Gangotri

The company Jenson and Nicholson, have a very famous ad line which goes 'Whenever you see colour, think of us'. I think it could be aptly used in this case in the form 'Whenever you think of 'chaat', think of Gangotri.

Gangotri is one of Bangalore's leading 'Chaat' shops, it has a tremendous reputation of not only making terrific 'chaat' but most of their outlets posses the reputation of having a great level of ambience with in the place itself.

This place has branches located at Palace Road, Koramangla, Indiranagar, R.T. Nagar and one more branch opposite Galaxy theatre. Recently, during the Cricket World Cup'99 the Koramangala branch was given a lot of media coverage because it decided to portray the country's love for cricket by constructing 35 foot cricket stumps in front of their outlet and also by renaming all the dishes on their menu to 'Long on', 'Silly Point', etc. which for the knowledge of a few uneducated people (in the field of cricket) who don't follow the sport with the same passion as the rest of us are fielding positions in cricket.

Now it would be a Herculean task to try and describe all the smells and dishes this place offers but we are going to attempt to do just that. As we walk into the restaurant, the sights that greet your eyes are enough to drive you wild. Mouth-watering Pani Puris, tangy Bhel, lip-smacking Alu chaat as well as a couple of house specials like Rosogulla chaat are seen on people's plates. The sight of these are enough to make you want to eat everything available there.

If you are into spicy sort of 'chaats' then Gangothri has Alu chaat, Churmur and Ghalmuri which are garunteed to set your mouth alight or if that's still not enough you can always make the dish a 'double khara' which makes it twice as spicy. Or if you like the lighter stuff you can always have a sumptous Kulfi or you can choose from a large collection of Bengali and Marwari sweets. Indrani and Motipakh are some of the rich yet not sickeningly sweet 'Mithais'. The favourites for the curd lovers there seemed to be Papadi chaat, Dahiwada, and Dahipuri. Recently they have also added piping hot Ranki roll and Channa Batura to their menu.

The pricing here seemed to be a little higher than other joints at about 20 bucks a plate of chaat but like people. say "you want the best, you gotta pay for it". So if you want the best, you now know the place to be. So the next time you get fed up with your usual greasy 'Chaat walas" you sure know where to go !!!!!