For more than twenty-five years our charcoal pits have served the same lineage — mandi the way a Yemeni grandmother taught it, biryani the way Malabar wrote it, and a welcome that smells, faintly, of the Calicut sea. Two houses here. Fifteen-plus across South India and the UAE.
You are welcome at our table. Pull up a chair, tear the saj, ask the steward what is good tonight.
— Our Mavoor Road counter, mid-service
We were among the first houses in South India to plate Mandi the way a Yemeni grandmother does — over wood-fire embers, with rice that has drunk the goat's broth slow. The pit was small. The plate was generous. The room smelled, that opening week, of charcoal and cardamom.
More than twenty-five years on, fifteen-plus houses across South India and the UAE serve that same lineage — Bangalore, Chennai, Mangalore, Arcot, Ambur, Calicut, Dubai. The pits are bigger now. The plate is the same plate.
The Tomato Cream Soup is rich, perfectly seasoned, wonderfully comforting — the soup the regulars start with. — a Google review of the Mavoor Road houseSince 1999, with love from the pit.
Cook a charcoal mandi for two decades and you learn which plates the regulars come back for. These are those plates — photographed on our own tables.
The House Hero
Long-grain basmati slow-cooked in our clay pit with chicken (Dajaj) or lamb (Laham), perfumed with cardamom, black lime, and a final charcoal kiss. Yemeni roots, Malabar plate.
We have cooked it the same way since the opening week in 1999 — short on shortcuts, long on patience. The pit hasn't gone cold since.
The Laham (mutton) Mandi is on the same charcoal — ₹420 / ₹740.
Calicut Born
Calicut-style dum biryani — Kaima rice layered with slow-cooked beef, browned shallots, and a thread of saffron. Sealed at the pot, opened in front of you with the lift of a small steel knife.
The school it belongs to is Thalassery. The hand it comes from has been at this kitchen for years — ask the steward whose pot it is tonight.
Served with raita, lime pickle, and a boiled egg.
From the Coast
A whole fish from the Calicut catch — scored, rubbed in our coastal masala, grilled over the same charcoal as the mandi pits, and laid on a banana leaf with sliced onion and burnt lime.
The fish changes with the boats. The first half-hour after lunch is when the kitchen is asked, most days, "what came in this morning."
Pomfret & tiger prawns are usually on the board too.
Five kitchens share the same pit — Arabian, Malabar, tandoor, the sea, and the wok. Order anything; we'll suggest two more.
The Mavoor Road flagship sits with a Residency above it — boutique rooms for the visiting families. The Palayam house on MM Ali Road keeps the lunch rhythm. Both serve from the same recipes, the same hands.
Flagship + Residency
Palayam
The mandi spice is mixed in our Bangalore kitchen and sent to every house — Bangalore, Chennai, Mangalore, Arcot, Ambur, Calicut, and across the Gulf to Dubai. Fifteen-plus houses, three countries, one recipe. The spice does not vary. The welcome doesn't either.
The Tomato Cream Soup is an absolute must-try — it's rich, perfectly seasoned, and wonderfully comforting. Service rated five out of five.★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Google review · Mavoor Road
The mandi was the closest thing to the Gulf I've had in Calicut. The rice had drunk the broth properly. The chicken came off the bone with a fingertip.★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Tripadvisor · 4.2 / 5
Stayed two nights at the Residency for a wedding. Breakfast on the second morning — appam and stew — is the reason I'll go back.★ ★ ★ ★ ★ MakeMyTrip · 111 guests
Reserve a table at either Calicut house, or order home via Zomato & Swiggy. Family tables, private corners, banquet rooms, and late-night spreads — all on the same charcoal.
— the table is set, your seat is kept.
