New Indian Restaurant is a Touching Tribute to a Late Brother’s Dream — Mahesh’s Kitchen Brings Authentic Dishes and Plenty of Heart to Sugar Land

Mahesh Puranik aspired to attend culinary school in Paris and one day come back to his home in Sugar Land to open a restaurant with his sister Shubhangi Musale. But his dream never came to pass as Puranik tragically died shortly before heading abroad. In homage, Shubhangi and her husband Neelesh have opened a new Indian restaurant called Mahesh’s Kitchen in Sugar Land’s Town Square to honor her brother’s name, memory and the siblings’ collective, long held goal.

“Growing up, my younger brother Mahesh and I always dreamt of opening a restaurant together,” Shubhangi Musale tells PaperCity. “Through this project, we’re keeping that wish and his spirit alive. And just as he made everyone around him feel special, our goal is to convey that same warmth to our staff and guests.”

These first-generation Americans are bringing flavors from their ancestral home of India to the table. From regions North to South, East to West. Traditional and original fusion dishes are created by Shubhangi and executed by chef Ravi Sapkota in Mahesh’s Kitchen’s gleaming open kitchen. The dining room’s chic, modern decor is awash in warm woods, upholstery in ivory tones punctuated by saffron-colored accents. It features an altar to Lord Ganesh, the elephant-headed God of beginnings rendered in brass. On the fourth day of the new moon, offerings are placed before him.

Much of the new Sugar Land restaurant’s interior elements have been imported from India, including all the spices (masala). More than 300 pounds, in fact, are freshly ground, mixed and restocked for the kitchen every three months by Neelesh Muscale’s dutiful aunt.

Your First Taste of Mahesh Kitchen

Open for dinner daily, Mahesh’s Kitchen features dining inside (85 seats) and out on a patio. The menu is a broad one with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian selections and even includes an array of fusion dishes that blend ingredients from India with familiar ones found here in Texas like habanero, salmon, rosemary and quinoa.

There is a full bar and edited wine list available. Signature cocktails include a saffron spritzer, a blend of saffron-infused gin with blood orange juice, rose-infused Aperol and sparkling wine topped with edible marigold petals ($12), and a tamarind margarita created with a cumin tequila tincture shaken with tamarind chutney and triple sec ($11.50).

I started my meal on a recent visit with a playful take on chaat, the street fare so popular throughout India. The avocado bhel is a dish usually made with crispy puffed rice and tossed with a sweet, sour and spicy tamarind chutney. But at Mahesh’s Kitchen, a freshly mashed avocado takes the place of the puffed rice and, as tradition dictates, the dish is topped with a gram flour fried to resemble vermicelli ($12).

It’s like soft, comforting nursery food you can eat with a spoon to quell the heat of other dishes, like the whole pomfret fish appetizer, a Central Indian seafood dish rubbed with a garam masala, ginger, chili and gunpowder masala ($17).

Don’t miss another popular street food, Pani puri ($10). Shubhangi’s recipe consists of small bite-sized hollow deep-fried flatbread rounds filled with spiced peas, potato, mint with chutney, topped tableside with a mixture of flavored water called imli pani. Shubhangi insists you spoon each round up to its brim with the liquid mix and pop it into your mouth. It lets the dish’s subtle flavors explode.

I adored the vegetarian mirch baigan ka salan, a traditional curry with peanuts and coconut. Here sauteed eggplant replaces the bell peppers usually found in this dish ($14). The chattinad chicken, popular in the Southern part of India, is a piquant stew with hot madras spices and black pepper ($23) paired with jeera rice spiced with whole cumin and sliced onion helps to turn down the heat ($5).

Breads perfect for soaking up the sauces include naan with garlic ($5), a delicate, crepe-like appam ($7), and my favorite, the buttery layered malbari lachha paratha ($5). Dessert brings a soul-satisfying shahi tukra, ghee fried bread slices soaked in a mixture of milk, sugar and sweetened condensed milk heated until it begins to caramelize ($10). And to cleanse the palate, Shubhangi suggests your last bite should be into a dumpling called mo’dak.

This closer is a green orb made from a dough flavored with a fresh beetal leaf, surrounding a mixture of caramelized fennel, pistachios and rose petals before it is rolled in shredded coconut flakes ($7). Delicious.

Mahesh’s Kitchen is open for dinner daily  from 5 to 10 pm except Mondays. It is located at 16019 City Walk, Sugar Land Town Center. 281.937.7796.