We were in for a pleasant surprise while on our way to Matheran this weekend. The entire stretch of road from Neral to Matheran, which once could have served well as a training ground for ISRO’s Mangalyaan, has now been completely revamped – save for a small area where the last part of the work is being completed. God bless the souls of those who thought of this and those who worked on this!
Anyone who has travelled by road along this part of the world would know that there aren’t many eating places around. Lucky’s is probably the neatest of them all, certainly the biggest - though a restaurant called ‘Namak’ could probably surpass it in near future in that aspect. We have passed Lucky many times during our journeys but had dared to venture inside only a couple of months back. Though the menu boasts of a lot of things we had ordered simple daal-chaawal and masala papad, which had turned out to be one hell of a satisfying meal – prompting us to stop there again on our way back to Mumbai for omelettes. That visit too had gone well.
So on Saturday we decided to have our lunch there before heading onwards to Matheran. We ordered Daal Fry, Paneer Butter Masala and Naan. I had also asked for Khichiya (a kind of a stretched papad) but the server regretfully informed that it wasn’t available. They took longer to serve this time, probably because of the Paneer dish. But when the meal was served it more than made up for the delay. The daal was thick, tasty and had a home-cooked feel about it. The Paneer was soft and the gravy wasn’t overwhelmed by spices the way it is at some eateries serving Punjabi food – definitely easy on tummy. The Naan, in my humble opinion, had too much of butter on it but I was glad to find that it was also soft, and didn’t look like it could give a chewing gum a run for its money!
The place has a good-sized garden surrounding it with lots of rose bushes and a group of ducks waddling about so you feel relaxed as you sit down for your meal. I wish though that they would go for a bigger fish tank – you feel sorry for the fish as there is hardly any room for them to move about (those from the cities would know the pain!). Oh, and while you are at it, can you also remove the portrait of the elephant who looks as if he will charge at the unsuspecting diners at any moment? :) The staff is courteous and friendly. And if you land there well before 1pm you can have the entire place to yourself.
With the good roads and good food, there is no reason not to head to Matheran more often for that much-needed supply of pure O2. :)
Anyone who has travelled by road along this part of the world would know that there aren’t many eating places around. Lucky’s is probably the neatest of them all, certainly the biggest - though a restaurant called ‘Namak’ could probably surpass it in near future in that aspect. We have passed Lucky many times during our journeys but had dared to venture inside only a couple of months back. Though the menu boasts of a lot of things we had ordered simple daal-chaawal and masala papad, which had turned out to be one hell of a satisfying meal – prompting us to stop there again on our way back to Mumbai for omelettes. That visit too had gone well.
So on Saturday we decided to have our lunch there before heading onwards to Matheran. We ordered Daal Fry, Paneer Butter Masala and Naan. I had also asked for Khichiya (a kind of a stretched papad) but the server regretfully informed that it wasn’t available. They took longer to serve this time, probably because of the Paneer dish. But when the meal was served it more than made up for the delay. The daal was thick, tasty and had a home-cooked feel about it. The Paneer was soft and the gravy wasn’t overwhelmed by spices the way it is at some eateries serving Punjabi food – definitely easy on tummy. The Naan, in my humble opinion, had too much of butter on it but I was glad to find that it was also soft, and didn’t look like it could give a chewing gum a run for its money!
The place has a good-sized garden surrounding it with lots of rose bushes and a group of ducks waddling about so you feel relaxed as you sit down for your meal. I wish though that they would go for a bigger fish tank – you feel sorry for the fish as there is hardly any room for them to move about (those from the cities would know the pain!). Oh, and while you are at it, can you also remove the portrait of the elephant who looks as if he will charge at the unsuspecting diners at any moment? :) The staff is courteous and friendly. And if you land there well before 1pm you can have the entire place to yourself.
With the good roads and good food, there is no reason not to head to Matheran more often for that much-needed supply of pure O2. :)
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