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Phadtare Misal is one of most publicised Misal from Udyam Nagar. Established in the last decade of past century the eatery made her name with twist in the recipe and highly standardized menu. The major change was they brought in fine Shev. Gram flour. Otherwise the ingredients were pretty much same. Looks like down the line some one took off to form a seperate establishment and have been pretty successful too. My decades old friend recommended me to try it out. So today we visited the place just around lunch time. Menu is just a simple fare. Misal Pav and not much to confuse anyone's minds. Zero risk of "decision fatigue" if you know the term. So we ordered Misal Pav and Solkadhi. It was served in a minute. Very quick. Two bowls, with couple of slice breads, Tarri bowl, chopped and sliced onion and loads of lemons. I scooped a spoonful from the Misal bowl and found Shev Chiwada, boiled Mataki- Moth beans, tiny cubes of boiled potatoes and the Misal cut, what they call, Patal Bhaji. Thankfully no Farasan. I was actually pleased to see the perfect Kolhapuri Misal ingredients. Now the rubber meets road... I took a spoonful and took a bite of bread, which was soft, plain and crisp at edges. But the Misal thing was very bland. No pungency, no spiciness and the taste lacked a punch. Obvious the thing was either extremely low on salt or no salt at all. Either way it disappointed me. So I tried to salvage the Misal by adding a salt, squeezed a lemon and stirred the bowl. To no avail. The original taste didn't improve a bit. It lacked the right flavours , almost non existent aroma and the typical chilly spicy punch which a Misal has. Then I added more salt. It became little bit palatable. But not to my expectations. I truly beleive in Chef's prepration and have learned by now, should never tamper the dish served. Chefs knows better. And so many additions actually akin to too many cooks spoil the broth. Indeed it wasn't upto even normal expectations forget matching the the four ancient great Misals in Kolhapur. With little choice in hand we kept figuring out what to do next and indiscriminately kept adding Tarri, additional Misal Cut, lemon and sprinkled salt like a milky way galaxy. Result..not much changed. So then, I resigned to my fate and finished the bowl with the slices. The patal bhaji kept coming. So being hungry, we requested half plate Shev Chiwada in last ditch attempt to salvage it again. We added some more stuff but it didn't help. Then I took a sip of Solkadhi. It was delicious. Freshly made and refreshing. Thanks to Solkadhi's excellent prepration we were able to finish the drab eating session soon. I ended with good cool sip of Solkadhi. Many eateries are hyped and mostly for a good reason. Food. And that's all is important. Rest decor and ambience are paraphernalia not something which can improve the food taste. They help in getting a good feeling. Many disappoint us with a poor food taste. This wasn't exactly poor. Far from it. But not something which would make it stand out and help me or any other discerning customer to brag about. May be today was their off color day. And it happens. Service was top notch. The person who waited our table was extremely courteous and quick to get things whice ever we wanted. Hope some other time I will get to have something exquisite which will live up to their reputation. Both in letter and spirits