JOIN USFor some 'Gowdru oota'
Opened a year and half ago by Amarnath and his brother Nandish Gowdru, Gowdru Hotel serves Gowda staple. “The joint was started with an idea of dishing out home-made food. “It’s quite like what you would eat at home. We make sure that all the ingredients are bought, dried and ground by us. In fact, my mother decides what and how much of an ingredient goes into each dish. She suggests and we just carry it out. As children, we used to eat home-cooked food and this is the taste we serve to people who come here,” explains Amarnath.
The joint opens for lunch at 11 am, takes a two-hour break and opens again at 6 pm for dinner. The menu is a must try. There’s ‘naati chicken masala’ that is cooked in the traditional style. ‘Naati chicken’ means the chicken that’s bred in the countryside and not the one that’s available in cold storages.
“The freshness is what comes through in all the dishes. The spice is medium and we make sure we don’t use green chillies, instead we used red chillies,” explains Amarnath. But why not green chillies? “Green chillies cause indigestion and heart burning. The red chillies, used in moderate quantities, don’t cause harm to the system, especially if the powder is ground at home,” says Amarnath.
The chicken, mutton and egg biryani are made with less oil. The spice and masala are minimum. Another speciality is the ‘mutton beegara oota’ meal that comes with biryani rice, plain rice, raw salad, raggi mudde, mutton fry — all for Rs 132. Then there’s the ‘chicken beegara oota’ and ‘special Gowdru Oota’ that come with the same combination and are priced at Rs 118 and Rs 115 respectively.
There’s also the ragi mudde oota that’s complete with mudde, rice, boiled egg and rasam. It might come across as expensive for an afternoon meal but Amarnath explains that it’s priced so because it has everything — both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. He says that the meat is bought fresh every morning and he makes sure he uses low calorie oil so that people eat healthy.
“Most of the dishes we serve are non-vegetarian but we make sure that what one eats doesn’t leave one uncomfortable, that’s why we use less oil, less spice and don’t compromise on the taste,” he adds. The cooks have been brought in from Mandya and everything is cooked in traditional Mandya style. “I supervise at every level and make sure that the surroundings are kept clean,” he observes.
The other highlights of the menu are ‘chicken pepper fry’; ‘chicken mandakini’, that’s first coated with an egg mix and later fried like kababs; ‘chicken green fry’ which is cooked in methi and pudina; ‘mutton chops’ and ‘mutton keema balls’.
The hotel serves breakfast only on Sunday mornings which comprises two idlis and ‘leg soup’.
Gowdru Hotel is located at No. 31, Ground Floor, 9th B Main Road, Chairman Papaiah Reddy Layout, Banaswadi, next to Banaswadi sub-registrar’s office, HRBR Layout.
For details, call 9902769570.