Dairy good idea

Purporting to serve healthy, satvik and guilt-free food and beverages made using A2 milk from Gir cows, a new midtown milk café gets it right

Food: Wholesome
Ambiance/cosy
Service:efficient
Cost: Moderate
Verdict:4/4

Being highly lactose tolerant (read: obsessed), our love for all things dairy is an unbridled one. Even on a particularly brutal day, we’d pick a milk bar in a jiffy over a conventional, alcohol-dispensing one. So, imagine our delight when we recently chanced upon this new dairy products-based café a hop, skip and a jump away from where we live in the Dadar-Shivaji Park vicinity.

A2 ghee sukhdi

G.O.D. (short for Goodness Of Dairy) Cafe claims to be India’s first A2 milk cafe, serving healthy, satvik and guilt-free food and beverages made using fresh A2 milk and other dairy products like butter, ghee, paneer and yogurt brought in daily from the café’s parent company Harrit Farms that’s located in nearby Khardi.
With an open, bar-style kitchen that’s housed rather unusually at the very entrance of this twin-levelled café, the food and drinks are all prepared freshly on order. And all are based on the Ayurvedic philosophy of ‘food is rasa (essence)’. Think masala chais, herbal teas, milkshakes and all-vegetarian snacks, desserts and breakfast items like poha, upma and dhokla, among others.

Due to the new dine-in restaurant restrictions, we chose to pick up our order from the café. The option of lounging on the mezzanine level’s main dining space — with low tables, cane stools and traditional Kutchi lippan mirror work art — will have to wait until things get back to normal.

Yashtimadhu chai; (right) A2 fresh cow’s milk

Made using the naturally sweet and calcium-fortified A2 milk that’s produced by the long-eared Gir breed of cow, our Yashtimadhu chai ('150) was a full-bodied treat served in an earthen kulhad. Enriched with fennel seeds and spicy chai masala, the creamy tea had a distinct chocolate taste and was sparingly sweetened with palm jaggery.

Speaking of which, the café has a ‘no-white’ policy where there is no usage of white sugar, maida or white salt. The same jaggery-induced caramel taste is packed into the rare-to-find-in-Mumbai traditional Gujarati sweet called sukhdi ('320). Made on the spot, this dulce de leche-like barfi that’s also known as gur papdi is made with whole wheat atta and loaded with A2 ghee and the aforementioned palm jaggery.

Craving a bit of savoury, we tucked into our order of a generously portioned A2 ghee khichdi ('320) that was enough for three people. Anointed with a generous drizzle of ghee, this rice, moong dal and mixed vegetable (carrots, French beans, cauliflower florets and green peas) comfort food hit the spot. Taking the slight chilli heat off our palate was the thick, plain raita that was served alongside the khichdi.

Still channelling those Holi vibes, we couldn’t resist the lure of a tall glass of the spicy thandai ('320). The saffron-fennel seed fragrance of the milky drink transported us to moments from our last trip to Varanasi where savouring thandai at one of the holy city’s many dugdhalayas was an almost daily ritual for us.
We ended our lactose-enhanced innings with an order of a one-litre glass bottle of pure, unpasteurised, raw A2 milk ('150). This we later generously splashed onto our quotidian midnight muesli bowl, sans any sugar or other sweeteners that we generally crave. Its thick, creamy consistency and naturally sweet taste were more than enough compensation.

At Sanskruti building, Shop no. 1, opposite Sena Bhavan, Dadar West. 
Time 9 am to 11 pm
Call 9820084100 (home delivery via Swiggy and Zomato)

4/4 Exceptional, 3/4 Excellent, 2/4 very Good, 1/4 Good, 005/4 Average. G.O.D Cafe didn’t know we were there. The Guide reviews anonymously and pays for meals

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