Being a foodie means you are on a constant high alert even while you travel away from your city and your mind is perpetually maintaining lists of places where you can experience great or unusual food.
One such place that I had marked out was Thotada Mane (pronounced thotada maney) but had never visited because of the 130 km that lay between us.
But finally as luck would have it, while recently traveling back by road from Calicut, I realized I would be driving through Srirangapatana and with fate feeling benevolent towards me, I happened to reach that town right at lunch time.
A quick check with that know it all, Google, and I was conversing on the phone with Guru Dutt Bharadwaj the amiable owner of the place, who for some reason has found it necessary to hide away from the main road with nary a sign on the highway 
A turn at the big arch that welcomes you to Srirangapatana and another 1.5 kms through a road flanked by fields, took me to my destination.
Done up to resemble a rustic setting complete with a wishing well (well, I wished for good food ), a swing, some low seating and traditional paintings on the walls and a tiny water body spanned by a wooden bridge, this setting in the midst of the sugarcane fields, is agrarian enough for a city dweller. Oh and for some strange reason there is also an exercycle
Gurudutt an IT turned rustic restaurant owner, started this place 2 years ago and he sees to the cooking himself, using his family’s old recipes. The all vegetarian fare is pure and uses organic raw material when ever possible. There is no usage of artificial colors or additives.
He believes in interacting with and befriending his guests and has also trained his all women staff (in a noble bid to support the women of surrounding villages) to take care of customers just as they would take care of their own guests in their homes.
I was mainly interested in checking out their traditional fare and they do have a reasonable number of items that fall in that range. Their Maddur vada, ragi rotti and special bajji are very popular.
They also have some of the ubiquitous manchurians and corn soups and fusion fare like paneer dosa and cheese dosa that apparently enthuse the local town folk but do nothing for my excitement levels 
So of course I was having none of that and I firmly stuck to ordering a combo of Ragi rotti and Akki rotti that were served with a green chilli chutney and Uchellu podi a chutney powder made from Niger seeds … and these traditional recipes resulted in one of the best rotti meals that I have had. In fact I packed a ragi rotti for my dinner and it stayed soft until I reached home which just proved the caliber of the rotti
Not to mention that the journey took much longer than the usual 2 hours due to the flooding of Mysore road in the rains.
My cab driver had the veg thali which was looking so interesting that I snatched it away from him … just to take a shot, what were you thinking ?
With a sambar, rasam, 2 types of vegetables, curds, rice and 2 triangular poories, my driver was more than satisfied and refused any more food after that.
Of course there were the customary pictures of us that would grace our FB walls and since I was in a hurry to release the driver, I left with assurances to return again at leisure.
Go there on a picnic or just to get away from the city. The place has been used for wedding shoots and other events too.
The owner is friendly, the place is pretty, the food is good and the air is pure.
And oh you also get some great guavas being sold by the roadside as well as a street vendor selling bottles of Gulkand (a jam made of rose petals). He was unable to explain why he was in the middle of nowhere though … but I am guessing that he had probably heard of Thotada Mane and was a fan
They are open right from breakfast time but just remember that they close by 5 PM.
Address and other details –
Srirangapatna-Bidar National Highway, NH-150A,Kirangoor Village, Shrirangapattana, India, Karnataka
Phone – 97412 17009
For more pictures see My Facebook – Thotada Mane
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Sep 6th, 2017
