Goa is the quintessential holiday destination for the
average Indian looking for some sun, sand, beaches and some fun. It is but
natural that restaurants across the country try to replicate the cuisine and
atmosphere of Goan beachside shacks. Nossa Goa (‘Our Goa’) is a new entrant on
the Bangalore restaurant scene which is trying to woo customers with its
laidback ambience and goa vibes. We met up the head Chef who is a true-blue Goan and has been in the industry for a
long time. And this experience did translate into an authentic Goan-cuisine experience.
Ambience:
Located at the entrance of Castle Street with valet
parking, finding and checking in here is a breeze. For any place to at least
resemble even a smidgen of its Goan counterparts,
the ambience has to be laidback. This place gets it spot-on, and this beautiful
Bungalow-converted into a restaurant is well done-up, especially the open
section of the first floor, which is perfect for breezy Bangalore evenings.
Food:
The Patrão: Goan Pork sausages or Choriz is unique in terms of the
spice-quotient in these sausages. The Patrão
(‘The Boss’) stars the Choriz as the
main ingredient. Served with 2 sunny side up eggs, mashed potatoes and choice
of bread. We chose the Undo, a goan bread
with a hard crust but super soft interior. (They have their own bakery, and the
breads here are really well-made, and of course, super-fresh)
The Konkan: This
one was definitely the highlight of the vegetarian fare here. A simple but
effective dish, a mix bhajji which
went superbly well with fluffy puris,
super-soft poee/poi, batata vada and a stuffed mirchi. Loved this dish. Highly recommend it to my vegetarian
friends.
Porky: A pork
lover if there ever was one, this dish was probably handcrafted for me. Coming
to the dish, a lovely, fluffy omelette with bits of cooked pork, bacon and ham
all over, served with potato fritters and a grilled tomato. Breakfast done
right!
Ras Omelette:
Your Goan breakfast experience is
incomplete till you have this marvelous marriage of 2 opposites. An omelette is slathered with a spicy/tangy
red gravy of chicken xacuti and garnished with shallots & green chili.
Divine!
A couple of other item that we liked were the Chicken Roast, which was actually a
variation of a chicken cutlet, but was actually encased in poi and the Full Monty, a typical English breakfast
with bacon, eggs and all that jazz.
Beverages
It’s a shame that this place doesn’t serve alcohol yet,
but they did have some really nice mocktails that we liked. My favorite was the
Nossa Mint Julep, a mint-lemonade
with the hint of orange which is perfect for sultry summers. The kokum
mocktails were slightly disappointing, given the high-sugar content. There was a pina-colada which also had banana in it, and was too thick for my liking.
Verdict: Being
a new entrant on the Goan Food scene
in Bangalore, this place does serve authentic goan food, but most of that is non-vegetarian, and while I enjoyed
it, my vegetarian friends, not as much. Lovely ambience and a good menu do makeup for some of it, but this place needs to find the right combination of dishes
to take it to the next level. With an experienced Goan Chef at the helm, I am
sure it will.
