Meating at Kalaghoda!

SoBo really doesn’t have many casual good meating joints. Being a meat lover was all excited to go and try this one which is just next to my office. The Boston Butt in Kala Ghoda by Siddharth Kashyap, Nishant Rao and Meghana Shinde, is a new smokery, charcuterie and bar. The Boston Butt is the American name for a cut of pork that comes from the upper part of the shoulder and is usually used for pulled pork.

Ambience: Very vintage and rustic with an old-world charm. Solid wooden floors, custom-made leather chairs and copper fixture, hand painted mirrors advertising alcohol, old-fashioned cut glasses, black and white vintage photographs on the wall, swinging jazz music. The mounted paper lantern “heads” of pigs, rams and stags are a nice touch, as are the mirrors with hand-painted logos of American liquor brands. Bartenders wearing bow-ties and suspenders give the feeling of pre- prohibition era. The restaurant is a split-level space, with the bar upstairs and restaurant below.

Food: Can someone lock me in here all weekend and I won’t mind? There’s a lot of meat on offer, cooked using the low and slow technique where meats are slowly roasted and smoked over hours over wood. The restaurant also makes its own sauces and sausages.They don’t just stop with the meat, but have got some good smoked vegetarian dishes lined up as well, such as the smoked mushroom taco, for traditional American comfort food like the good ol’ mac’n’cheese and onion rings with a barbeque rub but I always stick to meat.  

I started with tomato soup which was served with a buttery herbed thin toast. It had an amazing smoky taste and bacon strips was an extra incentive to me. I am so glad I ordered this as usually I am not someone who orders soups that often.

Next was the smoky barbecue pork served with beans oh so good. I think I really loved the beans which were made in house and did not taste like those canned ones we get in most places. Alongside were two triangular toasts and coleslaw. These were served with 4 sauces : Mustard + Tabasco, Kentucky barbecue, hot chilli barbecue and albama mayo. I wished to take all theirs in-house sauces home.

For mains I ordered the Buffalo Tenderloin Steak  medium, please do not order for well done else it will be very dry. The pink peppercorn sauce was well made, silky and slightly spicy, and the accompanying house-made fries with smoky flavour were served as well. The wilted fenugreek and garlic stir-fry didn’t go well with the steak and it as something I would not enjoy eating alongside.

Dessert was the highlight for me and truly the winner. The Skillet Cookie  was recommended by our server Ajit Kandari, I was glad that I took his advice. The extra-large cookie, baked directly on the skillet, had a texture somewhere between a cookie and a cake. It was pleasantly plump and soft, studded with chocolate chips and doused with chocolate sauce, topped with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, salted caramel ice cream and chocolate ice cream. All familiar and comforting flavours, but the texture of the cookie made it a decadent dessert.

Hospitality and Value: Our server Ajit Kandari was really sweet and knew the details of the dishes and gave the right recommendation. He always had a smile on his face and was quite friendly. 

Cost for 2 : 2200 without alcohol or beverages.