[Bramhall, Greater Manchester] Bombay to Mumbai - Parsi tasting menu 2025

Regional Dining Discussions U.K., Ireland
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We were last here before Christmas and wouldn’t usually leave it so long between visits but we’d been away, eating out every night of the three weeks and, frankly, were just a bit bored with restaurant food. So, we’d left it till there was one of the Sunday evening special menus – a seven course feast featuring dishes from India’s different regions and cultures. This was for Novruz – New Year for the Parsi community, many of whom live in Mumbai.

Osh-e-Meer is a lentil soup traditionally served at Novruz. It’s deliciously enhanced with herbs and noodles. Then Akuri – scrambled eggs, lightly spiced, served on toast as a breakfast dish. The eggs come much more well cooked than a western version. It’s OK, but was my least favourite dish of the evening. My companion in life has an aversion to eggs so was offered a vegetable alternative – I think it was the veg mix that usually goes with vada pav (the Mumbai veggie “burger”). Next, Marghi na Farcha – the Parsi answer to KFC, if you will. Moist chicken, crisp coating, yoghurt sauce. What’s not to like

I love lamb keema, particularly when there’s peas to soften the chilli heat. This is a star dish, served with a little bread. And, for the last of the starters, Patra Ni Machchi – sea bass, marinated in coriander and coconut past, then wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. It’s light yet very flavoursome, a contrast to some of the earlier dishes.

Then it’s on to the “main event”. As always, on these tasting menu evenings, you’re served a thali – a metal platter, divided so a range of dishes can be served. There’s Dahi Ma Bheeda, a yoghurt okra curry which divided us – I thought it nice, not so nice was the opinion on the other side of the table (but then they are rarely keen on dairy based dishes). Salli Boti is a celebratory lamb dish, often served at Parsi wedding. There’s tender lamb, a well rounded sauce with a good hit from chilli and a sprinkle of potato straws (the “salli”). The final dish was chicken dhansak. I first had a proper dhansak in a Parsi owned restaurant in London, where the owner told that it’s as important a family dish as a Sunday roast would be to Britons. And you can see why. The sauce is fantastic – cooked with different lentils and a vegetable puree. We could have happily eaten this without the chicken. For carbs, there’s a roti and rice enhanced with sharp citrusy barberries

And for dessert there’s a falooda. It’s sweet and calming after all the spice. It’s mainly rose flavoured milk, with dried fruits, basil seeds, noodles and a dollop of kulfi ice cream

As always, we had a nice evening, Sandeep and Donya were the essence of hospitality. The Parsi menu is being offered on a couple more Sundays this month.The success of the restaurant has meant they’ve again been included in the 2025 Good Food Guide and are in the running for the Guide’s “best local restaurant” award.

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Sounds like a great meal, John.

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Menu sounds great.

It’s interesting the coating was crisp, as it was at a Parsi meal we had in nyc, as Farcha actually has a soft, lacy, egg & flour coating. Probably more appealing to those not familiar with the original dish.

Falooda is a brave choice! (I picked out the kulfi when I encountered it earlier this year.)

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I think there had been a bit of a tweak in the flavourings but otherwise, this was their standard menu offering of a kulfi falooda. It’s a bit of a faff to eat - you get a teaspoon to eat it with, which isnt big enough to catch the strands of vermicelli.

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We were here last month and I wouldn’t usually write another review so soon. But, this was another of B2M’s Sunday night tasting menus. Unlike others we’ve eaten, this one isnt devoted to the dishes of a region of India but to a vital component of Indian cuisine – the lentil. Yes, every course is lentil based.

First up, a red lentil soup to wake up the taste buds. Heat from chilli, a tang from mango powder (amchoor). Then a canapé sized version of a B2M menu item – Sindhi Dal Pakwan. Crisp flatbread topped with a dal and chutney from Sandeep’s ancestral home in Sindh province, now in Pakistan (the family fled to India in 1947 – see later).

Ram Ladoo is a street food lentil fritter from Delhi. Tasty in itself and enhanced with toppings of grated mooli, chilli, coriander and tamarind chutney. When many Hindu Sindhs, including Sandeep’s grandfather, fled their homes in 1947, they found refuge in Ulhasnagar – a town on the outskirts of Mumbai. So, as the menu proclaims, the next dish is crafted with heritage and pride. And, rightly so, this was probably the best thing we ate all evening. A seemingly simple sandwich – a bit like an American grilled cheese sandwich, in that a really tasty dal is the filling between two slices of bread which is then fried to crisp on both sides. It’s delicious. The final “starter” was Dal Idli – the idli (steamed lentil cakes) seemed firmer than I’ve had them in the past but none the worse for that. They came with a lovely tomato chutney.

And then it was on to the thali platter. Murghlai Dal was rich from cream and butter, with a bit of texture from green lentils. I’ve had Chicken Dalcha at a different restaurant – chunks of chicken in a lentil based and very well rounded sauce. It was good there and its good here. Lamb is also always good here, so not surprising that we enjoyed its pairing with another nicely flavoured lentil sauce.

We were intrigued to see how lentils would work their way into dessert. Yellow moong dal was cooked with milk, dried fruit and nuts. Flavour was good – sweet but not overly so. But the texture was a bit gloopy for our tastes

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Sounds lovely. I have to look up a couple of the things you mentioned (dal sandwich for eg), which is always a good reminder of how vast each individual regional cuisine is,

Moong dal halwa / sheera is a specialty across a few regions that is really a labor of love. Looks like a mess until the very end when it goes from gloop to perfect! Also loaded with ghee.

There are actually a bunch of legume-based desserts, as both the beans and their flours are in constant use across all courses — besan laddoo/ halwa is the most “common” of the lot and found in many regions. It’s made with ground gram flour (besan), as are some other desserts you might recognize like boondi laddoo.

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Apparently, it’s very specific to the town and not widely available even in other parts of Mumbai. Sandeep said he has relatives who live in Ulhasnagar and he was going to send them a photo showing that the local delicacy had made its way to northwest England. I love a bit of food history.

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Yes, looks like a Bombay sandwich topped with dal.