We are very sentimental about vada pavs and only prefer to eat them in the absolute pure form—mildly spiced potato filling, a thin layer of besan coating and just the right amount of dry chutney. Vada pavs in their fancy avatars are okay occasionally but they will never become our staple. That’s why we rolled our eyes when we were offered baked vada pav (Rs 30) by the Bake Live studio at their Girgaum Chowpatty artisanal bakery outlet. Amidst a long list of pizza, burgers, pita platters and kulchas, a list of baked buns sits snuggly. We’ve sampled something similar, catered at parties last Diwali and it was good to see the concept go mainstream so soon.

Baked fresh in their live commercial oven, we sampled the offering only to be surprised by the sheer authenticity of the taste of the filling inside a bun that tasted like a soft pav. The pairing didn’t seem too awkward either. Partnered with a dry coconut chutney, we felt it would have worked better with a dry garlic chutney for a more authentic feel. The baked dabeli (Rs 30) was up next and, paired with fried masala groundnuts, it tasted authentic too—just that we like ours double-crisped on the tava like by the local dabeliwala around the corner. And we like sev—lots of sev.