Eating Out in Bombay..

The Newly Opened 36 Oak & Barley - A guest review

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:52:00 +0000

Rest : 36 Oak & Barley
Loc : August Kranti Marg, near Cumballa Hill Hospital
Meal : Dinner

This one has been reviewed by the wife, like everything else, she gets ownership of the blog and its therefore only fitting that she does a review. 36 O&B is just around the corner from where we live, though the building itself has a bit of a nasty reputation, its nice to have a new restaurant in the neighborhood.

36 Oak & B replaces East, the south east asian restaurant designed like a bit of an understated Tiki Bar or like the East coast based Penang. While East was around for a while, it never struck quite the chord with diners, the food was okay but nothing special, it was also quite oddly located (traffic, parking woes)

The place itself is quite large and a little loud in terms of design, a strong industrial streak runs through the layout which i think has been carried forward from East. The menu is expansive and covers a wide range of cuisines, focusing more on the plates, best of different cuisines.

The bean sprouts have been retained from the old East table service and were lovely, you could eat tons of this and still ask for another plate. The breadsticks were fairly ordinary.

The fondue was pretty decent

served with crispy bread.

a bit of a deconstruction with these things on the side if you so wish to indulge.

The falafal was pretty good with hummpus drizzle. Very enjoyable.

The risotto was creamy but not heavy, an average dish.

Overall, the place has a relaxed ambiance, the decor is certainly high end, however they could have definitely toned it down and it would not have hurt the environment at all. The menu has a bit of a wide range and could serve as a decent all day dining spot but i think its a little too large (spread over 2000 square feet) a smaller place would have worked too.

The service is top notch, no complaints. Their pricing is competitive too, as was the case with East.

Food : 7/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 1750 (2 appetizers, a main, glass of wine and a mocktail)

Ramanayak Udipi Shri Krishna Boarding

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:53:00 +0000

Rest : A.Ramanayak Udipi Sri Krishna Boarding
Meal : Dinner
Loc : 1st Flr., LBS Market Bldg. Near Matunga Central Railway Station Mumbai
Company : Pat, Slash, Shri Samant Saheb

Four years ago with a great deal of expectation and anticipation i dragged a few friend to Ramanayak's, unfortunately we had a pretty sub standard meal, possibly one of the worst of the lot, we vowed to never go back. My post (here) attracted some fairly violent, disparaging comments. but i stood my ground.

For some random reason (and owing to my recent southie fixation) i figured it was time to give Ramanayak's a shot again and ascertain if it was a one off bad day or they well and truly sucked. So we ditched the car and hopped a cab to Matunga, the south Indian stronghold. Pat, was with me the last time we dined here and led as we tried to find our way.

Its not an easy place to find, its near the station, if you come from the main street, find the building but dont enter, go around the back and you will find the door. Or you could stand on the main thoroughfare and moan "where the f*** is this place" like i did and someone will pop out and point you in the right direction like it happened to us.

On the first floor, it wasnt packed inside but there was no wait, we walked in and paid up for our full meals (INR 130) you can also go for set meals (INR 48) and rice plates etc.

We grabbed our table, where we sat in twos, the banana plantain was already spread in front of us. Looking around the walls as you wait for the food you see their famous sign "The owner eats here" interesting, we were seated near the kitchen which looks fairly clean, a sign on the door invites you to inspect the kitchen if you so wish.

The contents of the thali are more or less standard, two gravies, a dry vegetable, a pickle, chapattis, poppadums, a small bowl of curd, fermented buttermilk, sambar, rasam, rice and one of three sweet dishes.

The food was pretty good, four years ago we were just robbed i guess, the place has been around for nearly seventy years, couldn't have lasted this long if they were no good. This time around, not a single item was below par. Spot on on every front, the rasam especially was possibly the best i have had, the fermented buttermilk i could drink gallons of (damn near tried too)no complaints.

Thalis are all about combinations and usually they put together enough dishes to appeal to most people, once in a while you will end up with a situation where none of the dishes work, perhaps that is what happened the last time. This time round, the combination worked.

The service too is functional, have to ask for a few things over and over but considering the environment it sort of seems to be part of the experience.

Overall, the food was solid, the service okay, i do think the pricing is a tad on the higher side, for example a full meal at Mani's served similarly was INR 100.

Food : 7/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 130 pp

Inflation or Insanity

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:57:00 +0000

I am laid up in bed due to a recurring inflammation of my peroneal tendon, a terrific pain that makes it impossible to put even a feather on my left foot. The doc advises complete bed rest, so as i try to kill time and work from home i happened upon my credit card statement from American Express.

The little telephone number marked at the top was apparently what i owed them, mind immediately flashed back to one of my fav movies of all time Wall Street. Early on in the film Charlie Sheen remarks to John C.McGinley that American Express probably has a hitman out looking for him.

I find myself in a similar predicament, my love of food and wine is forcing me to cash in my unborn childrens college fund. While i as a lover of the good life can choose to dine frugally or eat at home (eww)i wonder how people running massive, ornate, stand alone restaurants manage as they obviously dont have the luxury of discretion. Especially as there are so many new ones or relatively new ones that seem to have an obsession with size.

Tote on the Turf owned by the Akerkar's of Indigo clocks in at 25000 square feet and has a rumoured monthly rental of INR 35,00,000 ($70,000) Despite the huge bar, a brilliant layout, the restaurant itself has never found a stable identity (unlike Indigo) it is now Neel serving an Indian menu.

Hakka San is massive, at 6500 sq feet and done to the nine's, their sister white elephant Yauatcha is nearly twice the size, with rumored spends on kitchen/decor to be North of 7.5 Cr ($1.5million)which seems irrecoverable from where i sit.
Canvas at the Palladium, Phoenixm Mills is laid across 7500 square feet and looks like it was designed by a Colombian drug lord, the food however was fairly atrocious.

Five star hotels have it easier, especially the larges ones who have the space and can afford to experiment with them. The Taj came up with Wasabi, a signature restaurant of a well known chef, high ticket price, they fly in all their ingredients. Its a prestige restaurant more than anything else.

A recent conversation with a fellow gastronome revealed that Le Cirque at the Leela Palace does 1.5 Cr/month ($300,000 at present exchange rates) which sounds pretty impressive despite it being one of the most expensive restaurants in the country it seems well patronized. There is probably a sweetheart deal in place with Leela for rent and they get the cache of having such a prestige brand.

Besides, Le Cirque has never been about food, more about excess and a place to be seen. So financially despite the possible largish overhead and operational cost, the place is less of a risk than the stand alone joints that have gone overboard.

Restaurants are a competitive business and once the gimmick wears thin it really comes down to the food and the service but the fundamentals are always the same, you overspend and that makes it hard to get to profitability. Also, i think personally, that dining out has begun to touch stratospheric levels, especially for those of us who do it regularly and are not on expense accounts.

Thankfully places that have recently opened offer a more viable/affordable option, besides the myriad Indian options to dine out on. I wont name any because that would tantamount to advertising. Anyway, just my 0.02 cents until i get back on my feet (literally)

cheers,

Mani's

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:50:00 +0000

Rest : Mani's Lunch Home
Loc : Matunga, Near Kings Circle (map)
Meal : Lunch

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS.. HOPE 2012 ROCKS FOR EVERYONE !

Our dub session for Ashoka 2 got halved as one of the child artists was feeling unwell, with an unexpected afternoon off, we decided to get some lunch, an inspired choice by the wife who mentioned we should head to Matunga as its on the way and hit up Mani's (we had been discussing exploring more of Matunga as we both love to explore Southie food beyond the staples)

Not knowing where Mani's is we sort of bumbled our way to Matunga and reached a crossroad. The Mrs who is a smart cookie at the worst of times wanted to ask for directions but somehow i got the feeling that it was nearby, i picked a lane and bam! there it was. The wife was amazed and i kept wishing i could pick stocks like this.

Mani's is relatively small, cramped, no frills and very very crowded, so do not go into it thinking its going to be sexy in anyway, you want sexy southie food head to Daskhin at ITC or Konkan Cafe, this is fairly basic. You get the regular idli/dosa bunch of snacks but during Lunch hours most people come here for the thalis or for the rice plates.

The thalis are served as a set one serving in regulation steel plates or one can choose to have a full meal on a banana leaf, both of us chose to go for the full meal.

They serve chapatis, rice, rasam, sambar, a dry vegetable, two gravies, pickle, papad, yoghurt, buttermilk and a dessert. they also serve payasam on the weekends.

this litle dal/veggie thingy was fantastic, cant say enough about it, absolutely spot on, not too spicy, just right, tasted brilliant.

dry veggie was fairly standard, no real taste of its own, blandish, coupled with pickle or one of the other veggies and it was not too bad.

the second gravy was a potato dish, did not mind it much, the wife loved it but i would not put it in the same league as the red one.

they served a brilliant rasam but must only have it when its piping hot, the sambar was not bad at all. The yoghurt is sour and very tangy, the buttermilk made from the same yoghurt is fermented brilliantly. The dessert was okay, was too stuffed to have the pyasam, perhaps next time.

overall, the meal was a pretty good but short of brilliant, i think they scrimped off by not serving as any chutneys (i would have expected atleast 2) or a munchy like banana chips as is traditional to do.

Definitely worth a go however.

Service is fast and can be a little rushed if they dont like you but is quite friendly on the whole, the ambiance is functional but thats how its meant to be and no real complaint about that. I am going to continue to explore the Matunga/Kings Circle area over the next few days and report as things go.

Food : 7/10

Service : 7/10

Damage : for 100 per person which is decent value for money.

PS. There are three restaurants owned by the same folks, all called Mani's so double check which one you end up at. The one mentioned here is the first one they opened decades ago, the food is apparently the same across em all.

Thai Pavilion

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:33:00 +0000

Rest : Thai Pavilion
Loc : Vivanta Taj President, Cuffe Parade
Meal : Dinner

Since the sister in laws were in town i figured id take em to perhaps the best restaurant in the city, Thai Pavilion, neither of them were keen on Thai (the wife had been of a similar opinion once) but i was sure their opinion would change.

We got in around half past 7, Chef Ananda Solomon was on the phone, (every time im there ive been greeted by him) and were promptly sent to a nice corner table. First time i noticed the masks on the wall, usually im just so engrossed in the discussion, expectation and consumption of the feast to come.

I ate a whole bowl of the peanut sauce by myself, just love it. Grudgingly shared the second bowl (lets be clear these arent soup bowls)

At TP i avoid starters as it just becomes too much food and they dont have much of an appetizer selection to begin with, yet considering it was a foursome we ordered some mushrooms as well as some Thai style rolls.. both were ordinarily and fairly avoidable

The Tom Yum was just mild, not pungent and spicy hot like it usually is, we sent it across to be spiced up a bit and they really went to town on it, one spoon on the walls would peel of paint.

The Tom Kha, coconut flavored soup is usually delicately flavored, which was missing this time around. It was not bad, everyone liked it, however i know how great it can be and it was definitely not there.

The cashew and water chestnuts in chilli paste were awesome, just perfect.

The pad thai noodles were stellar, the Thai Red Curry was out of this world (no surprise here)
and not much else to say really. By the time we were done there was nothing left.

So, in the end, the appetizers were disappointing and the soups were slightly below par, however the main courses were just fantastic. The girls loved the food and had no complaints, so no major complaints i reckon.

The service, was scatter brained, i made the mistake of ordering our entire meal in one go and then everything was brought out together, so we sent the soups back while we finished the appetizers, i find this to be a cardinal mistake made by some restaurants and avoid ordering all together, however would not expect this from the Taj.

The food arrived in quick succession as it always does, always seems like there is a sense of urgency on their part to turn around covers, didnt feel rushed however.

We asked for a slight change in a dish, asking them to combine one dish with the sauce of another but there was some confusion, they got us both the dishes. Being the Taj, they served us both the dishes and took one of them off the charge. For all the bumbling, does not leave one with a bad taste in your mouth.

An off day for the best restaurant in the city, lower by their usual standards yet a pretty strong showing.

Food: 7/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 4200 for 4 without drinks.

Idli House

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:36:00 +0000

Rest : Idli House
Loc : King Circle, Matunga
Meal : Breakfast

This week has been quite a gastronomic feast as the sister in laws were in town, we went around and got quite a few solid meals and missed out on some as well. Sunday morning is usually, samosas and papdi and dhoklas or pancakes or Cafe Madras. This Sunday morning though was all about Idlis.
The younger sister in law is quite a fan of the rice caked goodness and we thought we would give it a try.

So where would one go to try out Idlis in this town? Well Idli House of course, located in the South Indian stronghold of Bombay - Matunga. There is literally a HORDE of restaurants to choose from in a 5 min radius of Kings circle.

From the Rama Nayak family comes a restaurant focused solely on Idlis, near two dozen of em from various parts of the South. I started of course with the simple Butter Idli, although this was not regular packaged butter but more like fresh, unsalted churned butter and that my friends is what makes all the difference. I will not try to express how good this was but i will say that i ate if fairly silently besides the odd moan and then i ordered another one.

This was the Idli wrapped in mudho leaves, a little bit of a chore to open up and then consume however, pretty good,

The yellow idlis (Rava Idli and Kanchipuram) were actually the weakest of the offerings, not bad but certainly not a patch on the rest of the selections.

The idli upma was another pretty spectacular, fluffy sprinkled with sev, peanuts, the first time i have had something like this. Not pictured here is the idli rasam which was good and the pepper idli which was terrific, it was not pepper sprinkled on top of the Idli as one would think but mixed in the batter i reckon. Brilliant.

All this washed down with some brilliant filter coffee, better than Cafe Madras which i thought was terrific so far. So good that between the 7 of us we had about 13 cups.

While there are more idlis, there are some other accompaniments which can be tried, the red chutney is brilliant, the white not so great, the sambar not too bad.

Overall, the place is very small, can barely seat 15, the rest though can eat at the standing table. The service itself is quick, no-nonsense and a little on the unfriendly side. The gentlemen sitting on the cash counter (the younger of the two older gentlemen) had a terrific sense of humour and saw me enjoying the sambar and brought me another one without asking.

He cleared up the dishes himself as well, great to see. Its the cuisine of hard working men and made and served with a lot of hard work as well. All in all a must do, go on Sunday when you can park.

Food : 9/10
Service 7/10
Damage : 630 for 7 of us.

Cafe By The Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Rest : Cafe By The Beach

Loc : Right before Chowpatty Beach
Meal : Early evening snack

Salt Water Grill (here and here)was perhaps my favorite spot to hang out in (not the best restaurant by a long shot) until political pressure and ulterior motives forced them to shut down. I do miss being able to go there and sit by the ocean while having a bite, so i was quite excited when i heard that the space was re-opening.

The Cafe by the Beach as its now known is under new management and focused on a rather healthy cafe menu with salads, sandwiches wraps etc. The menu is reasonably varied, they even do cheese platters as well as a deli meats platter. I have been told they will soon have daily specials in play as well. There is no liquor or wine available and though id miss it, i am sure its really not worth the hassle and the payoffs.

The place is just brilliant, as good as i remember it, having your feet in the sand while looking out at Bombay is quite something and its a pity that ridiculous zoning regulations deprive the people of vistas like the one below.

Thankfully the new management has been smart enough not to really mess with a good thing, there have been minimal changes to the original decor, some of the canopied tables are gone, there is a strong Buddha-Zen motif running, the lounge chairs are still there which is great.

Spied these at a table nearby and snapped em, looked pretty good, they have a decent selection for breakfast but i have never been a fan of the viennoiserie.

i did however, split (literally) a blueberry muffin with the wife, tasty, very tasty.

The open faced balsamic tomato with mozzarella was freshy fresh tasting. It came with a side of dialed down mustard (god i hate mustard) and some upma which was cut in a neat little square, a very nice touch. Also a nice touch were the thinly sliced potatoes.

The iced-tea was not too sweet, which is just as well, however not pictured here is the fantastic orange peel cooler which though sweet was pretty stellar, a must order.

This was the view we saw by the time we got going to the other items in the menu.

The watermelon salad with feta was effing good. About the only way watermelon should be eaten in my opinion.. is with a dollop of feta cheese. I had another version of this at Indigo Deli recently as well. The only problem was that it was not the salad i had ordered and watermelon being a watery fruit, tends to leave a lot behind in the plate when you slice and dice.

The Napolitano wrap was pretty pretty good, recommended by the chef over the others, the wraps come in little bite sized portions which is a nice touch, easy to eat, especially for an animal like me.

The salad i had originally ordered, grape with goat cheese, they got it for me in the end anyway, not bad, but nothing stellar, not a patch on the Watermelon.

Overall, its great to have a proper place on the beach open again, that alone is worth the price of admission (just an expression) its a downright dirty shame that stupid regulations by stupid people prevent good things from happening (or maybe that's how they get their bribes going)

While i was there there were two pretty Asian ladies giving foot massages, which can never be a bad thing. The place is being positioned as an all day cafe dining space, which means the atmosphere is casual and the pricing not too bad. Once the specials are available it should round out the menu nicely.

However, its still a safe menu, not too much experimentation and there is plenty of that around (Indigo Deli's, Moshe Cafe's, Smoke House Deli etc) they all tread the same ground. The location and ambiance is certainly what sets this far apart from the competitors.

Service was friendly and eager to please all around though a tad scatter brained but you can chalk that down to early days. The front of house is not as snobbish as the Salt Water Grill used to be (unjustifiably so)thankfully.

Food : 8/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 2100 for 2

The Duke Rises

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:53:00 +0000

Proof that Indian soft drinks are better than any other

Dukes is the 100+ year old soft drink brand, perhaps best known for its club soda and lemonade flavor. Ginger and Raspberry were their other well known flavors. I think Mangola was also a Dukes product and far superior to Frooti (shite) and Slice, perhaps Tango was also their brand but i could be wrong.

Image Courtesy : Parsi Khabar

Very easy to sport by their distinctive spiral ridged bottles, which lined up in their array of colors, looked like the remnants of an acid trip. Dukes survived for a long time up until Pepsico bought them out and narrowed down the product line, pushing their crappy products against indigenous goodies (Coca Cola tried to strangle Thums Up as well but couldn't do it)

While Pallonji's and Rogers continued to be available locally, at Parsi weddings and Irani joints, Dukes slowly became invisible (i am a sworn capitalist but some of these MNC's have more muscle than brains) Personally, my office is located near an old Dukes distirbutor and one of my memories as a kid was to walk by there look wide eyed at the crates of different flavors of Dukes stacked up to the ceiling.

Later, somewhere in the mid 90s post the Pepsi takeover, my grandfather was in talks to buy out a Dukes factory located at Lamington Road, i got a chance to walk across the plant, it wasn't huge or anything and it was sad to see everything given to decay and rust. I was quite excited about him buying it but it was not to be, in any case it would have turned into a building and he definitely was not going to become a soft drinks purveyor.

Liquid psychedelia anyone?

So, imagine my excitement when i heard that Pepsi was relaunching Dukes and throwing in a Masala Soda as well for good measure. Perhaps Pepsi is atoning for well.. Pepsi. Although the news broke in November, only the PET bottles were seen here and there, until finally i walked down to the dealer and life sort of came a full circle (in this context) and i ordered a crate. No Raspberry yet but have been promised i can pick em up by Saturday.

240 INR for the crate, not a bad deal. Haven't had any yet, washed the bottles in water and put them in the fridge, will wait until the raspberry's are here. Now that Dukes is back.. next ought to be the most nostalgic bevvie brand of them all...

The Zing Thing Gold Spot (Coca Cola.. are you listening)

Debailleul

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:12:00 +0000

Rest : Debailleul
Meal : Post dinner dessert
Loc : Prabhadevi

Debailleul is a Belgian patisserie that opened its doors a few months ago, high end European desserts and chocolates are now available, unfortunately at European prices (one can also get Leonidas chocolates if one were feeling generous, i walk by every other day as its up the street from my place, never walked in, though i have picked up their goodies in the NYC)

Sitting in the bright, cheerfully lit space, one can very easily be transported to Paris/Brussels or Prague as the wife thought. In terms of design, from the menu to the little chocolate boxes, everything is aesthetically superb.

The menu is interesting, you have the whole shebang - gateaux, tarts and macaroons, bonbons and ice creams(choc, vanilla) sorbets (raspberry, mango sorbet) but each variety has a limited offering. They haven't gone crazy or tried to do too much which isn't too bad an idea.

The wife chose the Voltaire, chocolate goodness this one, a relatively thick dark chocolate exterior with soft mousse like innards. Excellent.

Galloway, the one i chose, a blueberry filling in a cream cheese cake was recommended by quite a few but i found it to be a weak choice, pretty weak.

Raspberry Sorbet, brilliant, perhaps the best thing there.. but then i am extremely partial to sorbets so perhaps not the most objective a view.

Overall, the ambiance is nice, the service friendly and quick. The menu interesting and the offerings themselves good, the pricing however is on the extreme side, (Voltaire was 500, Galloway 500, the sorbets 250) at those prices, i would expect everything to be compelling and in that context they fall short. It is certainly not value for money and definetely not a place i would go often, also one could head to an Indigo Deli/Theobroma and pick up a few sterling choices at a lot less.

It is also unfortunately located right at the busy traffic light which leads to South Bombay from Prabhadevi one is guaranteed to struggle for parking during the day, best to drive over on Sunday afternoon or post 8pm.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : Catastrophic 1250.

Pestonjee

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:40:00 +0000

As some of the readers here know, i have been hunting down ice cream sandwiches across the city. The first place i came across one was Havmore in Ahmedabad (linked here) and one of the readers Bhairav was kind enough to point out that i could find them at Breach Candy which is not too far from my house. In fact i stop by there often for some coconut milk and never occurred to me that they might do these.

So this is the Pastonji's ice cream sandwich, costs 20 INR same as the Havmor, however it is substantially smaller in size, bout 15% smaller. It also comes quite unfortunately packed in a plastic container, which looks kind of cool but is ridiculous because its quite a task to get it out without breaking it (well one could but it would require patience, time and a knowledge of physics - 3 things which dont lend very well to ice cream) i prefer the regular plastic wrapper, save money on the plastic and maybe give us a flavour or two? or a bigger sandwich?

Taste wise though, it was pretty good so in the end i reckon it was kinda sorta worth it. I dont know if its Parsi owned and run but Pastonjee is a Parsi name and im a great fan of Parsis (my rakhi sisters are Parsi) berry pulao, raspberry soda and a zillion other things.. Bombay would never be the same without their zeal to innovate !

Hot Review - Smoke House Deli

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:30:00 +0000

Rest : Smoke House Deli
Meal : Lunch
Loc: High Street Phoenix near McDonalds

Smoke House Deli is the brand spanking new restaurant in whats turning out to be the most attractive one stop shop for eating out, High Street Phoenix. The entrance is so subtle you could just miss it, so watch out between for the white door between McDonalds and the Blue Foods monstrosities Noodle Bar & Bombay Blue.

You walk in and the first thing that strikes you is that it is perhaps the most original, interesting and attractive space this city has seen in a long time. While Veda located a few feet away interprets all that is excessive about India, Smoke House Deli interprets, simplicity with quirky hand drawn art on its walls (i have been looking into their design, turns out its actually very cheap for a restaurant so full marks for originality and a lesson to everyone who thinks money trumps originality. More on the decor here)

The menu is directly in competition with the Indigo Deli's and Moshe's of the world, both of which have a presence only a few meters away. There is a breakfast section as well as a separate offering of eggs any which way. Sandwiches & Burgers, Soups & Salads and Mains round up the rest.

They have a full service license which means wine and booze, since we were there for lunch, skipped out on the cocktails but went for a Sangria which was awesome. The iced tea was sans sugar, considering my recent health scare (more on that some other day) but tasted allright.

The Greek salad was near perfect, gobbled it down fairly quick, nothing to say really, spot on.. just what a Greek salad should taste like. The feta makes or breaks it, there have been times when folk have used weaker or staler feta at times, which pretty much kills it.

The second salad we had was a sweety sweet mix of figs, pine , grapes et al. the salad was pretty good but a tad too sweet with grapes in there. if they just through in some goats cheese in there to dial down the sweetness, it would kill.

The spinach ravioli was not too bad, unfortunately for my wife who ordered it and fortunately for me it was not as big a portion as my entree.. :)

The penne in tomato and garlic dashed with Gorgonzola cream was simple and that was great. Nothing heavy, nothing overt, simple taste of tomatoes, garlic and pasta.. good stuff.

The bread basket was small but filled with fresh bread and was served in a little bag reminiscent of how they used to serve their bread back in the day at Salt Water Grill.. (thank you Maharashtra Government for robbing us of a brilliant location and continue pillaging do not stop till the well runs dry) The fresh butter was also pretty awesome.

The dessert was a Creme Brulee, which was pretty good, and a chocolate tort which was everything a chocolate torte should taste like and more.

Overall Smoke House Deli is a welcome addition to what is a crowded and competitive space. As i mentioned before, the theme of the menu is similar to both Indigo Deli & Moshe's and despite Indigo Deli being the big daddy, the Smoke House Deli is younger and less intimidating (and i still cant get over the decor)

Hopefully SMD can keep up to the mark like Indigo Deli has which has been reason enough to over look what is terrible service.

Price wise too, they score, roughly 20% cheaper than Indigo Deli they are greater value for money and also have soup and half sandwich options for a soup + half a sandwich 400 a pop (which by comparison is a steal)

Service was reasonably quick and friendly.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 3000 for 2 with a Sangria each.

Ahmedabad

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:40:00 +0000

Our friends Pooja & Pramit got married this weekend in a Gujju-Mallu wedding in Ahmedabad. I was quite looking forward to a gastronomic feast which it was but not exactly as i expected.

Ahmedabad has seen a fair bit of progress over the last few years, wide roads which are more or less clean and traffic is not too bad for a former capital. Two major national educational institutes (IIM-A and NID) a convention centre and an airport which is at best 30 minutes from most places.

Right at the airport i found a Havemor, which is all over Gujarat and has begun mushrooming in other states as well. They serve the ice cream sandwich, something i have been looking for quite a while but have had no luck in Bombay (K.Rustoms on Marine Drive does not really count)

The sandwiches were delicious and i had two a day throughout my stay there. I hope they add a chocolate flavored one soon. Apparently there is a Havemor outlet in Phoenix Mills, though i haven't seen it yet.

Our first meal that day was a totally south Indian home cooked meal complete with pappads, rasam, brilliant, BRILLIANT dal, curd rice (damn, i want to cry now, really)

Pramit, the groom and our man in Ahmedabad recommended we have breakfast at Laxmi Gathiya Rath (map) which is right on Nehrunagar circle. On a Sunday morning the place was fairly buzzy, they serve regular gujju staples,

The Khaman was brilliant, sweet with spicy chutney, good good stuff, i like my khaman softer with a little more water, this was dryer but not bad at all.

the white dhokla was pretty good as well, the fafdi/papdi was very different from what i am used to here, its usually dry and crunchy while this was just out of the frying pan and continued to be soft throughout our meal.

The patra were nice, though i have this habit of having em with ketchup, so felt a little incomplete.

the khandvi again, soft and surprisingly on the spicy side with flecks of chillies in and around.

the chutneys.. Overall the food was brilliant, however its plainly unhealthy for you, nearly everything was friend and they werent cheap about the oil either. Dont think id be able to do this more than once a month.

Another surprise was this crate we saw while leaving, after our chai. A crate of Sosyo, the evening before we were discussing old tv commercials and dead drinks we liked as kids. Sosyo had a catchy commercial and was easily available in the 80's but disappeared all together at some point.
But Lo and Behold, we see a crate and walked over to check out how it was possible.

Shailesh Prabhu, founder of Yellow Monkey Games, greedily gulps it all down.

Turns out Sosyo (website) is actually still alive and is an original Gujarat brand being exported globally (but not nationally) The drink is masala soda esque but not quite as spicy, it just needs to be chugged to be understood. Now if only someone would bring those awesome Gold Spot bottles back! (For the record Pepsi has revived Dukes which is the only good thing i can say about Pepsi)

As i mentioned before, i went for a wedding most of our meals were with the wedding party, as much as i wanted to slip out and get a thali (which i love) i really couldn't get around to it. Part of the reason was meals like the one above which were simply stunning. A traditional meal this is probably one of the best, south indian meals i have ever had.

there were sweet and salty banana chips, veggies, avial, puri, papads, the most amazing AMAZING tamarind chutney i have ever had, a brilliant sambar, pyasamas galore.

dal, rice and ghee, how on earth could that be anything but great.

washed down by loads of spiced buttermilk.

So all in all, the trip was amazing, the city was easy like Sunday morning (though i could never move there) the food was good all around, we had plenty of meals Gujju, South Indian, Punjabi, home made pav bhaji even and not a single one was below superb.

Perhaps ill get a shot at Ahmedabad and their Thalis some day, until then Bombay will have to suffice !

Chinese Room, Panchvati Gaurav this past week

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Its been a bit of a tough week, not much love in terms of eating out. We wanted to check out a Thali joint, my kid brother refused to drive up to Phoenix so we could dine at Rajdhani, i had no intention of heading to Samrat or Status for the nth time. Would have really loved to go to Kabladevi and check out Joshi club or whatever but unfortunately no one was keen on cabs.

So off we went to the only real alternative we could think of Panchvati Gaurav (none of us are fans of Golden Star because they are about excess)

I have seen the place change a great deal over the last decade and a half. The food is patchy, sometimes good sometimes not so impressive. This time around it was strictly okay, no great shakes. They had a great dhokla, the dals were good but that was about it. The joy of a thali place is if they serve a few diff kind of rotis or something interesting like using makhan (home churned butter) which really adds a whole new dimension to the taste.

What i also found greatly distressing was the cost, the thali is was 300, which is pretty deranged in my opinion. Value For Money it (and others of its ilk) aint.

The second meal was a complete catastrophe. Sunday evening, is possibly the worst time of the week to consider heading out for dinner. Especially when you are looking for a table to seat ten people, all the more worse if the ten have been dancing for about two hours (practicing for a wedding, i dont run a nightclub in my apartment)

Since there was a gaggle of meat eaters we skipped the ever reliable Shiv Sagar and since East shut down the only place i reckoned we could try was The Chinese Room which is bang on Kemps Corner.

Having never been there i knew it was a gamble and sadly we ended up on the losing side. I am not a fan of Chinese food anymore as it tends to make me fairly sick but i do like to indulge ever so often.

However, Chinese Room is a restaurant that you would have found in Delhin in the early 90's or can still find in tier 2, cities as a restaurant that has seen better days. I knew we were in trouble the moment we stepped in. The table cloth was dirty, the A/C wasnt working, the paint was peeling and the wait staff was fairly jaded. Another curious thing i found was a Samurai in full armour mounted on a wall, wonder why they have a Japanese warrior in a Chinese restaurant.. Terracotta warriors not around?

We ordered standard fare and none of it was really impressive, so i will not recount our dishes in detail as i would like to forget. There was particular dish that looked like snot ( i shit you not) and no one, NOT ONE person touched it.

Woe is us. The cheque came to about 4000 for 10.

A quick bite at Indigo Deli

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:27:00 +0000

Rest : Indigo Deli
Meal : Quick early afternoon bite
Loc : Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel

Customer service has never been a strong point at any of the Indigo Deli restaurants but i really think its high time they took things up a notch and became a little more responsible. People often complaint how diners behave badly with wait staff which i think is a no no. However, i think wait staff tend to be completely lackadaisical unless they face a ranting lunatic.

I was over at the deli this Sunday, as i usually am to pick up some stuff from their Deli, in the rare hope that they might have some decent salads and dips to carry home.

The wife chose a roast tomato soup which was pretty decent

i chose the large salad platter which had couscoups upma, watermelon and deta, roast peppers, a mousse of some kind. The platter itself was decent but interestingly i ordered the VEG platter and made sure they knew, when it came i confirmed the same thing.. however they threw in some chicken out of the kindness of their heart. if you look at the picture its a little difficult to tell if its chicken or not, which is why the inquiry. Anyway, eventually, i took a bite.

Fortunately for them i am not a screamer or a violent man and pointed this out to them, i did get an apology but somehow, i feel they got away with it cheap. Being early on Sunday, i didnt want to make a fuss, the wife though was almost up in arms, what did upset me was that the waitstaff thought it was funny and were sniggering in the corner.

i thought about another gentleman who had this happen to him in another restaurant and proceeded to file a complaint with the police. I am pretty sure, a few people i know would have been radically upset. Also, i think they should have had the decency to take the salad off the check.

Anyway, to make a long story short, i finished my bit, paid my check and will choose to vote with my feet..and though i love the food there, i dont think i am going back for a while.

Food: 6/10
Service: 3/10
Damage : 1200

The awesome PICKALICIOUS contest

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0000

In the immortal words of Monty Python.. Now for something completely different. In the spirit of generosity, with a little help from my friends and since a lot of you are pretty active in the kitchen here is a contest for a fully loaded gift hamper courtesy of ADF Foods.

ADF foods, established in 1932 are the the owners of brands such as Ashoka, Camel, Aeroplane amongst others ADF Soul, a brand for those with a love for food has been creating and marketing various chutneys, pickles, ready to eat (RTE) packs .

They are also very well known for their premium quality pickles made in Virgin Olive oil. Since pickles are what they excel at i get to host and judge the PICKALICIOUS contest !

How it works is you need to come up with a creative recipe using pickle and then upload it to the ADF Soul facebook page. One lucky winner chosen by me is going to get an ADF Soul foods hamper which consists of 7 ready to eat packs, 14 pickle bottles and 1 bottle of Mango chutney (pictured below)

So what you waiting for, go for it.

Please Note : I am not provided with any financial or other incentive provided for running the contest.

Komalas

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:34:00 +0000

Rest : Komalas
Meal : Lunch
Loc : Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel

The joy that is South Indian cuisine, i find myself grabbing a lot of southie chow on Sundays, somehow the two go well together. In Phoenix mills for a movie, the wife suggested we skip our regular haunt (Indigo Deli) and head to Komalas..

Komalas is very awkwardly located, near the exit to Phoenix Mills and can be a little hard to find. I reckon they pay a substantially lowered rent for such a weak location. That aside, they are part of a fairly large international chain and their menu is pretty expansive.

They offer a variety of regular Udipi fare as well as quite a few thali options. Second time i have been there and they have not had appams and stew. In fact, outside of two five star restaurants Dakshin & Konkan Cafe i havent found appams served anywhere.

The wife wanted appams and since they were not available, she chose a cheese tomato uttapams which was nice and fairly heavy, the best part was the red garlic chutney which pretty much rocked!!! i have the had gobs and gobs of it at the Breach Candy dosawala, truly elevates just about anything you chose.

I chose the full fledged thali they serve and boy was it fully loaded. On offer were chapattis, rice, a gravy vegetable, two dry veggies, rasam, sambar, kheer, dahi, raita, pickle and a stupendously cold glass of masala chaas, which i proceeded to gulp down and order two more glasses of.

The chappatis, i personally didn't like, reminiscent of the roti canai, a little too oily for my taste. The potato veggie was yummy as was the cauliflower, though a little on the spicy side.

The rasam was brilliant as was the sambar. The kheer was not bad, though i am not a big fan.

Topped of with a glass of fliter coffee, which i really like, though the wife who is an even bigger fan didnt enjoy.

Overall, Komala's is a fairly large, comfy joint, the menu is expansive and most dishes are worth trying. More expensive than the average Udipi, they also have a friendly and fairly efficient staff that is eager to please.

While i appreciate the fact that they deal exclusively in disposable plates, glasses and utensils, it takes some getting used to. Especially having filter coffee out of a stryofoam cup can be a little strange. My last visit was here

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 400 for 2.

Cafe Madras

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Rest : Cafe Madras
Loc : Sion Circle
Meal : Sunday Breakfast

I get a call from my mate Happy over the weekend to grab breakfast at Cafe Madras (previous visit here), which is in my opinion a great way to start off a Sunday morning. Located bang on Sion circle Cafe Madras is an unassuming place serving South Indian and some Maharashtrian fare that harks back to the days when the area was a strong hold for their community.

The menu has more than half a dozen varieties of idlis and nearly two dozen dosa options besides the assorted snacks such as rasam vada, medu vada and a bunch of uttapams.

The Misal was pretty good, however i recommend the Madras Dahi Misal which is even better, a must have on the menu.

The butter idli is fairly decadent, you can also get the idli plain with a side of butter to control you butter to idli ratio.

Thums Up, accept no substitutes... for there are none.

The rasam vada was actually average, one would think it would be superlative too but no such luck. Probably better off getting the rasam in a glass which is an option.

The madras filter coffee is awesome, fun to drink and you should be able to go through at least a pair of em before you leave. For foreign readers, Madras filter coffee is a sweet, potent mixture and prepared differently from regular filter coffee abroad. Everything from the way it is prepared, poured and served is unique and its surely a must try, there are numerous options around Cafe Madras.

Overall, the place gets very, very busy, we got in at 10am and there must have been atleast 25 people waiting already, fortunately Happy had grabbed a table early and was guarding it.. the fact that he is buddies with the managers helped too. The sheer variety of the dishes means, its better go with a larger group and then share, pick the dishes you liked and order more. Will allow you to try some of the lesser known dosas.

The food is pretty good, familiar yet different from the regular Udipis one comes across in the city, a leaning towards the ethnic with minimal fuss in preparation and presentation. Simplicity is the key and they dont try to lean towards the tastes of any particular ethnic group.

Service is chaotic, our waiters changed twice, a few of the dishes did not show up until much later, some didnt show up at all and my Mysore sada turned into something else all together. However, i guess its all good, place was packed and i was just happy to not have waited.

Food : 8/10
Service : 6/10
Damage : 600 for 3.

3am at Trattoria

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:32:00 +0000

Rest : Trattoria
Loc : Vivanta/Taj President, Cuffe Parade
Meal : 3am chow down

Trattoria (previous visits here, here)at the Taj President continues to be the perennial 3am joint, especially when hunger strikes during the glorious hours of 1 - 5 am. This is when 'Trats' really comes alive, in my near 20 years that i have been goin there, i dont think i have ever been there when the sun was out.

To be fair, Trats is more than a late night coffee shop, they serve just one cuisine and is actually a far superior alternative when compared to the traditional something for everyone 5 star coffee shops such as Shamiana at the Taj Palace & Tower or Bayview at Marine Plaza which are more or less nearby.

The roast tomato soup with goats cheese, was brilliant, not as good as the one from Hornby's Pavilion but still pretty good.

Followed up with a salad of spinach with feta, walnut and a balsamic vinaigrette, possibly the weakest dish of the evening. Looked like a winning mix, bitter spinach, sour feta and sweet drizzle, its a combination that has worked well before but this time just sort of fell flat.

The garlic bread served with the soup was yummy, unfortunately the bread basket that came in otherwise was pretty bare. Seems like five stars are scrimping nowadays as well.

The pizzas on the menu are all top notch, i dont think i have ever had a bad one. This one was a thin crust with peppers and olives. Just brilliant. I usually pick their lasagna which is luscious and the wife always goes for the pizza. Smart woman that.

A mousse of some kind from what i recall, we skipped on the tiramisu, not bad but nothing spectacular.

On the whole, the restaurant continues to serve awesome food, so long as you stick to the tried and tested dishes, experiment too much and you could end up with something below par. Be prepared for a large, extremely noisy crowd even at 3 am, the place is quite a fish market, with a fair sprinkling of obnoxious drunks during the weekend.

Service is quick and friendly as expected.

What is your fav 3am place?

Food : 7/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 2000 without drinks.

Candies

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Meal : Candies
Loc : Pali Hill, Bandra West

After a meeting in the killing fields of Andheri-Kurla, we were headed back to the more familiar and preferable confines of South Bombay, as has become a habit, we either dine at the hotels that line the Western Express Highway or make our way to Bandra. Not in the mood for a long drawn out sit down lunch, we debated between Moshe & Cafe Basilico but ultimately agreed on trying out Candies.

Candies is part of Bandra lore and though i have been coming to Bandra a lot more over the last five years than i ever did in the 25 before that, i never had a chance to try Candies. They serve a variety of pre-cooked meals which are heated up and ready to serve. Spaghetti, Thai Curry, Paneer Makhani etc are all on offer.

Also on the menu is an all day breakfast as well as a large selection of quiches, sandwiches etc. They also have a single serving salad bar (130) which has various salads and a large section for desserts.

We picked up a quiche, a veg patty of some kind and a salad. The quiche was not too bad, the patty however was oily and tasted mediocre at best. The fresh lime soda was brilliant and we had a few more of those.

The Salad is by far the single most interesting of all the dishes they have on offer. I picked up a little bit of each, from memory there was Cole Slaw, Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, Olives, Croutons, Romaine & Lettuce. Couldnt find any dressing anywhere but no biggy. Every single thing was spectacular, i wish they could just triple up the price and make it all you can eat.

We also picked up some Hummus which was pretty good but was served with some mediocre Lavash, ruined it.

I picked up a small rum ball which was below average, the chocolate cake, i didnt get a chance to taste, its sitting in the refrigerator so maybe i will give it a shot later today.

Overall, Candies is a place geared towards teens and the young college going crowd, folks who are bound to be attracted by the value for money pricing, self service, casual ambiance and varied menu. The place is deceptively huge with seating spread over lots and lots of space, indoors and outdoors and was fairly busy.

The food is hit and miss, i am not a fan of pre-cooked food, so i don't think i would pick any of the dishes unless nothing else was available, most of the sandwiches and rolls seemed unattractive.

The all day breakfast looks attractive, however the salad bar was spectacular. A place like Candies could only exist in Bandra, it would be run down if it were any further and financially un viable if closer to South Bombay. A true Bandra belle this, worth checking out, some might like it and some might not.

Food : 7/10
Service : 5/10
Damage : 500

Eating out over the last week

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:04:00 +0000

Have had a pretty good run over the last few days and hopefully it will run through the coming weekend which also happens to be my birthday ! Unfortunately most of these dine outs were impromptu and i wasnt able to click pictures, so am reusing some of the old ones from other posts, cept for the last one.

Cafe Basilico in Bandra is an old war horse and came through on what was a particularly bad day. Planned to the hilt as a working Saturday things unraveled fairly quickly and nothing got done. The only solace being getting a chance to bite into possibly the best risotto anywhere in the city (previous) a must have dish, the mushroom risotto with a supremely tasty tomato compote of sorts. Also had an open faced omelet which was okay and a horrible couscous upma, expecting it to be like the one at Indigo Deli it was a disaster (900 for 2)

China Garden last night for an awesome dinner with a large gathering including my rakhi sister Tazhib and her husband Farokh who are down from the UK and miss Indian Chinese. For someone who is avoiding Chinese i have certainly OD'ed on it.

This time i was happy to go because Farokh is an awesome cook and treated us BIG time when were in London this past summer. Food was brilliant, fantastic onion pancakes continue to astound, the veggies in schezuan sauce were just awesome, i don't know what they did different, i got some asparagus which tasted out of this world. Farokh & Tahzib also got a fried squid starter and shrimp for their main course. Both of which they said were great. (5500 for 7 with 2 beers) Previous visit here

I was hoping to carry out for drinks post dinner but my kid brother had a particularly long day at work, which is idea time for drinking but we had to disband, not feeling like going home yet, the wife and i headed out to Indigo Deli for some dessert. The Belgian Chocolate ice - cream is ddddelicious, again a superlative little thing. Though i have had it before, i couldn't recall if it had that tang of liqueur to it. Again, highly recommend this, share it because its really really rich. (340 incl taxes)

Imperial China

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:12:00 +0000

Rest : Imperial China
Meal : Dinner
Loc : Hilton, near Sahar Interntional Airport

Had to meet a friend who was staying at the Hilton and we decided to grab dinner at the hotel itself. The place has a rather awkward entrance which is way small followed by a barely adequate lobby. Rather underwhelming when compared to the Hilton over in Nariman Point. Anyway, being completely unfamiliar with the hotel we asked for help regarding picking a restaurant.

Flames, their open air restaurant wouldn't open till October and their Mediterranean/Indian restaurant Brasserie was under sold to us (though i would recommend their menu which looks fairly interesting)

So it was Imperial China we walked into for dinner, the place is softer than the lobby (the lobby looks like it was designed by Tony Montana) the tables are spaced out and the chairs are comfy. unfortunately there were only about six people in the restaurant including us which did not inspire much confidence.

Aptly named, the menu contains some Mongolian dishes as well as a heavy Thai section although i am not sure if Imperial China ever held sway as far as Siam. Dishes are mostly standard Asian fare.

Were served packaged almonds with our beers, hate packaged almonds, be better to serve something cheaper if it can be had 'fresher'

The Kimchi was devoured by me all together, it was actually pretty good, sweet, spicy and tangy. Unfortunately it wasn't refilled.

For the appetizers we decided to go in for a Chinese & Thai each, so it was satay with peanut sauce and a dumpling with hot sauce. Both were decent but nothing to write home about.

The mains were regular noodles which were okay , the chilli garlic fried rice was pretty good as were the veggies in schezuan sauce with cashews.

Overall the meal was a lot better than i anticipated, not bad at all, unfortunately as i write this now, even a relatively spice free and light Chinese meal such as this is giving stomach trouble. Either i am getting too old or Chinese is just way too difficult to digest overall, end up with some dreadful mornings after.

Imperial China is not bad but the street it is on is hyper competitive. A short 3 min walks takes you to the ITC and some of the best restaurants in the city, the Hyatt is right next door and another 5 mins can take you to the Leela.

Service was quick and friendly but then were were the only ones there.

Food : 7/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : For 3 with a 2 beers 3500.

Geoffreys - Gone Downhill?

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:17:00 +0000

Geoffrey's has been a favorite watering hole ever since it opened up, the drinks were well mixed, reasonably priced and they have always had an acceptable selection of food. Heading out for a drink meant heading out to good ol Geoffrey's (posts on Geoffrey's here)

We even had an appointed table where we would usually go and plonk ourselves down, guests, friends from abroad all got a visit or two, one of my impromptu wedding parties happened here as well, where we pretty much took over a section of the bar and were treated very well.

I was there last week with the intention of spending about 90 mins before a late dinner, so we could grab a few pints and then head on over. However it was so disappointing that we left just after one drink and elected to show up for dinner earlier and carry on there.

First of they had no oranges for the Hoegarden, secondly the drink itself ended up costing 465-475 with taxes (US$9.93 or GBP 6.3) which i think is immensely over priced. Secondly the complimentary bar snacks, which we have enjoyed over the past decade and a half, salsa, chips and peanuts took forever to show up. They would refill the chips or the salsa only one at a time which basically meant we just sat there noshing on god damned peanuts. In a relatively empty bar it was difficult to get attention.

Personally, i am not one to complain about the ridiculous prices we get charged in metros because a great deal is down to taxes and also to the monies that need to be paid for convenience (read bribes) but in all honesty, if the prices go up the service should atleast keep up rather than go the other way.

Today, there are plenty of bars/restobars one can head to for a drink and some bites. Back then Geoffrey's was a great alternative to a 5 star but now there are several options across the price range Woodside Inn, Indigo, Indigo Deli, Wink, Starboard, Dome, Aer to name just a few. Cheaper beer can be had at Mondegar, Leo etc.

So instead of upping their game Geoffrey's over the last few years they been a massive let down. Every time we go there we feel the service has gotten worse and the prices seemed to have jumped higher. During the IPL etc we used to avoid going there all together because they would jack up prices even more and we would be forced to nosh on ridiculous IPL theme dishes..

The only good thing they have going is that they introduced a new food menu a year or two ago which has some decent options at decent prices but seems too little too late for me personally.

What are your favorite watering holes wherever you are ?

Paratha Mantra

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:29:00 +0000

Rest : Paratha Mantra
Meal : Dinner
Loc : Navbharat House, opp Trishna, Fort

About eighteen months ago i reviewed Nandu's Paratha House (read) in Fort, a fairly small hole in the wall eatery with terrific parathas. The place was owned and run by an old school friend Parin who is actually a lawyer, his wife Bhavana and their partner Antariksh.

While Nandus was a success, in order to grow, they shut Nandu's and opened as a re-branded Paratha Mantra. A new location not far from the old and thankfully no real change to the menu. The new space is much larger, feels more open, has wood paneling and seating for almost 50. The wave like ceiling is cool and there is also a private dining space on the mezzanine.

We started off with the papad churi, with a mix of khichya, nice, not as spicy as it used to be but i am not complaining.

I chose the chaas, which was pretty awesome, tasted even better chilled. Fortunately they know how good the chaas is and serve it in various sizes. Choose a regular glass or you can get a larger patiala glass version or an even larger jumbo which is in a bottle. They also do various masala sodas and the lassi is apparently a specialty.

The choice of parathas is expansive, you have the regular aloo, gobi, and other traditiona combinations as well as the more modern takes such as the cheese garlic which is one of my fav's.

One can also experiment with the funky ones such as pizza, pav bhaji or vada pav. I have had the pizza paratha before and it was spectacular. One of the parathas on our table was olive and jalapeno which was interesting, someone also ordered a diet which is basically thinner and done with less oil.

One of the cool things about the parathas is that for 45 bucks you can get a side of Dal or Rajma. I tried their dal and its truly special, just as it was at Nandus.

The lasooni palak was another stellar dish, man all that garlic was yummy.

All in all, i am not a fan of paratha places, the menu is usually generic and the execution ends up disappointing. Nandus & now Paratha Mantra are the only places i have found that can actually stand up and be counted.

The fact that they have untried recipes and winning combos (garlic cheese, pav bhaji, pizza) means they are bound to stand out. One can also choose from the several ingredients and come up with your own combination.. so its essentially a free for all best enjoyed in a large group.

Also, i think its a complete and utter misnomer to call themselves Paratha mantra.. its misleading, though their parathas are good their main courses are top notch as well. They have great daal and a strong biryani.. so its pretty much full service restaurant.

Do you guys like Paratha focused restaurants ?

Food : 9/10
Service : 9/10
Damage 1500 for 5

Full Disclosure : Parin Lakhani the owner and i are school mates/classmates and have known each other for a long time. He wouldn't let us pay as usual but we pretty much refused to budge unless he did ! This review stands on its own two legs and i hope folks go there and share their thoughts.

Taj Lands End Vista - The Atlantis Middle Eastern Special

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:18:00 +0000

Rest : Vista
Meal : Dinner
Loc : Taj Lands End, Bandra Bandstand.

The Lands End and particularly Vista is a happy place for me, i spent some time there when i was dating the Mrs, although we loved the food going back there often enough post wedding has been rare.

So i was quite happy when i was invited to sample the dishes at the ongoing Arabic Cuisine festival put together by the Taj Lands End & Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai. Atlantis again is a happy connection of sorts, from Spring break way back when, I had actually been to the Atlantis property in the Bahamas. It wasnt as big then, the signature towers came later.

My good friends KB & MB live in Dubai for part of the year, their house is near the Atlantis and they visit often meals especially Nobu, which they rate very well. I could go into my Nobu story but i digress.

The layout was fairly expansive, the festival dishes were in addition to the regular evening buffet but i dont think anyone really touched any of the regular food. Start with a tomato shorba with some veggies, There was a large lamb biryaniesque preparation, a tagine, cold and hot mezzes, brown rice with lentils as well as desserts. The menu shall be more or less the same throughout the festival.

There were some cold mezze starters, the dolmas were pretty good. The crunchy fried roll was allright.

The absolutely spectacular tahini fountain, falafals, grilled veggies and breads, dip and eat. I think ill take a tahini fountain to a choco one any day. Loved it.

I didnt get the name for this, it was a cross between a watered down cacik but tasted more like a liquid labneh, brilliant, garlicky taste, a mezze you can drink.

While there were a whole bunch of dishes to be tried, the falafal with tahini, the cold fattoush with toasted pita chips, all of them top notch.

Potato lightly spiced fried in olive oil were lovely. However the standout dish that i gorged on was the smooth, creamy, hummus. absolutely the best i have ever had. Freshly made and perhaps why it was such a brilliant dish and shall be the standard against which all future hummus consumption shall be judged by.

While there were plenty of desserts i played safe with a brilliant baklava

as well as a little tiramisu.

Overall the food is brilliant, while we do have Souk at the Taj & Mabruk at Sahara Star to lean on for our middle eastern fix, the food here was spectacular. The spring roll starter was perhaps the weakest offering. The festival deserves a longer run at present its on until 18th September at 2100 per person.

I was also in a rather long conversation with Lands End GM Birgit Zorniger, a remarkable woman who knows the India hotel scene inside out. She happened to mention that Riva a Mediterranean restaurant that will replace Pure should open by mid-October.

As i was there by invitation, a rating would not be appropriate but in general the food, service and company were all top notch.

All Stiry Fry - Return of the Prodigal

noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:50:00 +0000

Rest : All Stir Fry
Meal: Lunch
Loc : The Gordon House Hotel, Near Regal Cinema, Colaba

Talk about a blast from the past (previous visits here and here) my good friend and frequent dining companion Mr.Patel and i were having one of our inane chats and All Stir Fry somehow came up, turns out, we hadn't been there for a good three of four years. We wondered if it was still around. Back in the day we used to end up there for our Asian fix a few times a month. However the quality really went downhill, some of the dishes we loved too disappeared.

Also, the dining scene in the city took a great surge forward with more cuisines and options mushrooming up. Chinese food though joyous has always been unhealthy and hard on the stomach, so it ASF all but disappeared.. until now.

While discussing lunch options on this bank holiday week we settled on All Stir Fry, to try out our old stomping ground going in expecting the worse. An addition being my wife, who tagged along, she was not in the picture during ASF's heyday.

The menu is much the same, dishes that cover a fairly wide area of Asian cuisine, you have Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian and of course Thai with a smattering of Japanese. There is also a separate Dim Sum Menu. One can also do the Wok, where you get a bowl, fill up your ingredients (veg & non-veg) pick a sauce and toppings and they cook it for you while you wait.

The place too has not changed much in the last few years, it was always a pretty slickly done, Asian inspired layout, still one of the best casual dining layout in the city, i absolutely love the benches that give it a street food stand feel, although your back can only take so much. The biggest change they had made was when they took over the neighboring sea food restaurant Tides and doubled the floor space. This was also the time when the food and service really went downhill.

For those picking the Wok, as the three of us did, there are plenty of options you can choose from Onions, Peppers, Mushrooms, Bamboo Shoots, Carrots, Corn, Leafy options to fill up your bowl with. Add one or more of the five kind of noodles, choose from the dozen or so sauces (mild, hot, spicy) and add your toppings (crushed pepper, chilli flakes, garlic, crushed peanuts etc etc etc) There is a fairly large selection of meats as well.

As you can tell, i really love mushrooms

the wife chose bean sprouts and corn (yes, she could be slightly deranged)

i stuck to my old formula, mushrooms, onions, peppers, bamboo shoots, spaghetti thin noodles, garlic and crushed peanuts. The sauces i went for were Woh Ping which is mild, Kung Pao & hunan both of which were hot.

One can taste the sauces separately before ordering too. Next time i am hoping to try some of the Spicy selections. I would also say that one must make at least three trips to the Wok and therefore its important to fill the bowl as little as possible before handing it over.

The Wok was not bad at all, its also a very well priced option (450 + taxes) a shame that it took so long to come back, the service was strictly okay and i think the menu and the Wok need some refreshing but otherwise no complaints.

I think i will easily be back here soon enough.

Food : 8/10
Service : 7/10
Damage for 3 without drinks 1800