4 minute read
Smita’s Lakeview Restaurant.
Situated near the banks of the Siridao lake in Goa Velha is a beautiful restaurant called “Smita’s Lakeview”. The restaurant, which started operations in March 2021, is a family run enterprise. The kitchen is handled by Smita, who is the head chef, while the overall management and operations of the restaurant are handled by her son Rohit Blaggan. Being a family run business, one can expect the best of home food, authentic curries and seafood dishes prepared using the day's fresh catch; That is fish from the sea into the pan and straight into your plate!
How did the journey begin?
A very calm and composed person, Smita Blaggan is a retired government servant, who hails from the beautiful village of Bainguinim in Old Goa. Naturally passionate about cooking, Smita always dreamt of starting her own restaurant someday. Her son Rohit too is extremely friendly and kind, and is always willing to go an extra mile. A postgraduate from the prestigious Goa Institute of Management, he worked in Dubai for a few years. He too, like his mother, wanted to start something of his own. So with that in mind, Rohit gave up his lucrative
career in Dubai and returned to Goa to start Smita's Lakeview. Today they are a trio, with his sister joining in. Together, they make eating at their restaurant a fulfilling and joyful experience.
Rohit states that his mother is a ‘master chef’ and all his friends and family members agree with him. "Whenever my friends come to visit me and taste my mom's food, they have only one thing to say: ‘Why don’t you open a restaurant of your own with your mom Smita as the ‘head chef’, cooking and serving customers?” So finally, a couple of years later, we took this step and Smita’s Lakeview Restaurant came into existence,” he says.
Smita's Specialities
Smita's Lakeview Restaurant specializes in homemade food and focuses on serving only fresh fish. "We take extra care when it comes to hygiene and have curated a special home-style menu, which makes us stand out from our competition,” says Rohit.
The restaurant is famous for its Prawns Dangar and Jumbo Xinanyos. Apart from this, their Kingfish Thali is very popular with patrons. It contains around 11 items ( rice, fresh prawn curry, sol kadi , vegetable, kismoor, salad, pickle, a
dessert of gulab jamun, fresh kingfish rawa fry, tisryanche sukhe, crabs sukha, squid butter garlic, kingfish in green masala rawa fry, squid bomb, nd Chicken cilantro). Every Sunday, the restaurant has a live solo band that plays enthralling music from 12:00 pm onwards till closing time.
Public Response
Right from the word go, Smita’s Lakeview received a very good response from the public. For the first 45 days, the restaurant did tremendous business. "However, when the pandemic broke out in March 2020, we had to shut down our operations,'' says Rohit. "We re-opened in the month of August and touchwood, the restaurant has been running quite well till date,” he says.
Challenges Faced
Rohit says that running a restaurant is not an easy task. "It takes a lot of time to set things in place. Time management and coordination are very important,” he says. "Challenges are faced in every business; not giving up is the only solution", he adds.
Future Plans
When asked about his future plans for Smita's Lakeview, Rohit chose to keep us in suspense.
He said that he and his team are planning something big during the coming tourist season. "The surprise will be revealed to our customers through our social media platforms. So, STAY TUNED!!" , he says.
When asked what message or words of advice he would like to share with our readers, this is what he had to say: "Always dream big and never settle for less. If you dream about your goal and work towards it with utmost sincerity and honesty, you will always be successful.”
