Chinese to Ice cream: Explore these five unique thalis in Mumbai

Carbs in the centre and katoris of sides around the edge beckoning you to ride a flavour carousel of sweet salt bitter sour astringent and spicymdashgrowing up wersquove seen restaurants typically offer a choice of vegetarian or meatbased thalis Rice dal vegetables roti papad dahi or raita small amounts of chutney or pickle and a sweet dishmdashbeing the staplesWhat we were not prepared for was to see some of our favourite solo dishesmdashmisal pav pav bhaji and ice cream evenmdashshapeshift into thalis Herersquos a curation of the five best ones across the city and where to find themChinese thali at Tadka and SpiceWhatrsquos better than desi Chinese A platter full of desi Chinese We remember the time when these were called combos but some hotelier thought lsquoWhen in Romersquo and embraced the Indian name for it Varun Santani the proprietor of Tadka and Spice says he experimented a fair bit before settling on the current thali which has fried rice schezwan rice hakka noodles a Manchurian gravy and a paneer gravy ldquoWe used to also serve a starter but discontinued it because it wasnrsquot costeffective Especially with Chinese food customers like to try a little bit of everything and this thali offers them just thatrdquo says SantaniPuranpoli thali at KharwasRani Sutar who launched Kharwas in Kamothe Navi Mumbai wanted to bring a touch of rural Maharashtra and itrsquos heritage to the city ldquoAs a child I remember that puran poli was always accompanied by so many other dishes not just one or two I wanted to restart that traditionrdquo she says Today one of the most ordered items on their menu is this heavenly combo of puran polis milk gulawni jaggery syrup kat aamti a spicy curry potato sabzi rice bhajis and kurdai a thin curly fritter made from wheat The result Sutar says is that youngsters who would earlier come with friends have now started bringing their elders to Kharwas ldquobecause the children just know that their parents and grandparents will love itrdquoMisal thali at Ladu SamratA favourite for Maharashtrian snacks since 1967 Ladu Samrat brought the misal thali to their menu in 2022 This was around the time of the great mix lentil revival in the form of the misal thali spreading across several outlets in Pune Apart from the cult favourite misal and pav Ladu Samratrsquos misal thali has papads curd onion and potato bhajis a gulab jamun and buttermilk ldquoPeople love itrdquo says Santosh Chandan who heads the Thane outlet ldquoThey get to sample multiple dishes and they get it at a cost less than the individual cost of each dish Whatrsquos not to loverdquoIce cream thali at Kiga Ice creamWersquore considering a signature campaign seeking the Nobel for whoever thought of a whole thali full of icecream Speaking to Prasad Pawar who runs Kigarsquos outlet in Nerul we realise itrsquos not just about quantity a good deal of thought has gone into curation ldquoThe Peshwai Thali has seven icecream flavours from Maharashtrian favourites Puranpoli modak and the masala doodh that we have on Kojagiri Poornima They are all placed around a bowl of Mango Mastanirdquo says Pawar who started the outlet for the Punebased chain in 2020 They also have a kids thali with chocolate red velvet cotton candy flavours encircling a chocolate mastani and a dedicated chocolate icecream thali with five different flavours of the favourite that a group can sample to decide on the one they wantPav bhaji thali at Flavours Of HomeIs there scope to make the filling and delicious pav bhaji even more fun as a meal The folks at Flavours of Home in Kalyan certainly think so They have two options The first is a thali with pav bhaji and tawa pulao with plenty of chopped onion and green chutney thrown in And for larger groups therersquos the Bhaubali pav bhaji thali that holds a large tub of bhaji 16 pavs eight gulab jamuns and a bottle of soft beverage ldquoItrsquos just innovationrdquo says Kanchan Awsarkar who started the joint last year ldquoThis area has many other eateries and the main clientele is college students And they love variety so wersquod like to give them some The pav bhaji thali is ordered by individuals or groups of two while large groups or families go for the Bahubalirdquo