Overview
- Signature Dishes: Crab Xec Xec, Pork Vindaloo
- Opening Times & Days: 11:00 am to 3:00 pm; 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm, daily
- Address: Rua Cunha Riveira, Church Square, Panjim, Goa, India
- Contact: 832 242 6475
- Reservation: Yes
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Summary
One of the best Goan restaurants in Panjim, The Upper House Goa caters to home-style regional dishes with a strong emphasis on Goan seafood. Located on Cunha-River Road in Panjim, it’s right next to the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception on Church Square. The restauarant’s on the first floor of the building.
The Upper House Goa
One of the best Goan restaurants in Panjim, The Upper House Goa caters to home-style regional dishes with a strong emphasis on Goan seafood and vegetarian dishes as well. Located on Cunha-River Road in Panjim, it’s right next to the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception on Church Square. The restauarant’s on the first floor of the building hence it’s name, The Upper House.
Some of their signature dishes are Crab Xec Xec, crab cooked in a roasted coconut gravy, Pork Vindaloo, a popular Goan dish, and Fish Curry and Rice with salt-water mango pickle. They also serve one of the best pavs in Goa which is a Portuguese-style bread, as well as some delicious desserts including Alebale, a traditional Goan pancake stuffed with jaggery and coconut.
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The decor inside this restaurant is tasteful and in keeping with a relaxed yet classy atmosphere. The walls are decorated with artistic glasswork and vases, while the tables are accompanied by comfortable laid-back chairs you could fall asleep in.
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The Upper House Goa also have a bar area fitted out with psychedelic lights to give it a nightclub ambiance. There are small, intimate tables lined up in the bar area as well as stools at the bar itself. If you’re not here for a meal, you can sit at the bar or have a more intimate drink at the tables instead.
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The customer service here is very professional, a little too professional for my liking. They seem to lack the friendliness that helps diners feel relaxed and comfortable instantly. Nevertheless they were very attentive, courteous and provided everything we asked for promptly. We didn’t have to wait long before we were served our meals.
For dinner we ordered two main meals – Crab Xec Xec & Pork Frijoles – with Steamed Basmati Rice.
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Crab Xec Xec is one of the signature dishes of The Upper House Goa. It is crab cooked in a roasted coconut gravy.
This is a traditional Goan crab curry made with a blend of rich spices and roasted coconut. It was a very spicy dish as one of the main ingredients is red Kashmiri chillies which are known for their fiery hotness. Nevertheless, the spicy flavour went well with the crab and didn’t overpower this dish at all. The crab curry was cooked to perfection; the crab meat was moist, succulent and full of flavour. It had been cooked for just the right amount of time so that the spices got infused into the crab meat. The curry itself was thick and full of flavour so it went really well with the basmati rice.
This crab dish was one of our favourite dishes during our ten-week trip around India.
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Pork Frijoles is a dish made with beans, Goan sausage and pork fried together in a red Goan sauce.
Frijoles means beans in Spanish and this is a typical Portuguese inspired dish. Goan sausages are a variety of the Portuguese chouriço which have been aged for several months in the sun. They have a sour taste due to the vinegar used in the preparation of the sausages.
The Pork frijoles was a soupy kind of dish with a lot of beans and pork but very little Goan sausage. This dish was not as spicy as the crab curry but it had enough spice to add flavour to the meal. There were several other flavours going on in this dish, including paprika and cumin, which added a lot of depth and flavour to this dish. Compared to the crab curry this dish was quite average but tasty enough by itself.
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Steamed Basmati Rice was hot, light and fluffy and went really well with both main dishes. There was plenty of rice to go around for two servings for each of us so we were quite full by the end of our meal.
Overall, The Upper House is a fantastic restaurant for authentic Goan cuisine even though it is a tad too pricey. The decor and ambiance is very becoming and adds an air of elegance to this restaurant. The next time we visit Goa we’re sure to return to The Upper House to try out some of their other famous dishes.
