By Shubhra Krishan
The one word that, to me, describes Maya best is “homely.” I use the word in all its beautiful connotations. A sense of familiarity. Sunlit quietude. And the feeling that along with your car, time has parked itself under a tree for a while. Let’s step inside Maya, Bengaluru, then.
Maya is the kind of place where you should go with a close friend, ideally to catch up over a long afternoon. Which is just what I did.
My friend Shinie Antony, literary luminary and great company, waved at me from the first floor balcony of Maya. The moment has stayed with me, somehow. It felt so unlike stepping into yet another restaurant for a food review.
We sat across from each other in the spacious balcony, taking in the “someone’s home” sort of ambience and feeling good about it.
Then came the food, and it was impossible not to fall deeper in love with this new place that seemed like it should always have been there.
The only non-homely part of Maya is the presentation of the food, and I mean that in a good way.
Everything looks like it is ready for a photo shoot, and tastes even better than it looks. We tried their dim sums, pizza, Thai curry and fish—all of it was delectable.
But it was the dessert that took the cake! We thought we had no room for a sweet bite, and the Portuguese Sawdust looked too loaded to tackle. But surprise! It was actually air-light and delicately sugared; a genius of a creation, gone in 60 seconds flat!
The rest is just details, but because this is a review, here they are:
Inspired by Sri Lankan architecture and Geoffrey Bawa’s design philosophy, MAYA is India’s first slow living restaurant, with an art gallery. Located in leafy Jayanagar, it boasts a well-balanced menu inspired by global cuisine with a touch of Sri Lankan. They have a fine selection of wines and cold craft beers, perfect for washing down all that gorgeous food.
If you can feel the freshness in every bite, it is because they source their produce daily from local farmers around Bangalore. It was great to know that Maya aims to become a zero waste restaurant in one year and feed hungry animals as part of their campaign.
I did not get a chance to browse Maya’s art gallery, but definitely will next time. I hear they are also open to conducting events and workshops to facilitate learning.
Side note : If you’re looking for the perfect Bengaluru eatery to jazz up your evening, look no further than Thin Tony’s Pizza!
