Around Town: From milk centre to misal to chicken biryani—How Dadar's 84-year-old Adarsha keeps evolving

Indian Express

7 days ago

In pre-Independence Bombay, a young Bhalchandra Panshikar (of the famous sweet shop Panshikars) had successfully established a milk and mithai business. At his suggestion, his cousin Tryambak Mirwankar purchased a shop in Dadar and set up a milk centre called Adarsha in 1941.
They sourced milk from a gotha (cowshed) in Goregaon and sold it from their shop on Ranade Road. Given the shop's proximity to Dadar railway station, customers suggested that they serve tea—and perhaps a few biscuits to go with it. They complied. A decade later came the demand for a snack. Tryambak turned to his wife Sushila, who happily shared her recipe for kothimbir vadi. Crispy on the outside, soft and slightly gooey inside, with barely a trace of oil on the surface—it was an instant hit.
The warm reception encouraged the addition of more Maharashtrian snacks: batata vada, thalipeeth, sabudana vada, kanda pohe, and upma followed. As the milk business thrived, sweets were added too, with mava barfi and peda earning a reputation of their own.
'Back when we started, eating out was frowned upon. It wasn't seen as a part of Indian culture or tradition,' said third-generation custodian Sanket Mirwankar, 39, recalling stories passed down from his grandfather and father.
'By the 1950s, people wanted a quick bite before boarding the trains. So they added a very small dining area. The need was still for something that could be packed and taken along or eaten quickly before dashing home. The idea of sitting down for a meal became more acceptable around the 1970s,' he said.
The 1970s and '80s saw the entry of the second generation. Sanket's father, Narayan Mirwankar, and uncle Dattatray Mirwankar joined the business one after another and expanded the menu.
'They added pav bhaji, misal, Punjabi dishes, and expanded the dining area to seat around 30 people. The Maharashtrian thali came next, and suddenly, Adarsha was a full-fledged restaurant. By then, we'd stopped selling sweets, and milk was only used for in-house items like tea or piyush (a thick, creamy drink made by blending shrikhand with milk and flavoured with cardamom),' said Sanket.
Today, Adarsha's misal is among its most sought-after dishes. They serve it two ways: the house-special sweet-and-sour Adarsha misal with minimal oil, and a spicier Puneri version, both priced at Rs 100.
Sanket recalled how their misal was a favourite among Maharashtrian theatre actors.
'My father would say that after rehearsals at Shri Shivaji Mandir, actors like Ashok Saraf and Usha Nadkarni would stop by for our misal. It wasn't too spicy and used very little oil, which mattered to them because they wanted to preserve their voices. Then they'd walk straight to Dadar station—everyone took the train back then,' he said.
Sanket is a hospitality graduate from Dadar Catering College (IHM Mumbai), and went on to pursue a Masters in Hospitality and worked in London for five years before returning to join the family business.
When asked about the changes he brought to this 84-year-old eatery, he said: 'I made the entire restaurant air-conditioned and gave it a facelift. When Dadar gets chaotic during the festival season, they step into Adarsha and feel that wave of cool air—and they thank us.'
Three years ago, when it reopened after Covid-19 led lockdown, Sanket made another bold move: he introduced a handful of non-vegetarian items.
'Some were sceptical, but most accepted it. In fact, on non-fasting days like Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, our non-veg sales actually exceed the vegetarian ones,' he said, adding that their chicken biryani is now a hit.
And what about his uncle's reaction? 'He was very supportive. We can't be prisoners of our own style. If we had stuck only to the milk business, we wouldn't be here today. Would we?' he asked as we concluded.