This average looking spud, found predominantly across kitchens all over the world has a bad rap when it comes to health and fitness but potatoes are not going anywhere, are they? I mean what would life be without potatoes? Sure, it doesn't get all the attention it deserves but its everywhere! So it was about time somebody took it upon themselves to throwback the spotlight on the tuber.

In comes Murphies, brandishing the sinful looking baked jacket potatoes under Pune's nose. And Pune is starting to sniff back with appreciation. Spearheaded by Aman Talreja, Aniruddh Ahuja and Dhiren Khaturia, seemingly great lovers of the tuber, Murphies is quietly but surely changing the way Pune looks at a potato. With a menu that they have been perfecting almost over 2 years, the spud is surely the hero of the show.

The Kukkad Diaries walked in into Muphies, one late saturday afternoon, to check the place out. The eatery is bang on the middle of a cross-road, right at a spot that'd make it hard to miss. Spacious, with an additional outdoor seating, it looks like a place you could spend your weekends just mooching around being a couch potato (see what I did there? See?? Ok. I'll stop.)

The joint is very simplistic in design and bare walls and minimal decor. It just seems light, airy and cosy. Somewhere you could just have your potatoes in peace. You could sit by the bay windows on one side and play some Jenga or challenge your friends to a friendly game of Battleship or just read the day's newspaper. It also doesn't hurt that they have free wifi.


We were welcomed by Dhiren who practically rules the kitchens and manages things around the place. He helped us choose our menu for the day and recommended some house specials. The menu though brief and precise, holds a lot of promise and looks pretty exciting. We were a bit hungry when we got there but we might have seemed hungry too, because Dhiren got to the business of feeding us with vengeance. So we ended up having MUSHROOM CAPPUCINO soup, GERMAN SUPPE soup, PURPLE ISLAND SALAD, LOADED NACHOS, WAFFLE FRIES, CHEESE AND JALAPENO BITES, STEAK AND GRAVY murph and the BACON BITS AND MUSHROOM murph.

So apart from a complete hog-fest the visit proved to be almost educational. Dhiren is someone who is an authority on everything potatoes. He could give you a talk on the varieties of potatoes to be found in the different seasons, calorie count of a tuber to the best potato recipes while slowly feeding you into a food coma. It was a blessing he decided to dig into the goodness with us because we were starting to get worried with the sudden spike in our eating prowess. Because once you start eating those WAFFLE FRIES you simply can't stop.

Mr. TKD and me just couldn't get enough of the MUSHROOM CAPPUCINO. For someone who doesn't really dig mushroom soup, it might just have been one of the best I've tasted yet. It was rich and creamy and simply delicious.


GERMAN SUPPE is indulging soup loaded with bacon and potatoes. Its warm and filling. Though our scales were firmly tipped towards the mushroom soup, we'd accept it was a darn good soup.

PURPLE ISLAND salad was colorful and oh so fresh. It had crunchy veggies with sweet and sour and salty, all making up for a salad heaven. Also it made us a little bit less guilty about gulping down all those potatoes later.



Our favorite starters were the CHEESE AND JALAPENO BITES, crispy taters filled with gooey, stretchy cheese and melting into your mouth into a burst of flavor from the jalapeno. So sinful, so yum. We also met our food match in the WAFFLE FRIES. It just wouldn't be ignored. Potato chips cut into waffle shapes and fried, we couldn't solve the mystery of it's addictiveness. Bursting as we were from all the food yet the fries won't let us go. WAFFLE FRIES 1, TKD 0.



By the time we moved on to the Murphs, our body ratio charts must have read one thirds water and two thirds potatoes. But being gluttons of highest degree, we moved into the mains right after.

Now, a perfect baked jacket potato has characteristically crispy and crunchy outer skin and pillowy soft inner filling. Though it may seem horrific to health nuts to be eating so much "fatty" tubers yet its been shown that baked potatoes actually have 0g of fat and trans fat. Yes, they can add to the total carb intake of your diet yet its well within the recommended amount of carbs.


Another good reason to have these Murphs would be that they are simply amazing. The BACON BITS and MUSHROOM murph had a yummy crispy skin that we dug into with our hands and the bacon and mushroom loaded with the mashed insides and topped off with bubbling cheese made this my favorite murph.


The STEAK and GRAVY murph had pieces of steak in the filling and cheese on the top. The gravy that came with it was so good, making the whole dish an interpretation of a steak, gravy and mashed potato dish. Clever, huh?


The baked potatoes were really a revelation. The crispy skin and the interesting fillings really make the place a must try. Also did you know, they serve beer and are perhaps only one of the few places giving Buy One, Get One on BIRA right now. They also have a weekly special menu that you should really check out.


Murphies is a great place to hang out with your friends and get your potato fix. Murphs are here to stay and even though some may not get it, but it will grow on them anyway. What can we say, Haters gonna hate and Potatoes gonna potate!



P.S: A big shout out to Sonya for calling us over and introducing us to Murphies. A kukkadly thanks to Dhiren for taking such good care of us.