Maia – For The Mothers, By The Mothers – A Restaurant Review

Sometime in August 2017, I was invited for the preview of an upcoming restaurant Maia at Sarjapur Road, Bangalore. Maia is a very unique concept which aims at celebrating the mothers and their recipes. Every mother’s recipe is unique and is filled with love.

Maia is a movement for the mothers, by the mothers!

Maia is the brainchild of Sejal Shah who is a doting mother and Ishan, her nephew. Maia promises to give the woman an opportunity to showcase their talent and creations via their recipes in their launch stage of Maia via the Café & Patisserie.

Maia has 5000+ sq. ft. restaurant space. It has 3 levels which are spread over an alfresco dining area by a water body and open-to-air decks on the levels above. Besides the Café and Patisserie, Maia houses a Mother’s Cook Studio, a Recipe Repository, a Banquet space to accommodate between 60 to 80 people, A Shop-in-Shop retail space, a Baby Feeding & Care station and a Cheese making den amongst others.

• Mother’s Cook Studio – This is the place where cooking workshops by mothers could be conducted.
• Recipe Repository – They’re going to collect the recipes shared by mothers from across the country. Guests could take down the recipes for them to try at home, but mobiles are not allowed, they need to note down the recipes.
• Retail Space – This will store the home made spices, pickles, jams etc. by the mothers which the guests could purchase.
• Cheese Making Den – Cheese would be made in the house. Occasionally cheese making sessions would be conducted by Sejal.

A very special menu was created by Sejal and some mothers. Natural ingredients were used which were sourced from farmers. We started with roasted pumpkin soup which was heavenly.

Followed by soup, we had Maia Signature Fattoush – Classic fattoush accentuated with fresh pomegranate, feta cheese and a Maia signature dressing.

After soup and salad, the starters were served. Traditional Karnataka akki roti ( rice flour pancake) was served with coconut and onion chutneys.

Farali Patties were served after akki roti – A Gujrati classic potato, coconut and peanut patty was served with “bateta ni chatni”.

Aromatic Subz Kebabs were served after Farali Patties. These mixed vegetable kebabs were infused with sandalwood and edible camphor and were served with coriander chutney.

For the main course, we started with Curried Pot Brulee – Gratinated pot of English vegetables finished with curried cream.

Lauki Kofta with Kachori Poori was served next. These bottle gourd dumplings in Lucknowi gravy were served with moong dal poori and were delicious.

Sindhi Kadi with Koki Roti was served next. It was served with onion infused bread. The kadhi was flavoured with kokum.

Subz Dum Biryani was served next with lehsun lal mirch raita and potato sev.

Soon after this, the desserts were served. It was a trio of kacche kairi ki kheer, gajar halwa and halwasan.

Maia shall go on to add a Mother’s cook studio, a Banquet venue, an ingredient store and many more things.  The place is still under construction and will be ready for public very soon.

The food that I had at Maia was really yummy and home-made. The food had less oil and was cooked in hygienic way just like how a mom cooks. This place serves vegetarian food. You can also request for Jain style preparation.

You can also send your mom’s vegetarian recipes and get them featured at Maia. The mother will just have to visit them once and cook the dish for 4 to 5 people. If the recipe is selected, your mother and the recipe will be celebrated at Maia.

Send the recipes to info@maia.mom

Address:

Maia, #253, Green Glen Layout,

Opp. Siri Pristine building, Bellandur, Bangalore – 560102