While in Mumbai, we thought of enjoying or indulging in some exotic food, and decided to go to the Britannia and Company, an Parsi-Iranian restaurant, located near New Custom House in the Ballard Estate area of South Mumbai.
Founded in 1923, the restaurant has maintained its popularity over the decades. Though Britannia is not a very posh or sophisticated one, their clientele is quite modern and "up-to-date". The rush was quite unprecedented. Inside all the tables were fully occupied with a lot of noise, that excited conversation and friendly banter, as is the usual practice in such places.
The manager noted our names and asked us to wait outside for the turn. On asking how long it will take to get a table, we are told it could take upto one hour. As we were waiting outside, hungry people were scrutinising the menu card and trying to decide on what to eat when they got their tables inside, without wasting any further time. The good thing was that the clients - tourists, office-goers and college-crowd, were waiting very patiently and were being called in as and when the tables were being vacated by the satiated customers.
Despite being told that the waiting time would be an hour, we were able to gain entry in 25-30 minutes.
The menu card is very specific and emphatic in certain instructions, like, "We do not serve beef or beef products; chicken and mutton served boneless; order once placed cannot be cancelled; take away parcels available; all bank holidays open, ten minutes to serve; credit/ debit / food coupons not accepted. Mode of payment; strictly cash INR."
An instruction worth mentioning was "please vacate your seat after receiving the bill and customers are requested to pay their bill to the waiter and please understand that others are waiting".
It was quite evident and understandable that Britannia's intention is to improve the services and security of the clients.
Another interesting instruction said "Any individual or article will be checked on suspicion."
This instruction reminded me of the terrorist attacks on the German Bakery in Pune and the 26/11 attacks on Cafe Leopold, including the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Trident Hotel in 2008. The sole reason for an attack being the heavy rush of the clients due to the popularity of these eating joints, hence an extra care and caution has to be kept in mind.
The restaurant is being efficiently managed by two octogenarian Parsi brothers - the Kohinoor brothers (again as Google told me). One of the brothers, Boman Kohinoor, kept moving around the tables talking to their patrons, ensuring that they were all well-served and returned back happy.
All said and done, the food served is Parsi and Iranian. Our order was for chicken berry pulao, vegetarian Dhansak, salli chicken, fresh lime soda, raspberry soda and caramel custard. In a few moments we were told that the kitchens had run out of vegetarian Dhansak, so we opted for mutton berry pulao instead.
The berry pulao served in Britannia is a variant of the popular Iranian dish - zereshk polow.
Our order was attended to within a reasonable time as promised. It was delicious no doubt. It is understood that the berries, known as Irani zeereshk berries, are purplish-red in colour and are especially imported from Iran. At home, I check out Google, which told me that the berries are barberries - a species called berberis vulgaris. The berries have unique medicinal properties to ward off certain diseases.
The berry pulaos were especially delicious, not excessively oily or spicy, with unique blend sourness and sweetness that comes from the berries. We enjoyed the pulaos with raspberry soda - a very traditional Parsi drink, which is usually had on special occasions.
Indeed, the wait at Britannia was worthwhile, and justified its motto, "there is no love greater than the love of eating".
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