Naga Mandarin

Mini Meal with Today's Specials (Chicken in Dried Yam Leaves) - Rs.350/- Naga Mandarin, Laitumkhrah, Shillong 22.11.23 Naga Mandarin must be the most recognised & popular & even perhaps one of the first if not the first restaurant serving Naga food in Shillong. They started with a small shop in Firebrigade before moving to their current location. And for the life of me I can't think why I've never eaten here before. Today I was going to set things right. I entered this rather big but empty restaurant for lunch. And it was peak lunch hour. I liked how the place looked. It had some traditional touches from Nagaland. I went through their very concise menu & then saw the specials on the wall. I opted for the specials as I thought this visit deserved it. I opted for the Mini Naga meal with today's specials being the Chicken in Dried Yam Leaves. As I waited for the food to arrive, I went to wash my hands & passed by their kitchen. It was well arranged & pretty clean. My food came. It had a medium portion of hilly red rice, a bowl of soup, 2 pieces of chicken, boiled cabbage & mashed potato chutney. Now I'm a wimp when it comes to chillies but I wanted to act brave. The soup was nice. It was light & thin & cooked with dried fish, potato & bamboo shoot. Very nice. The chicken in the dried yam leaves (not to be mistaken with anishi) was also very tasty. I've never had a Naga dish cooked this way. There was so much flavor in the dish. The meat was cooked well. The boiled cabbage helped balance out the flavors. The mashed potato chutney was tasty but was so hot. King Chillies or Raja Mircha was added in it. I had a couple of tries & gave up. Surprisingly, aside from the chutney, the other dishes were not spicy at all. The food was very good, but the portions were indeed Mini. I'm trying to loose weight so this works out in my favor. But then prices were not cheap either. Overall a much awaited & very pleasant visit to a place which is now an institution in itself. Insta ID - kari.on.eate

If you are craving for naga thali, this is the right place. The food was absolutely heavenly and reasonable pricing. The service is also good. Highly recommend!

Had mini bags thali with chicken cooked in bamboo shoots and smoked fish. Loved the taste and hits all the right palette

Excellent and authentic Naga food. Perhaps the best outside of Nagaland. Clean and hygienic. Friendly staff.

Scrumptious meals, loved the ambience, food and all the item's I've tried so far. Really nice staff, very friendly owner. The traditional way they serve food was also really good, the items served in wooden made bowls and plates with leaves adds alot to the aesthetics of the Nagas. I highly recommend to try out the various items in this place. Will definitely be coming again soon to try out other items. It would be also awesome if we can get Zutho too. Cheers!