Restaurant Review: Damodar P30

Missal is probably one of the most wholesome Indian breakfasts around. It’s a pity it has not received its due in the culinary circuit.
Decor: Hotels and restaurants dish out dosa, idli and sambhar by the bucket full all across the country but somehow miss the mark on many regional specialities. I recently discovered Damodar P30 run by the Thakars since 1990. The name signifies the post code which is Sadashivpeth’s and the home of the original missal.It’s an excessively simple place on the main Bibvewadi Road. There are signs in Devnagri signifying things like ‘assal Puneri swadhisth’ and ‘kairi cha panhe’. Some of the signs are so old and distressed as are the simple tables and iron chairs that, given a different location, they could pass off as trendy! The little assembly kitchen at the back looks like a Maharashtrian home and is spotlessly clean. All the ingredients are finished by the evening and they start off with a fresh lot the following morning.
Food: For years Damodar P30 has been serving their special missal which contains poha, matki, potatoes, chivda, sev, onion and chopped dhaniya. This is served with rassa, sliced bread and tari — a devilish oil tempering which comes from the top of the rassa and is not for the weak hearted. Damodar missal is slightly sweet and the mainstay of this eatery. Alok, the young son, has introduced four new missals, one better than the other! I personally love the ‘Mastani’ which comes without bread and rassa. With a sprinkling of fresh pomegranate, this tastes more like a Maharashtrian bhel.
The ‘Peshwai’ missal comes with tiny thin potato straws, a greenish type ‘rassa’ with potatoes, peas and karipatta and garnished with chilli cashews. The ‘Kolhapuri’ is predictably tasty and spicy, garnished with three different types of sev, all individually spiced and the familiar red rassa. And lastly there is Jain missal without onion, garlic or potatoes. They add raw banana chips as well as a khatta meetha sev. On a regular basis they also serve Jain upma, poha and a deliciously home-style sabudana khicadi on fasting days. Prices are as you would expect, very low — approximately `50 a dish. Everything is served in eco-friendly disposables in steel watis and thalis. Bottled waterand sol kadi are available. A great find for Indian breakfast.
Plus and minus: No fuss no frills. On the main road.