Tathya – Be Truer To The Food You Serve!

I was craving Indian food and I wanted to visit some place new which is why Priyus and I chose ‘Tathya’, for our one on one, monthly, meet-up. Tathya is located at the new Mills Compound, Sassoon Road.

The interiors are tastefully done up. They usually have dim lights so if you are planning to click photographs, request for a table that has brighter lights (they have one such table). 

Their bar seems well stocked. The loos are clean. They have a shoe polishing stand in the bathroom but no toilet paper. I found that to be a tad weird. There are more chances of people visiting the loo, wanting to wipe their tushy rather than wanting to have their shoes polished. Just saying, justttt sayinggg! *evil grin*

Now on to the service aspect. They need to employ a consultant/soft skill trainer to train their servers and build their confidence. I saw servers standing by discussing stuff instead of keeping their eyes on the room to check if anyone was trying to draw their attention. I was and they were engrossed in talks of their own. Also, with regard to setting the table and being knowledgeable of the menu, most had no clue, and, at each time, would run to call the Captain. Running around like headless chicken is not my idea of ‘good service’. 

Time and again, I saw a young chef come out from the kitchen to stand and gab-giggle with the servers and no, they were definitely not discussing food orders, they were merely ‘gappa-marofying’. I have to say, though, at all times, the servers were definitely polite and courteous.

Getting on to the food…

We began with a Karari Roomali Roti which should, ideally, have been brought to the table very carefully but was brought chipped at one corner. I let that pass and we dug in as we were very hungry. 

The roti was absolutely bland, it had absolutely no seasoning, no spices (chili powder or chat masala) sprinkled on top, no butter or ghee drizzled. It was a dry, dry, dry roomali roti. The chef simply made it ‘karara’ and threw chopped onion, tomatoes and sev over it. Raw onions, raw tomatoes, a bit of sev do not a Karari Roti make! Btw, it’s priced at Rs 240 and I’ve had it at other places for the same price, but they were way, way better and well worth the price. This one was NOT! Until they get this right, do not try it.

I ordered a Mutton Paya Soup. I had asked the server if the soup would have paya in it and he had replied in the affirmative. What you see in the pic is what I got. A long bone with sinew that i could not chew. The soup, though, was nice and meaty in flavour but, this too, lacked seasoning. I added a dash of salt and pepper and voila! It turned into a flavour bomb! Absolutely yum!  I’d request the chef to check the seasoning for the food he cooks. I’d definitely have this again!

Our choice for starters were Galouti Kebab with Sheermal and Mushroom Multani. 

The Mushroom Multani was excellent. Absolutely no complaints there. If you like mushroom, do not miss out on this dish! 

As for the Galouti Kebab with Sheermal: the Sheermals were nicely made but the ‘infusion of saffron’ (as mentioned in the menu), simply did not come through. It definitely needs a stronger infusion. Taste-wise, I could not fault the spice-mix of the Galouti kebabs, but the texture was definitely wrong. Galoutis are pasty and have a melt-in-the-mouth in texture. The mince for this was merely finely ground. It definitely did not melt on my palate. Achieve the ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ texture and this one will go on to be a winner.

For mains, we chose, Zaffrani Malai Kofta, Nihari Gosht, Lasooni Dal Palak, Churchur Paratha and Butter Garlic Naan.

The gravy of the Zaffrani Malai Kofta was delish. Creamy with a hint of sweet. The koftas, ideally though, should have been soft balls of stuffed cottage cheese but in actuality were hard balls of stuffed cottage cheese. As my friend said in Marathi, ‘chivvat aahes’. She wasn’t wrong!

The Nihari Gosht wasn’t a bad dish. It had a nice gravy, but it wasn’t a ‘Nihari’ gravy. Also, they should probably change the of this dish to Nihari Haddiya. The server came up to me and mentioned they use curry cuts instead of Nallis. I told him I was fine with curry cuts. When the dish arrived at the table, I took 2 pieces of mutton, they turned out to be bones (with NO meat on them). I took three more pieces, with the exact same result. I dug into the bowl of gravy trying to find a piece of mutton and, luckily, I found a tiny piece that needed an extra 10 to 15 minutes on the stove. You get my drift, right? The remaining two pieces in the gravy were also bones hence decided to leave them right where I found them. Seven pieces of bones with NO meat on them and 1 tiny one-inch piece that was a tad tough to eat. What in the world did I pay Rs 560 for? Why not reduce the pieces of mutton to 5 instead of 8 and ensure the customers get good meaty pieces? I felt totally cheated with this one. Again, until they improve the dish, do not waste your money over this one.

The Lasooni Dal Palak was flavourful but here too, it wasn’t perfect. Some strands of the palak felt raw to the palate. It was as if the chef wanted to hurry up the cooking process so he could walk out of the kitchen and gab-giggle with the rest of the staff. I did mention he did that earlier. 

The Churchur Paratha and the Garlic Butter Naan were very nice, especially the Garlic Butter Naan. We loved it! I could easily eat it as a snack, all by itself.

We finished the meal with Kulfi Falooda. It was excellent! The quality of rabdi and kulfi were superb! The quantity of sabza spooned over the kulfi and the sev over which the kulfis were placed were also sufficient in quantity. 

They hadn’t been stingy with either and I LOVED that! This should definitely go on the ‘MUST-TRY’ list.

The portion size of the dishes is good which is why the prices seem to be quite okay but they cannot get away with serving bones in dishes where they need to serve mutton. That is definitely NOT done. You call yourselves ‘Tathya’ (truth-true-fact), you need to be true to the food you serve. I look forward to visiting you again, maybe with lesser or no complaints to pen.

They charged us 5% service charge which was okay. I did not feel the need to round it off to 10%. The total bill amount was INR 4367. I used a food app which gave me a dish free and the total went on to be INR 3807. When I checked the bill, they had overcharged us for a Fresh Lime Soda. I brought it to their notice, and they took it off the bill. The final amount paid was INR 3657. Always remember to check each item on the bill. It’s NOT bad manners (or cheap) to do so. It’s your right because it’s your hard-earned moolah.

Food: 2.5 (lots of misses which, ideally, could have been hits)

Ambiance: 3/5

Service: 2.5/5

Overall: 2.75/5

Address: The Mills Compound, Behind Sheraton Grand, 7 to 10 R.B Motilal Road, F&B Unit 2&3, Bund Garden Road, Pune

Tel: 020 71967619