#blahvsfood goes to Masala Library, Mumbai

I went to try the new menu at Masala Library recently after being told that many of the things that I disliked in the restaurant were in the past, that the food was simpler and that I would rate it on par with Masque and Indian Accent, my two favourite restaurants in India.

I wouldn’t go that far but I have to admit that the restaurant has definitely improved in terms of both intent and outcome, with cleaner cooking and presentation, fewer gimmicks and more depth of research. 

A lovely bread course

The dabeli didn't really work

Chaats at Masala Library 

Not everything worked. The lamb chops were bony. The puchkas and the jhalmoori cookie were good but could have done with one additional notch of flavour and intensity. The paneer dish felt like a poncified paneer tikka. The dabeli went through contortions of presentation to end up as a dabeli yet again. Most unforgivably the gyaan that comes with the amuse Bouche hasn’t changed.. “to amuse your palate” and “made using molecular gastronomy”. An amuse bouche is meant to stimulate the palate not “amuse” it and I have always wanted tear my hair out at either the ignorance or the condescension of this explanation since the early days of this restaurant. And in today’s day and age you can’t be taken seriously as a restaurant if you’re talking to your guests about molecular gastronomy as a selling point. 

But I still had a good meal because the dishes that did work worked beautifully. There was a dahi Bhalla based chaat where the bhalla had the texture and airiness of a dhokla, retaining all the intensity of a bhalla while losing all the heaviness, a little marvel where you don’t need to use the words molecular gastronomy to realise the brilliance of the technique. 

The Dahi Bhalla was a light as air flavour bomb

The limbiyo avnas sasam goat cheese goli bhaje sounds like overkill and should not work but it does, and brilliantly. A taste explosion, a hot spicy soup cut with cheese and lime and the sugar of the pineapple, filled with flavour with every spoon. 

The podi crusted soft shell crabs had ghee in the podi achieving the impossible of making a soft shell crab dish feel like comfort food. The patthar ka murg with pickled scallions was one of the better cooked chicken dishes you will eat, cooked lightly and quickly on a hot stone, so that it’s still juicy but soft and with minimal garnish so you can actually taste well cooked meat. And the fish fry fish meal was as welcoming as a fish and rice dish gets, with great flavour, great crunch and texture (coming from the inspired choice of a dry prawn churma)  a rare fine dining restaurant dish that feels like you could be eating food cooked by a grandmother at a home.

The dry prawn churma really elevated the fish 

I loved the ghee in the podi crust

Perfectly cooked patthar ka murg

The dessert was also much more restrained than in the past letting the flavour really come across with no distractions. I loved how the wood sorrel balanced the sweetness of the malai chops and I also really enjoyed the mango halwa with almond chikki.

Elegant, restrained desserts

On the whole though, I was happy to see the direction the restaurant is moving in. I have always felt Saurabh Udinia is one of India’s most talented chefs, and the key for him was to realise that his food can speak for itself without any extras. Today I feel that even in his absence (I was well looked after by his sous chef Saurabh Mehta) his food spoke to me of his journey and growth and I look forward to seeing his evolution continue.