The lockdown effectively eliminated dining out from the list of leisure activities. While that is slowly inching its way back, home chefs have been whipping up a culinary storm, and the people of Bengaluru are spoiled for choice. From Kashmiri Mutton Yakhni to American Burgers, handmade pasta to rustic banana-leaf wrapped biryanis, here’s our edit of what the best home kitchens in Bengaluru are offering.
Wullar Kitchen
Cuisine: Kashmiri Home-style
If there was one cuisine that Bengaluru had missed, it was Kashmiri. But with Wullar Kitchen, the likes of a good Mutton Yakhni, Rajma Mutton, Chatt Ras, Lahabi Kebab, and more can now be tasted. “We intend to bring the flavours of Kashmiri kitchens to people everywhere. There is a lot more to Kashmiri cuisine besides the traditional Wazwaan, and we want to bring this everyday household food to people. Most offerings are mutton or lamb-based, something we pride ourselves in cooking right,” says Owais Rasool Bhat, owner and chef.
Recommended dish: Mutton Yakhni
Availability: Fixed menu for Sunday lunch. Menu out on Wednesday/Thursday
Location: Cox Town
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Anurag Arora
Cuisine: Mostly Italian, Japanese, pastries, and bread
“I recall never having liked any pizzas until I chanced upon one in Naples. I spent the following year re-creating it at home. I started with perfecting the dough. Then I learnt to make my own Buffalo mozzarella and even put a wood-fired oven on my terrace,” says Anurag Arora, home chef. Arora’s food toes the line between experimental and refined and is inspired by travel. Small batch, homemade is his speciality for now, and from his kitchen comes Ricotta Agnolotti with Chicken and truffle brood, sourdough bread, handmade pasta, and ramen.
Recommended dish: Canelé, a French pastry masterpiece
Availability: Weekends only, usually small batches
Location: Indiranagar
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Curly Sue
Cuisine: Pork-centric dishes
Uttam (head chef) and Radhica Muthappa (publicist) are behind Curly Sue, a gourmet slow-cooked pork offering, where each recipe and ingredient has a story to tell. “We have 14 specialities, including four types of small-batch artisan sausages. They are all slow-cooked for between four to eight hours. The Rosemary-Crusted Rack is a signature dish, and curries are Kodava Pandi Curry and Goan Pork Vindaloo. There’s also a fully loaded Liberation Burger Patty and a flavourful Bacon Jam. The Kachampuli is sourced from KarthaKaad, a high altitude estate in Kodagu that has been in our Bottolanda family for six generations. Our masalas are handmade from the lovingly-guarded recipes of our Biddanda grandmother,” explain the couple.
Recommended dishes: Oriental Lindty Chops and Chilli con Carne and Pulled Pork
Availability: Available through the week
Location: Kaverappa Layout
Delivery Mode: Organised by Curly Sue at actuals
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Gonzo G’s
Cuisine: Varies
Food lovers across the city know that any food Gautam Krishnankutty touches turns to gold. His home kitchen focuses on meat preparations, usually pork, beef, seafood, cured meats as well as pickles and sauces. There is no fixed menu, but you will see the likes of a Pepper Pork Curry with Gongura Leaves, a Beef and Gongura pickle, green chilli and garlic grain mustard, a Soy and Cola Poached Smoked Pork Belly, Pineapple Sweet chilli sauce, and so many more.
Availability: Once a week, the day varies
Location: Cooke Town
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Karnivore Kitchen
Cuisine: Meaty delicacies
“What I ensure is a pure, unadulterated ‘Karnivorous’ dining experience. This is an opportunity to indulge in high quality and premium cuts of fatty Bannur lamb and pork. The recipes are curated either from our family treasure trove or are my creations or are my favourite regional dishes, which I’ve researched or borrowed from old families of that region,” explains Kalyan Gopalakrishna, owner and chef.
Specialities include Bannur Mutton Chops Pepper Gravy, Khaima Unde Saaru (lamb meatballs curry), and Bannur Mutton Palav. Gopolakrishna’s creations are Lemon Coriander Pork Ribs, Bannur Mutton Pepper Roast, and Pork Belly Fry. His regional favourites include Kodava Style Pandi Curry and Pork Vindaloo.
Recommended dish: Naati Chicken Palav
Availability: Available through the week on pre-order
Location: Hebbal
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Say You Made It – Kitchen
Cuisine: Traditional family recipes with Mughlai and Dakhni influences; New age, modern
Chef and food consultant Sahar Adil’s food has influences that come together to spell nostalgia in every delivery box. The recipes she uses are her maternal grandmother’s old Calcutta food, and her Hyderabadi father’s side of the family and her in-laws’ distinctly Bengaluru or Dakhni cuisine. “These meals at family meets include favourites like Burmese Khau Suey or Biryanis with Mirchon Ka Salan or just Kabab Paratha. Some of my dishes reflect our everyday food like the combination of Khichdi, Kheema and Til ka khatta or Dal Gosht with Alu Chops served with steaming rice,” explains Sahar. She definitely recommends her burgers and is in the process of introducing baked dishes like potpies and savoury pastries.
Recommended dish: Mutton nihari with sheermal
Availability: Saturday lunch menu, on pre-orders only. Menu out on Wednesday
Location: Frazer Town
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Ghiza Kitchen
Cuisine: Traditional family recipes from Pakistan and Afghanistan
Azra and Himayath’s home kitchen is the only one to bring the flavours of Afghanistan and Pakistan to homes in B’lore. Their home dining experiences are truly one-of-a-kind, but we will make do with deliveries for now. “Before the lockdown, the experience revolved around our familial heritage, of the get-togethers that Pathans had, over food, music, and conversations. Now it is a takeaway menu and our specialities are our signature Ghiza Biryani, in both Mutton and Chicken, the Dum Afghan, Charsi Tikka, and a few others. They are available in combos,” says Himayath.
Recommended dish: Order a combo, especially Nihari with Kulcha and Biryani
Availability: Weekends only; menu on social media
Location: Thanisandra Main Road
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Rati Dhananjayan
Cuisine: Malabar (North Kerala)
Dhananjayan cooks and serves up, in her own words – unrefined, authentic Malabar style home food. “I wanted people to experience that ‘naadan’ taste and flavours of home food that my grandma used to prepare when I was young, without any burden of sophistication. The food is wrapped in ‘vaattiya’ (flame-softened) plantain leaves, which enhances its flavour and then with newspaper, giving it that perfect old-world charm while making the packaging sustainable. Thalassery Moplah biryani is a speciality from our biryani menu as are home-made pickles like tuna and prawns. Kannur style dates and beetroot pickle which accompany our biryanis is also a hit,” she says
Recommended dish: Prawn Biryani
Availability: Weekends only; menu is up midweek and orders close on Friday.
Location: KG Colony, GM Palya
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: Dm on Instagram to place orders
BlackPanda’s Kitchen
Cuisine: American burgers and sandwiches
“We focus on homestyle cooking and portions of American burgers and sandwiches. The juicy, meaty patties are marinated and cooked up just right. All our sauces are made from scratch – think bell pepper, sweet onion and mango basil, and more. Our specialities are our beef burgers and meaty sandwiches, and we also have vegetarian options. Our weekend specials are some great pork/beef curries and roasts (available as 500gms or 1kg portions), with advance orders,” explains Jude Stephen, owner and chef.
Availability: Menu available all week, late nights as well
Location: Kamanahalli
Delivery Mode: Delivery free in 2km radius. Beyond that customer to organise pick-up
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Conosh
Cuisine: A wide range
Pre-COVID, Conosh was all about getting people together over home food. They organised home-hosted food pop-ups and brought in people from different walks of life. “So we decided that till it’s not safe, let’s curate online learning experiences for anyone who wants to cook or needs a break from week-long cooking and look forward to some weekend pampering,” explains Neha Malik, co-founder of Conosh. With the wide range of home chefs on board, there is a smorgasbord of authentic regional cuisines to choose from – Japanese ramen bowls, Latin American empanadas, European quiches, Coorgi Pandi curry, Lucknow’s kebabs, and more.
Availability: Weekends only
Delivery Mode: Conosh organises
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Spices and Toasts
Cuisine: Homemade baked products, desserts, and healthy snacks
For Chef Saakshi Ray, baking and making people happy through her food is what makes her the happiest, she says. Whether you’re someone who has a sweet tooth and are looking for desserts that aren’t available right of the counter in patisseries, or a weight-watcher who wants to indulge guilt-free, she has something for you. Some of what comes from Saakshi’s kitchen include onion and bacon relish buns (you get the relish in a bottle too), Babka (ask for her spiked version), peach tarts, key lime pies, a range of flavoured hummus and pesto, and more.
Availability: Weekend orders for now
Location: Domlur Layout
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Mother Promise Kitchen
Cuisine: Age-old dishes with a twist
“I cook decadent, age-old dishes that we ate growing up, and serve them with a twist. I love discovering unfamiliar ways to celebrate familiar recipes,” explains home cook that I’ve been flooded with requests to make them by the jar. I plan to do the same very soon,” explains home chef Shobini Raghavan. “For example, instead of serving my Naadan beef curry with the usual dosai, I decided to douse them over mini idlis. We named it Beefy-Idli Kutties (babies),) and it was a super hit! Another well-received unusual pairing was my peanut-stuffed brinjal gravy with coconut rice. We called it Nutty Brinjal Kozhambu. With every week’s menu, I also serve one unique ‘touchings’ like puli molaga pickle, mango chutney, date jam, etc. made from scratch to pair with the dishes.”
Availability: Saturday. Menu out on Thursday
Location: Cox Town
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: Dm on Instagram to place orders
Nair’s Home Kitchen
Cuisine: Kerala, Malayalee Food
Authentic Malayalee food for the discriminating foodie is how Sangita Unni, home cook at Nair’s Kitchen, explains her food, and she shares rustic cooking from the warmth of her heart and hearth. You will get to sample like Beef Ularthiyathu (beef roast), Mambzham Pulsheri (mango in a yoghurt based gravy), Beef Pathiri (beef in rice pancakes), Chemeen Ada (prawn in steamed rice pancake), Palada Payasam (creamy, rich pudding with steamed rice chips), and more. She also takes customised orders.
Availability: 3 dishes a week, with updates on Instagram
Location: Richards Town
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Naati Crew Kitchen / The One-Legged Duck Bakery
Cuisine: Authentic South Indian / American
“We cook comforting home food. All our preparations are a combination of old and new recipes made the way your mom or grandmother would. We focus primarily on our South Indian (Bengaluru) classics, homemade burgers, and classic desserts,” explain Gautham Reddy (DJ) and Christine Barretto (pastry chef), the duo behind Naati Crew Kitchen / The One-Legged Duck Bakery. “All the masalas are homemade and cooked solely by us. Our speciality is our Mutton Pulav, Chicken Fry, Lamb Burger, Roast Chicken, Pork Pot Roast, Basque Cheesecake, and Fudge Brownies. Our packaging is eco-friendly too.”
Availability: Weekend only for now
Location: Sahakarnagar
Delivery Mode: Can be organised for customer
Contact: Dm on Instagram to place orders
Tinni Ginni
Cuisine: Bengali with a twist
Here’s how Srobona Das, communications consultant, home chef, entrepreneur describes the food that comes from her kitchen – “A rich yet homely experience of my family’s dining table. Soul food, with a heritage of three generations of food lovers. Bengali cuisine is my speciality, but there are little twists. Given my upbringing in Bombay, a family penchant for experimentation, exposure, love for international cuisine, and 24 years in Bengaluru (expect higher spice levels, less use of mustard oil, organic produce and ingredients sourced from my home state, Bengal). My menu is curated for hearty family meals on weekends”.
Availability: Sunday
Location: CV Raman Nagar
Delivery Mode: Customer organises pick-up (via independent delivery services like Dunzo or WeFast)
Contact: DM on Instagram to place orders
Ruth is an independent journalist based in Bangalore. Always in pursuit of the next story that interests her, loves her food and drink, bookworm and a sucker for sunsets and airplane journeys.
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