Bookending the far side of Ropewalk Lane, the street where Kala Ghoda Cafe and seafood behemoth Trishna live is Paratha Mantra, by the same guys who run the Nandu’s Paratha chain in Mumbai and Pune. At this new restaurant, thick parathas are served in a surprisingly contemporary setting – think minimalistic furniture, booths coated in chocolate-coloured leather and a starkly white, undulating ceiling.

Cheeky Chapatis

Fittingly, the parathas too have been given a modern spin and are stuffed with everything from jalepenos and mozzarella to chocolate and even pasta. The day we visited, we were aggressively steered towards trying the restaurant’s “specialties” - pizza and chilli cheese garlic versions. Caution: these are heavy enough to beach a whale.

Surprisingly, it’s not the uber-rich stuffings that make these parathas so deadly (both our choices starred copious amounts of cheese), but the fact that they are shallow fried right before serving, and come to the table coated in oil. Courters of cardiac arrest can order them with extra butter for Rs 15.

A Stuff Sell

Our chilli cheese garlic paratha was the better of the two, oozing salty cheese and nicely flavoured, a comforting treat for a rainy day. Filled with sweet tomato puree, diced vegetables and grated cheese, the pizza version was less successful. Both were served with raita and pickle, and can also be ordered with sides of black dal, chole or rajma, all three of which were surprisingly the highlights of our meal – the dal is thick and creamy, the rajma and chole perfectly cooked. Just remember to dodge the pool of oil at the bottom of the bowl.

Also try the vada pav paratha, which is actually a lot less bizarre then it sounds – a potato-and-pea paratha topped with spicy garlic powder. Traditionalists can stick with aloo/gobi/mutter versions or choose from a selection of sides like dal khichdi or the above mentioned dal and rajma.

A Bitter End

If you still have room for dessert, we strongly advise you to walk over to KGC for the ginger cake, or even buy a Dairy Milk, but stay away from the chocolate paratha.  It is cloyingly sweet, weirdly-textured and made us feel sick for hours after. We tried it, dear reader, so you wouldn’t have to.

Don’t let our sacrifice go to waste.

Getting there: Paratha Mantra, next to Trishna and Kala Ghoda Cafe, Ropewalk Lane, Fort, Rs 135 for a premium paratha.