Fading aura, deteriorating quality. Review on Mavalli Tiffin Room, Lalbagh Road, Bangalore

For those Bangaloreans who were used to the MTR of the old, the current establishment is a pale reflection of the old. There is more hype and image than quality. The old management insisted on the quality that was delivered and hence stuck to their adherence to the decades old practises. The new avatar is slowly killing the quality while hyping up the hype. The fare dished out, especially on crowded Sunday mornings (the only days us working types can make it comfortably), is going from bad to worse. My wife and I have gone to MTR atleast once in 4 months just for a change. There are numerous eateries that offer Sunday breakfast/brunch, but we still force ourselves once in a while to get up early, go for a walk in Lalbagh and then end up at MTR.

The last few times we did this, the result was very disappointing. We are still made to wait, still made to register out names, still endured the gloomy waiting room for 45 minutes (mind you, you need to be there before 8:30 am to get in faster than that) and finally entered to sit down. What is available? Usual Kharabath, Rava Iddly, Masala Dosai (Iddly, Poori and other items get over before 8:00 am on Sundays). I ordered Rava Iddly and Masala Dosai, my wife opted for Kharabath and M Dosa. We thought we will have a sweet while waiting. The sweet was very hard, but passable, . The sweetened milk gravy sort of made up for the hardness once you managed to break it up. Rava Iddly took a good 10 minutes to come. It was not hot. Moreover it was quite hard. It looked like it was made from the packets of Rava Iddly mix that MTR has been branding about of late. The accompanying potato dish was nice, but the quantity was just barely enough. Earlier, there was more than enough quantity. My wife was happy with her Kharabath and said it was ok.

This is followed by another 10 minutes wait for MDosa. It finally arrives. The Dosai is quite poorly made. It looks like the batter has gone more sour than required and hence rava and fenugreek paste has been mixed to hide the taste. Again the potato masala is barely enough to eat the Dosa. It is extra thick in pieces and not uniformly soft. The chutney that comes with it is very hot (chilly hot) and you are advised to pour the ghee to mollify the chilly. There are better establishments of the old (like Vidyarthi Bhavana in Gandhi Bazaar) where much better Dosas are made. Disappointed with both the Iddly and Dosai, we order Coffee. Both my wife and I are unequivocal in our condemnation of the quality of the Dosa.

While waiting for coffee, we saw lots of the sweet that we had earlier (minus the thickened sweet milk gravy) carried downstairs in a ugly looking blue bucket. We just hoped that it was cleaner than it looked from outside and tried to forget we had that sweet just sometime back. I forgot the name of the sweet, but the waiter had proudly told us that it was a Sunday speciality!!! Coffee used to be served in two silver tumblers (the other one for mixing) and is usually served piping hot. This time around, it came in cups. It was quite brackish (the decoction tasted as if it has been reheated) and very strong (almost dark brown in colour). It was also quite watery perhaps due to hot water poured in the decoction to increase the supply of available coffee. I asked for some milk to lighten it up. This took another 10 minutes to come. The waiter bought what was essentially very dilute milk. I poured it in the coffee and mixed it. It became lighter, but now it was almost like brown water. I stopped drinking it. My wife had Badam milk which was thankfully pre-prepared and that was the only saving grace.

We walked out of the establishment with a very dissatisfied feeling. Looking back, the past few times that we came here too were not memorable with some disappointment or the other. This time around, we found an appreciable drop in both quantity and quality while the hype still remained as ever. We told each other that it is time we stopped coming here. Look at our experience, we spent close to 2 hours, about Rs 120 (Rs 60 per head) and came out dissatisfied with the quality of the food. It is probably not worth the hassle anymore.