Vegetarians also have the option of the veg kingfish-chunky pieces of fried brinjal-as well as vegetarian versions of xacuti and vindaloo. It’s not half as glamorous as the rest of the menu offerings but makes for a wholesome and comforting dish to eat by itself or with rice.
While seafood is definitely the main character here, the unlikely hero of our meal was the vegetarian wallachi amti made with, not beans, but a local leafy green vegetable and dal. “The next time you come, I can challenge you, the waiters will know what you had ordered”. “We want it to be very homely,” Adith explained. Waiters in Hawaiian shirts serve you spicy appetisers and curries, helping with suggestions when needed. It’s not your classic family restaurant, nor is it an uber-cool fine-dining space. Pale pink interiors, plush sofa booths and hanging cane lights make the ambience modern and laidback. “We wanted the space to be comfortable, where you can sit with your friends and relax,” Ankita explains. It’s quick, easy and cheap, and once you’re done eating, you will be expected to promptly leave. When you’re looking for seafood outside your home, you’re likely to end up eating a fish thali at some humble but iconic eatery in the city. Everything on the menu would go great with a chilled glass of beer, something the brother-sister duo is planning to introduce to the menu, along with wine. Marinades are stored separately from the seafood, which comes in every morning at 4am. “Nothing here is marinated or cooked and then frozen,” Ankita explains, a principle they have carried forward from their father.
Neer dosas are perfectly soft, great to mop up leftover recheado masala, and to dunk into the mellow prawns ambotik curry. The crab meat butter garlic, topped with bits of golden fried garlic, is a dish you’ll find yourself daydreaming about days after your meal. Next came the prawns recheado, large tiger prawns grilled in a fiery red Goan recheado masala that’s spicy without overpowering the fresh sweetness of the prawns. The tawa-fried bombil-almost nothing in the restaurant is deep-fried-was mildly spiced and crunchy, with the middle bone removed so you can chomp down on it easily. We started with the bombil fry, their bestseller. Others are just walking in to see what’s so special about the legacy restaurant. Many are regulars, looking to grab a hearty meal from their go-to restaurant-the Mahim branch is currently under redevelopment. It’s a competitive space to do business, but in the two weeks since they’ve opened for dine-in, Fresh Catch has seen a steady stream of customers. Inside Fresh Catch, Bandra’s newest spot for seafoodįresh Catch is in the heart of Hill Road in Bandra west, flanked by popular restaurants, and shares a floor with Thai restaurant Seefah. She’s a chef herself, with experience at the Oberoi group of hotels, and the two can easily rattle off dishes and names of masalas used in marinades without having to refer to the menu once. “Adith has been a cashier at the restaurant since he was fourteen,” Ankita tells us over glasses of refreshing sol kadi on a hot afternoon. The restaurant was founded by Fernandes in 1998, and when he passed a little over a year ago, his son and daughter decided to take over. In Mahim, Fresh Catch has been something of an institution for seafood lovers for decades.