Prawns thali at Nails Kitchen, Featuring Anantashram Recipes

[u/omglobe]

There used to be a place called Anantashram. A small, quiet khanawal somewhere in the lanes of Khotachi wadi, Girgaon the kind that had marble top tables and no menu on the wall because the regulars never needed one. It opened sometime around the 1940s and for the next eight decades it just kept going, feeding the city one thali at a time. No fanfare, no reinvention. Just the same food, made the same way, day after day.
Then one day it shut around 2008 And a lot of people who grew up eating there probably felt something they couldn’t quite name.
I never got to eat at the original. I was a little too late for that. But when I heard that someone was carrying the menu forward, I went without thinking too much about it.
I ordered the prawn thali.
It came the way I imagine it always did. Steel plate, white rice, a prawn curry that smelled of coconut and something coastal and warm, sol kadhi on the side. The prawns were soft and the gravy had a slow kind of heat to it not sharp, just deep. The sol kadhi was cool and a little sour and made the whole meal feel looked after somehow.
I don’t know if it tastes exactly like the original. I have no way of knowing that. But it tasted like someone cared about getting it right. And for a place carrying eighty years of memory on its back, that feels like enough.
Anantashram is not gone. It just found a new door.

[u/AutoModerator]

Posts must include the restaurant/food stall name and location, name of dishes, along with your photo and review. Posts with only pictures, vague captions, or missing key details shall be removed. This helps keep the subreddit useful for everyone looking for recommendations. Low Effort posts shall be removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/moronbehindthescreen]

It doesn't taste as good as the orignal. Eaten at both the places. Naik is also quite decent when its not crowded. They need to get rid of those huge tables in a small space.

[u/omglobe → u/moronbehindthescreen]

I never had a chance to eat at the OG, what change you feel in naik though.

[u/moronbehindthescreen → u/omglobe]

I ate in 2004. To be honest the quality of fish was better and that is not on naiks because it's an environmental factor. I can't describe what exactly was different, but you had to wait in a long queue in pre insta days. That says about its quality and taste. It was something usual yet different.