By now, everybody knows the members of the family tree of happiness – joy, hope and laughter. These three have permanently reserved seats at festivities. But the one member that does not even need an invitation is ‘Mr Mithai’.
Right from the news of your birth to the internet page that is not loading to tell you that you have failed that one paper in maths, the sweets in your fridge are already partying. But even if it is not a glitch and you have really flunked that one paper, there is nothing a little ball of sweetness called gulab jamun cannot fix.
Instead of just talking about these mouth-watering sweets, let us go to Magsons Mithai Mandir, where mithai is at its best.
The owner of the sweets store Nitin Maganlal is an evergreen individual who began his business ventures in Goa in 1987 with a fast-food joint called Megabite. Within three years, in the year 1990, he felt that the demand for good quality vegetarian Gujarati thali in Goa had increased.
This prompted him to open another restaurant in place of the first and name it Rasoyo. It picked up very well and attracted queues of people. Serving approximately up to 500 thalis a day, Nitin and his staff had to start issuing coupons to manage the crowd!
After this, people’s sweet-tooth cravings were also catered to by this entrepreneur when he opened the first ice cream shop in Goa that had an air conditioner. He recalls bringing Vadilal ice cream from Bombay to Goa.
Finally, in 1995 he launched Mithai Mandir after noticing a shortage of quality sweets in Goa. The name Mithai Mandir, which loosely translates to ‘temple of sweets’, was sourced to Nitin by one of his dear friends. ‘From that moment on, there was no looking back! Mithai Mandir has broken records, year after year,’ he adds.
There are a few items on the menu that depend on the festive season or a particular event. Nonetheless, everything on the menu is always loved by all. The company procures its dry fruits at a wholesale market in Bombay. Some people adore the mohanthal and the Mysore pak while others like the dry fruits and other sweets like gulab jamun, rasmalai and halwa. The bestsellers, however, are the motichoor laddoos and the malai pedha. Presently, there is only one outlet of Mithai Mandir in Goa, which is located at Miramar – Tonca.
Nitin takes pride in saying that he plans on using the modified air production machine that he has purchased for his company. He says, 'We are the only company that is getting milk from Karnataka, and converting it into mawa and khoya. We make all the sweets and other products in our own factory in Corlim, and every product is pledged to be Goan-made.'
If the plan for the future goes as per Nitin's vision, the next two months will see Mithai Mandir goods and sweets in every retail store in every nook and corner of Goa.
Price range: ₹600 to ₹1500
Timings: 10 am to 2 pm & 4 pm to 8:30 pm
Contact: +91 93261 02027