Bernardo was Chrys Fernandes’ father’s name. Photographs of four generations of the family greet you at Bernardo’s, unequivocally acclaimed to be Delhi’s best Goan food restaurant, tucked away in a corner at DLF’s Galleria complex in Gurgaon. When their website talks of ‘authentic home-cooked Goan food’ as against what Goa’s restaurants serve to appease tourists, you think it must be marketing gobbledegook. But the remarks by immigrant Goans in the visitor’s book convince you otherwise.
Chrys manages the restaurant (for a while he was the only waiter) and his wife Cres makes the food, insisting on not having professional chefs. The duo left comfortable jobs to start a pickle business that flopped six years later, and thus took to Goan food. They have had to shift four places in three years, but old customers come searching. “Only our journalist friends who thronged our place at the Mehar Chand Market in Delhi have ditched us!”
Shocked as they are at the sight of “Goan Momos” at Dilli Haat (momos in Konkani means breasts), don’t ask them for “Goan crabs”, for that leads to stories best left untold.
Five new things they are planning to introduce:
1) Arroz de camarao, or prawn pulao
2) Sausage pulao
3) Chicken and prawn soups with alphabet macaroni in them
4) Sannas – idli-like dish made of rice and coconut, ground in coconut water (because you can’t get Goan toddy in Delhi).
5) Beer and wine when they move to a bigger place.
Where do they get their raw stuff from?
1) Fish from the Lazeez food in Galleria, via the Ghazipur mandi.
2) Halal chicken from Lazeez in Galleria.
3) Pork from Pigpo in Jor Bagh.
4) Vinegar – from Goa, because it’s made of toddy and not acetic acid.
5) Sausages from Goa, for they are smoked.
Five Goan puddings they’d like to serve but are too time-consuming to make
1) Bebinca
2) Dodol, made of flour and jaggery
3) Bolina, a type of biscuit
4) Alebele – think pancakes stuffed with coconut and jaggery
5) Baath – a coconut cake
Their five top selling dishes
1) Prawn recheado – fried prawns stuffed with Goan spices
2) Vindalho de Porco – pork marinated overnight and cooked in Goan spices
3) Caril de Peixe – Goan fish curry cooked in spices and coconut milk
4) Xacuti de Galinha – Chicken prepared in a thick paste of roasted coconut and spices
5) Feijoada – Goan sausages cooked with dried rajma
[This article by me appeared in the November issue of Delhi City Limits along with Outlook magazine.]
I must go and eat there. And I never knew bebinca was hard to make. It appears to be such a simple sweet.
Comment by Anirudh — November 8, 2006 @ 1:45 pm
note to self: next time I am in gurgoan, must visit this place…
Comment by Apurva — November 8, 2006 @ 5:53 pm
Apurva, next time you’re in Gurgaon, give me a ring. We shall both go to Bernardo’s and send Shivam the bill.
Comment by Anirudh — November 8, 2006 @ 8:47 pm
ROTFL!
Comment by Shivam Vij — November 8, 2006 @ 9:10 pm
anirudh, sounds like a plan!
Comment by Apurva — November 9, 2006 @ 12:34 pm
Hi Shivam,
Just back from a visit to the place. Though a vegeterian, I totally enjoyed the veg food there while my friends could not stop talking about the prawns and chicken curry.
Thanks for the info man :)
Comment by Amit Goyal — November 11, 2006 @ 2:07 am
[...] Shivam Vij wrote a post a couple of days back about some fine Goan restaurant - Barnardos, right in our backyard in Gurgaon. So here comes the weekend and a gang of us start to hunt it down and try the food there. [...]
Pingback by Bernardos - Goan food paradise!! « mere funde — November 11, 2006 @ 2:38 am
Been there, experienced that! Thanks a lot :) My experience here - http://yesterday1cemore.blogspot.com/2006/11/susegaad-bernardos.html
Comment by Ojas — November 11, 2006 @ 4:50 pm
Had heard about it from manager first, who hadn’t been there, but he had heard about this place from Rohan. Looks like Rohan hadn’t had much food there, but managed to spread the word. Then Goyal [1] told me about it before I tresspassed Shivam’s National Highway. Bernardo’s. A Goan restaurant with an atrociously slow website, awkwardly slow service, poky little space, vague location, ordinary ambience, and …. hang on… unbelievably amazing food! Trust me, it’s the best restaurant in in the town – at
Pingback by Yesterday Once More — November 13, 2006 @ 8:56 am
Hey guys! I’ve been following these folks around since their CR Park days… now guess what..?! Bernardos is now in the same building as my office… lucky me. Shivam you know how to contact me… give me a shout out the next time you’re coming over!
Comment by nosh — November 14, 2006 @ 5:32 pm
[...] Vij wrote a post a couple of days back about some fine Goan restaurant - Barnardos, right in our backyard in [...]
Pingback by mere funde » Blog Archive » Bernardos - Goan food paradise!! — October 10, 2007 @ 9:21 pm