It was always a family run venture supported by Shashikala’s mother Mohini and later on her sons and daughters-in-law. Till date she is actively involved in concocting those miraculously divine curries & sukes and the yummy gravies & fries. She is the guiding force behind this place and Ramesh is the anchor!

This joint never had to wait for customers neither did it have to advertise itself since day one. It’s unmistakably authentic, homely Goan taste did the trick. Our satisfied customers vouch for the authenticity by saying that hotels in Goa fail to offer this taste.

Starting as a 30 seater, the sprawling premises today offers 120 seats with its signature sweet music, fast moving customers and equally fast service! During the daytime that is 11.30 am to 3 pm, it is mainly a place for office lunch timers and hoards of people coming to BKC and adjoining places for business.

Evenings are relatively peaceful. One can see families enjoying the green surroundings, children having fun in the garden followed by steaming hot homely food served in homely atmosphere. The seating, the interior, the steel ware used are of very basic type. It gives a feeling of eating in an old style big joint family kind of house. The menu card uses names straight from the Goan kitchen. Various curries sport names like aamti, dabdabit, kadhwan, etc, whereas items on the drier side are suke, kismur, balchao and so on. We, the Potnis family insist that all our esteemed customers are eating from our home kitchen; same food that we and our children eat.

The day starts early at around 4.30 am, when Shashikala along with helpers, starts with the grating and grinding. As the day proceeds, supplies are brought in by other family members and their processing starts one by one. Things proceed in a perfectly orchestrated manner including a small breakfast break for the employees and the family. Little before 11 am we are ready, when Ramesh starts by offering prayers to the kuladaivat or the family deities, followed by kakbali or food offered to the crows. It is a common belief among hindus that food offered to the crows reaches their forefathers.  

Most of the times, customers are ready before we are.  Activity begins from the word go! A steady flow of table customers and parcel orders streams in till 3.30 pm. Then it is lunch time for family and employees. The eatery closes for the 1st session. The flurry of activity continues from 7.00 pm till 10.30 pm and longer on week ends in the second session. An extremely delicate and difficult task of refusing entry to the customers after the stipulated time has to be handled by us.

The place attracts repeat and new foodies alike. There are many visiting the place practically everyday. Many more visit individually in the day and along with family in the evening. The diaspora of our customers is spread over all wakes of life. From corporate heads to housewives, from businessmen to students, from professionals to artists, from intellectuals to the glitterati all enjoy our food alike. Many have dug their canines into flesh for the first time in this place. They have only followed the experts’ advice that this is THE place if one wants to start venturing into non-vegetarianism. Vegetarians also have a reason to rejoice as now we have more to offer them than we had earlier. In festive times we offer appropriate savories like modak, patolya, puranpoli, managane etc. and tasty treats like tondlibhat, masalebhat, kaap (sliced and shallow fried vegetables) and so on.

The key ingredient of all the veg-nonveg food here is the freshness. Unlike some famous fast food joints where some bakery products used can be months old, none of our supplies are more than 36 hours old. Fish, chicken, mutton and vegetables are all freshly procured, rather handpicked by the family members. When certain fish is not available we choose to skip the items rather than using the frozen ones.