Veda Restaurant & Bar: A Precious Piece Of North Indian Food In Mumbai's Fine Dining Avatar

The problem with coming back from food heaven, like Delhi, Agra, Mussoorie...is you come back to Mumbai. Which is diverse, don't get me wrong. But where it is NOT easy finding really good food at a reasonable price. Up north, even little tapris with 30 buck parathas serve mouth watering awesomeness. But Mumbai? Well, you have small, sensible but awesome places but they are few and far apart. So when I got invited for lunch at Veda, which is fine dining with a diverse menu card in Palladium, Lower Parel, I was sure it was another one of those fancy places with okay food and a pricey menu.

It was not. Because I saw their menu. Expecting the usual list of aloos and paneer, dals and rotis, boring old starters, same old soups, predictable desserts. And it was nothing like what I expected. It has unusual things on it, starters I had not quite heard of, with some usuals of course for people who do not want to experiment. There were different soups, a seriously huge cocktail and mocktail menu, and by the end of that menu, I was pretty sure I wanted to go. Just to see how they would deliver something so unexpected. So off I went for a late lunch at Veda Restaurant and Bar, Palladium, Lower Parel. With CaramelWings.

We started with this take on Papdi Chaat. Only, the Paapdi was a deep fried, thin chick pea batter coated spinach leaf! I have heard of Palak Chaat but that it would be this awesome, totally unexpected! It was crisp, light, non-oily and such an awesome teaser, we could not wait for whatever they had lined up next.

With Caramel Wings grabbed a cocktail, I got a leamony mint tea - warm, luscious, smooth and fresh. It was a hot day and while I was not expecting a hot tea to do anything good, this one actually felt really fresh. Must rearrange my ideas about hot beverages on warm days.

Next up was Kurkuri Bhindi - a rapidly deep fried okra dish, with raw onions, tomato, a mild dash of lemon and chat masala. Now, bhindi is something I never eat in a hotel - I have this mental image of creepy crawlies that live inside bhindis and I do not trust commercial places to get them out before cooking bhindi. But this thin strips of bhindi - well, I trusted I'd see a worm if I saw one. None at all. And glorious bhindi, perfectly deep fried - so efficiently rendered that the crispiness was just right, it was hardly oily and it was a delight to eat it. I could have just eaten this and called it a day. We forgot all about the pudina chutney that came with it.

Next up, we got a platter of kebabs. Caramel Wings for a non veg platter and I got a veg platter. My platter is what you see up front. It has on it, starting from the left, Dahi Ke Kebab, Hara Bhara Kebab, Seekh Kebab, Malai Broccoli Kebab and the Paneer Bhatti Kebab. Let me just say here that while they were all amazing, three of these took the trophy home in this order: Malai Broccoli Kebab which launched glorious, creamy fireworks in my mouth - not a broccoli fan but this? I'd eat this EVERYDAY. This is how we should probably learn to eat our greens. Next bearer of eternal glory was the Dahi ke Kebab which held its texture and was soft, luscious, nestling a little surprising bit of anjeer inside, with a generous binding of crushed nuts. Royal. And finally, the Hara Bhara Kebab, usually a boring old green, dry thing - but this was soft, shallow fried and then baked, holding a nugget of melting cheese inside.

The manager at Veda, Eric, is a master mixer. A teetotaller himself, he is full of stories about the Mumbai that was, the food that we once had in this city, a landscape that is changing so fast that some of the landmark food places are gone. Gone in a way that they may probably never be able to come back. But that is meat for another story, another time. Eric made our beverages. He got cocktails for Caramel Wings, mocktails for me, and this, this was a frozen yogurt with fig and apricots. I am just going to say one thing about this - I can still taste it, I still have a very vivid gustatory memory of this. And we sipped it the whole time and thankfully, it was large enough to last us for a while. And I promise here, now - I am never going to Palladium and leaving without having this. Never. So you should be like me.

By this time, we were maha stuffed but still loved on to the main course. We also promised each other that we'd crawl out of Palladium on all fours and hop into a taxi before we passed out. I got a Lacchha Paratha, sans oil and ghee - flaky, soft goodness. With a Hare Pyaaz Aur Kumbh Ki Subzi - simple, rich and creamy goodness. The mushroom was not overcooked, they were juicy and perfect. Caramel Wings loved the Mutton Rogan Josh and Chicken Begum Bahar she got but I think she loved those mushrooms so much more!

And a Dal Makhni which took me back to the Dal Makhni I had in a dhaba at Panipat. Need I say more?

Which reminds me, I was having this. Too. Malabar Cooler. Coconut water. Cherries. Ice. Mint. And whatever other magic was floating in it, this was such an amazing cooler. Perfect accompaniment, perfect palate cleanser. PLEASE have this.

Desserts. I am not a very big fan of desi sweets - I have few favourites, all mostly far apart. Plus I do not have much of a sweet tooth (good that because if I had one, I'd eat all the cakes I bake). So we got this Litchi Tehri. It was a milk based dessert, with chunks of Litchi floating inside. It was seriously good but a tad too sweet for me.

And another dessert - something that I thought ONLY Caramel Wings made beautifully - for those of you who do not know, she makes a seriously mean Shahi Tukda - every other Shahi Tukda pales in comparison. Except for this - this one comes almost close to the magic she creates. It isn't overwhelming sweetness made rich with a mild kesar flavour, varq, dry fruits and a light drizzle of honey. Life altering. but Caramel Wings still wins - her Shahi Tukda has a whole new texture - crisp! Nevertheless, if you love Shahi Tukda, DO NOT miss this.

What I loved about Veda, other than the food, was the ambiance. Desi but Bohemian and perfect for a long, lazy dinner. or lunch. Over food stories. And beverages mixed by Eric. Ask specifically for him - he is a genius. And his stories about the Bombay that we all lost, of magical restaurants that looked out to the sea, of food cooked on hot steaming coals, of birds that came to peck on fresh fruits and vegetables, and of cooks who chose the produce that the animals chose, because those were ripest, freshest. Let him tell you about it. Let him tell you, about the Bombay we lost.