bele bhat was very good, so were the dainty fluffy dosas. We were served fresh grape juice first, then came a moong dal salad, kaccha kela vegetable, sago, coconut chutney, dosas, bisi bele bhat, raita, rice, sambhar, rasam, papad, curd rice, jalebi, payasam, ice cream and finally paan! We came back satiated! It was total paisa vasool!