The Legacy of Traditional Food and Family Recipes

Walking down the lane of Zaveri Bazaar you will see many Bhagat Tarachands with a K or R or G but I chose to visit B Bhagat Tarachand (BBT). Started almost 40 years back by Shri Tarachand Chawla from Karachi, Pakistan who had moved to India after the partition. He started his business from a refugee camp where he cooked sabzi and roti. He directly served the sabzi over the roti on streets and where political rallies were held. Devki (by his wife's name) was the first restaurant in this lane where Shri Tarachand distributed food to the traders on credit (chopdi system) who were his regular customers and couldn't pay immediately. He was so generous that even if people did not have money he happily served them food. He wanted people to not starve and have fresh home style food so to give him honour people started calling him "Bhagat"

A Lane of Zaveri Bazaar

Ambience and Staff:

B Bhagat Tarachand which opened with only a ground floor in the New Year's week of 1978 is now the biggest of all the Bhagat Tarachand outlets. This three floored restaurant has non Ac seating for 130 and Ac seating for 80. The interiors are simple with 50 smiling faces serving piping hot meals. 

Roti in Making

The two brothers Mr. Hitesh and Rahul Chawla along with their uncle follow the concept " Fresh Good Quality Food" and they their tagline says "Be Vegetarian, Be Healthy"  Not too many outlets but apart from Zaveri Bazaar there are a few  in Mumbai as they believe in quality than quantity.

All the 4 outlets have the same basic style of preparation. They prepare food in 3 batches in a day so what you eat is absolutely fresh. They do not throw away the left over food but distribute it first to their staff and then to the poor or needy outside the street.

Clean Kitchen Counters

The Tasting Tummy Talks about The Food :

They serve Traditional Indian home style food which is a mix of Marwari - Gujarati dishes prepared in pure ghee and butter. They also serve home style North Indian gravies, Pav bhaji, Misal and much more.  We decided to stick to their traditional dishes. 1 cheat day is okay if you have a fitness bug in you 😜😝 Stop calculating your calories and give a treat to your taste buds.  

Welcome drink had to be chaas as I was curious to try it from the beer bottle. 

The Concept of Chaas (buttermilk)  served in Beer Bottles was started here. You can add salt and jeera(cumin seeds powder) to enhance the flavour of your chilled chaas. Say no to cold drinks and yes to a bottle of chaas.

Kutchi Beer for Two

If you don't like chaas much but like thick sweet lassi (traditional yogurt-based drink) then what are you waiting for? It is Malai Marke (topped with thick cream) 😉  I think my search for good lassi ends here.

Sweet Lassi

Khichiya papad is a traditional gujarati dish. Had my first bite of it, crunchy to the core, and as tongue-tickling as a snack can get. This Khichiya papad was scrumptious topped with butter, red chilly powder and finely chopped coriander. It did not get soggy till the last bite of my meal.

Khichiya Papad

Papad Churi,  a favourite Marwari snack that often accompanies meals. As the name suggests it is a preparation of 5 crushed papads which are tossed in spices and ghee garnished with coriander. I have never had such delicious papad churi elsewhere. I don't love papad but after tasting this one I finished almost half the portion. So crispy that I got a parcel for home and it actually stayed fresh for 3 days.  I highly recommend to try this here. 

Papad Churi

Next I ordered 2 starters, Hara bhara Kebab and Paneer Lasooni Tikka.

When it comes to vegetarian starters, we have quite a few choices and among them is delicious Hara Bhara Kebab. These kebabs get their color with spinach and softness if you add paneer to it. It was delicious and spicy served with chutney.

Hara Bhara Kebab

The cottage cheese cubes were well marinated and cooked to perfection in tandoor. Paneer Lasooni Tikkas were soft and they made sure to serve enough salad to feed a family of 4 😋

Paneer Lasooni Tikka

Let's move on to Mains. So we ordered their traditional sev tamatar, aloo methi, double dal tadka, paneer bhurji as I have this thing for paneer and yellow dal.

Aloo methi is a classic north Indian dish. It was simple, less spicy, less oily and home style which went well with their special ghee roti. 

Aloo Methi

 You will definitely not find this style of rotli in Maharashtra. 

Special Rotli

Every gujarati prepares sev tameta nu shaak. Their version of sev tamatar had gathia. This dish can go wrong if the correct tomatoes are not handpicked from the market. But here it was like maa ke haathon ka khana.

Sev Tamatar

And comes by favourite Double Dal Tadka Fry. Yes it has lots of butter and is heavy Mmmmm.... 😍😋💓 Buttery, flavourful tadka makes it mouth watering. Eat it with sada roti or steamed rice.

Double Dal Tadka

Butter roti was absolutely soft and tawa fresh!!

Butter Rotli

They have 6 types of gravies 😮 paneer tikka gravy for jains and non jains, basic onion-tomato gravy, the deluxe items served in hyderabadi gravy and then the onion gravy. They do not add corn starch in the gravies is what makes me happy while having them. 

Paneer bhurji was smooth, shredded paneer tossed in onion-tomato gravy with masala and spices. Home style but not my favourite here as I really like the one made by a punjabi maa.

Paneer Bhurji

I can never leave a place without desserts so Moong Dal Halwa, Rabri and Gulab Jamuns for us. If you love Gajar Halwa do visit them in the month of December and January to satisfy your taste buds.

Moong dal halwa is a popular Rajasthani sweet.  It takes a long time and lots of patience to prepare a good moong dal halwa and requires a little extra ghee too. This moong dal halwa was rich and delicious, garnished with chopped nuts.

Moong Dal Halwa

Not the best Gulab Jamuns I've had.

Gulab Jamun

I really got nostalgic when I tasted this Rabri, it reminds me of my grandfather who used to bring it for me whenever I went to see him no matter what the occasion was. I was really sad when that shop shut but my search for good rabri went on and on and now it ended here. People can fool you in the name of rabri by selling you mawa rabri but not at B Bhagat Tarachand. It was so good that I packed for home.  Best rabri is made when you leave milk to simmer over a low heat for hours and keep stirring it at intervals until it is reduced to one quarter with perfect amount of sugar and not artificially make it thick by using mawa. I completely relished this chilled treat 😋

Chilled Rabri

Review: I recommend you to go here empty stomach because you are going to intake a lot of calories, heavy food with  ghee and butter and loads of yumminess!! Try their traditional dishes. I recommend you to definitely not skip their Papad Churi, Moong dal Halwa, special roti, Rabri and Double Dal Tadka. You will not find such pure traditional food anywhere in Mumbai. They serve quality food, maintain cleanliness in their ala carte kitchen (curious me loves to check out restaurant kitchens). I give it a 4.3/ 5