A trip to Mumbai often equals an ice cream sandwich in Churchgate, pav bhaji in Vile Parle, vada pav near Kriti College in Dadar and freshly baked fruit cake with cashew butter biscuit outside Andheri West station. Fortunately, now, if you have a taste for the latter then you don’t really need to travel to the land of dreams. Merwans, one of the most iconic bakeries from Mumbai, established in 1978 opened its doors in Bengaluru recently and we were there to check out its offerings.
As you enter this bakery located in the bustling 5th block of Jayanagar, you are greeted by a mirrored cabinet where colourful macaroons and chocolate-dipped pralines take centre stage. We were told that these are the newest entrants to the existing Merwans menu, especially for the Bengaluru crowd. With Yoghurt Milk Chocolate, Pistachio Sicilian Chocolate, Milk Dark chocolate and Raspberry Vanilla Praline placed gracefully right in front of our eyes, we decided to just dig in without sparing a minute.
We tried the Salte Caramel Macaroon alongside Chocolate Cream Brûlée and paired these sweet indulgences with a sugar-free cappuccino. To get the sugar rush out of the way once and for all, we picked a Dutch Truffle from the pastry section. Expect a burst of chocolatey flavours right from the moist cake to the truffle ganache topping. Our dessert expedition ended with Mawa Cake, one of their beloved offerings and safe to say, it is worth the hype.
Prior to sampling their most talked about items from the savoury section, we decided to check out the aisle with dry cakes, ragi cookies, nan kathai and rawa biscuits. The idea at Merwans, from what we gather, is that you can never really go empty-handed. You are mostly likely to get something parcelled to pair with your evening tea. We know we did. That being said, apart from puffs, rolls, cakes and pastries, you can also pick nibbles like tea cakes and cake rusks.
After checking out the space, we prepped ourselves for the final round of sampling, one we were most excited about. We picked three delicacies from the puffs and rolls section— Kabuli Chicken Roll, Chicken Garlic Pattice and Closed Pizza which came packed with cheddar cheese and fresh veggies. The one that won us over was the Kabuli Chicken Roll. Think minced chicken cooked with loads of butter mixed with just the right Indian spices. There were, however, a couple of other savoury options that we wanted to try out but we left those for our next outing.
₹18 onwards. At 5th Block, Jayanagar.
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