Time to feast on seafood

Coastal cuisine in Alibaug? No big surprise there.

The taste and price for the food? Now, that is mind-blowing.

A small restaurant in Alibaug called Sanman (any rickshaw driver in Alibaug will take you there, it's five minutes from Hotel Big Splash) is where you should head if you're going to Alibaug/ Mandva for a weekend trip or even for a day.

It's a small, clean, no-fuss restaurant with warm, friendly service by the owners and waiters.

Now for the most important part -- the food. We started out with a plate of mid sized Fried Prawns and Masala Prawns for Rs 45 a plate. The prawns were fresh, crisp and had the right amount of masala -- not overtly spicy or too bland.

We then moved on to a dish of oysters, or tesriya as it's locally called, and a plate of fried Bombay duck or bombil. The oysters were cooked in a rich kokam gravy, had a garlicky taste and were soft and succulent. The Bombay duck had a crisp, outer rice flour coating fried to perfection; it just melted in your mouth. And the price? Rs 50 for the oysters and Rs 35 for three big pieces of Bombay duck.

Then came the Masala Garlic Crab, a very big one if I may add. It was the freshest, most tender crab I've had, with the juices intact and cooked perfectly. What shocked me was the price on this massive crab -- Rs 250 only.

Along with this, we had to have the Pomfret Rice Plate. You can also have the rice place with any fish of your choice.

A pomfret plate consists of an entire mid sized shallow-fried pomfret, a plate full of rice, a thick curry with a piece of pomfret, a bowl of Sukha Jhinga (dried baby prawns), ghee chapatis and a bowl of sol kadi. Soul food, anyone? The price for this entire plate is a measly Rs 90.

And the price for this entire feast? Rs 600 for four very happy gourmands.

Mrinalini Rajpal, 22, is a law student.

Do you have a favourite restaurant/cuisine? Have you sampled the latest eating haunt on the block?

Be it Manali or Kanyakumari, Kashmir or Goa, Jaipur or Nagpur -- we would love to know more about the eating out options in your village, town or city. 

Self-confessed foodies, recommend a restaurant. Rate the food (vegetarian and non-vegetarian), ambience, service, accessibility and whether you plan to head back.

Don't forget to add the restaurant's address and phone number, along with your full name, age, the name of your city, your profession and contact details.

DON'T MISS!

• Israeli food in Dharamshala
• Got a fetish for Idli?
• Mughlai cuisine you can't miss!
• Care for a late-night dinner?
• The best butter masala dosa, here
• Breakfast for 2 @ Rs 56
• Kebabs in Ahmedabad? 3 hot destinations
• Seafood on a shoe-string budget
• Bite into a slice of Delite
• Barbeques: Care to man the grill?

~ More restaurant reviews