Monday, June 26, 2006

Crepe Station

Rest : Crepe Station
Meal : Breakfast
Date : 25/6/2006
Location :Bandra,
Company : Pie, Anie

Experience - Especially hungry in the morning and was looking for a nice lill breakfast and couldnt think of any other place i would be except for the Indigo Deli which seemed too far a drive.
Drink : Coffee Black, Capuccino, Watermelon Juice (complementary)

Food : i stuck to my usual English Breakfast, sans the eggs, was very good. i enjoyed it very much, just like last time. The machine pressed coffee was excellent as well. perfect for a dreary Sunday morning. My companions got the pan cakes, which i was dying for, im glad i didnt try them on because they were friggin horrible. Rubbery, hard, un pancake like, being used to eating pancakes in N.America, i am a bit finicky about em. Still being hungry i also went for the Caprese Crepe which was tomato, mozzarella and some mushroom. Superlative, again, very well made and very tasty. The watermelon juice, i hate and since they didnt have any ice it made things doubly worse.

Rating : Food 8.5/10, Service 8.5/10

Damage : 713 ($18 )

Masala Kraft

Rest : Masala Kraft
Meal : Dinner
Date : 23/6/2006
Location :Taj Mahal Hotel, Apollo Bunder,
Company : Mom, Dad, Gautam

Experience - Great restaurant, good ambience, the place is done up well. Although very generic, it is quite a chilled out place to be having dinner. I however dont think the minimalist take on the surrounding works for an Indian eatery

Drink : Bottled Water

Food : The menu isnt expansive, but its thoughtfully chosen to give you a taste of all that you can gather from the cuisine of the North. There is a decent enough selection for vegetarians and they have a tiffin option which we did not try.
We ordered the Peepay wale choley, Dal Makhani, Naans, Kulcha & Pulao. For some reason i had a hankering for bread which is weird.
However the food was superlative, the choley were fantastic, well done, full of taste and the kulcha that came was soft and a perfect accompaniment for the choley.
The Dal Makani seemed thoughfully prepared, again an explosion of tastes, very similar to the choley yet you could very easily tell the difference between the two tastes, subtle but vivid.
The Naan was quite soft and warm rather than the the crispy, hot ones u get at other places. Better Naan then most other places.
The portions werent bad either, three of us at quite easily while my mom nibbled a little. Overall you could easily feed 4 people with this much food.

I am going back there, again sometime very soon.

Rating : Food 9.0/10, Service 8.5/10

Damage : 1900 ($45 )

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Indigo Deli

Rest : Indigo Deli
Meal : Late Late Lunch or an Early Early Dinner
Date : 22/6/2006
Location :Near Regal Cinema, Colaba,
Company : Pie

Experience - Was really hungry and a friend had mentioned the food at Indigo deli. Being right across it i figured it isnt much of a stretch to walk in. i got the first table and sitting inside reminded me a of a more minimalist/modern Brasserie somewhere out of Milan. Love the ambience (although the generic football fever is boring!)

Drink : Mango Smoothie, Lime-Soda

Food : They have a nice expansive menu, from breakfast eggs in half a dozen styles, to main courses, pasta etc. We went for the baked mac&cheese with a side of mashed potato, the pizza with olives, sundried tomato and a tangy cheese, also got a side of garlic potato. The pasta was very good, not too cheesy it had this sourish taste, worked very well for mac and cheese, a diff take. However i like my baked thing to be a bit more dry but no harm no foul. The pizza, well i heard TOO much bout it so i was a little dissapointed. the crust is impossibly thin and crunchy. Like a poppadum but the taste worked out well. I wouldnt try it again simply coz its too friggin thin and there are a few other things on the menu i really want to try. The Mash potato, oh my god. heavenly, best mashed potato i have ever had. the garlic potato sucked real bad. it was raw and then i asked em to change it and it was too well done.
All in all a good meal, decent portions, but very enjoyable meal. cant wait to go and try some other stuff.

Rating : Food 8.5/10, Service 8.5/10

Damage : 1063 ($25 )

Friday, June 16, 2006

Papa Pancho Da Dhaba

Rest : Papa Pancho Da Dhaba
Meal : Dinner
Date : 15/6/2006
Location :Somewhere in Bandra
Company : Pie

Experience - Was looking for Red Box and not knowing where anything in Bandra is i passed by Papa Pancho, then passed by them again and decided to hit it coz i was friggin starving marvin. There was literally no one there and we had the place to ourselves. Its a bit weird, the ambience is allright but a bit too forced.

Drink : Masala Chaas x 2 and Ice tea Peach

Food : We went for the paneer handi dish of the day, which comes with Parathas, yoghurt, dal makhani. Good thing i didnt order anything other than that. The paneer handi was very good, kind of real spicy and reminded me of this Mirchi ka Salan i had at the Best Western in Hyderabad. very good but my stomach burned the entire next day. The dal makhani was very good too. i wish they offered some more dahi though. only a small cup. Got some rice too but it was microwaved which you can tell coz its brittle and dryish.

All in all a good meal, good portion and decent quality of food. would go there again if i was in the mood for indian.

Rating : Food 8.5/10, Service 8/10

Damage : 360 ($9)

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Souk!

Rest : Souk
Meal : Dinner
Date : 14/6/2006
Location :Taj
Company : Gautam

Experience - Very nice ambience, Souk is at the rooftop of the Taj Tower and has a great views
the decor is kind of modern minimalist and the service is allright.

Drink : Diet Coke

Food : The cuisine is spread across different parts of the Mediterranean. We ordered the Shorba Adas, which was this egyptian soup with onion straws. Allright, not great, in fact i have had a better version at the Cafe Basilico. the humus khabez which is hummus with chopped pickeled veggies. It was allright, not great, passable.
The Felafil, was also not bad, but quite passable. The two mixed together raised the quality of the meal to a touch above ordinary. We decided to split the entree so we ordered this Greek Spagetti, which was lots of tomato, parmesan cheese, in a light, red and white sauce. This was the coup, very light, but full of taste. Highly recommend it to anyone.
Overall the experience was dissapointing, i would have expected Souk to be in league with Wasabi and Golden Dragon but its barely about 60% of the experience. Also they were scrimping on the Pita. I mean jeez, with the pasta i got two pieces of pita ? seriously, i have great respect for the Taj, but this is too much (or too little)
Much emphasis was placed on the decor and lesser still on the food. Also allowing people to waft in wearing shorts is unacceptable. I think white people can still get away with anything in this country (and i say that as a person who has a huge cirlce of friends who live abroad and visit)

Rating : Food 6/10, Service 8/10

Damage : 2100 ($50)

Monday, June 05, 2006

Motil Mahal

Rest : Moti Mahal
Meal : Lunch
Date : 5/6/2006
Location :InOrbit Mall
Company : Pie, Anie

Experience - nicely done up restaurant, family ambience as well. Enjoyable place to go definetely.

Drink :Mango Lassi, Diet Pepsi

Food : Again, i let people order, since they had prior experience with the place. Was a mixed bag really. We got the Dal Makhani, Paneer Makhani, Missi Roti, Laccha Paratha, Nan. The Dal was very good, the Paneer Makhani was very bland, the paneer was just tossed into the gravy which was bright red without much taste. I was dissapointed, but i should have gone for the Kadai Paneer. Im going to def try out the restaurant again when i have a chance, it looks promising.

Rating : Food 8/10, Service 8/10

Damage : 550 ($15)

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Crepe Station Breakfast.

Rest : Crepe Station
Meal : Breakfast
Date : 3/6/2006
Location : Bandra Carter Road
Company : Pie

Experience - Slow, slow morning, hankering for a western breakfast. Couldnt think of any other place and had ZERO desire to go 5 star. Got there around 11 am were 4 tables full so it was an ok time of the day. My second time at CSation and this time i sat on the outside at the Al-Fresacish space to keep an eye on my car, not knowing the parking traditions of Bandra.

Drink : Mango Juice (not bad at all) Coffee (ok) Watermelon juice x 2 (complimentary with the dishes we ordered)

Food : I ordered the English Breakfast sans the bacon and pie ordered a sandwich. The waiter was kind enought offer mushrooms to replace the bacon which i readily accepted. the Breakfast consisted off 2 eggs sunny side up, grilled tomato, mushrooms, sides of toast. was just wat i needed. delicious, filling, fun. Took me away from bombay for a bit. The sandwich wasnt bad either. I highly recommend the mornings at Crepe Sation, they also have a new joint at juhu. The sandwich was served with a small potato salad which was very good.

Rating : Food 8.7/10, Service 9/10

Damage : 500 ($12)

China Gate

Rest : China Gate
Meal : Dinner
Date : 3/6/2006
Location : Bandra, Turner Road, down the road from Zenzi
Company : Pie, Anie

Experience - A hankering for Chinese, no desire to go to on to Link Road and we decided on this. It was a bit early when we got in around 7. Oddly about 5 tables of people there and we were the only Indians, it feltl like we were in Hong Kong or something.

The service was ok, the waiters brought out the appetizers before the soup was done. A huge Faux Pas in my opinion, despite being asked to hold it they continued to anyway. Then the server dropped some food in my drink and on asking to replace it , they did, but charged me for it. i dont like creating scenes so i didnt bring it up, but i was unhappy bout that treatment.

Drink :Diet Pepsi

Food :Ending up busy making phone calls i only called for the soup (wanton for me, telenpien or something like tht for them) i found out they ordered the entire meal without me. Usually a bad idea when i am concerned.

It was an all appetizer meal consisting of Schezuan Potato, Onion Pancakes, Dim Sum, Spring Rolls. The soup was First Grade (mine was anyway, the other one was terrible) the Onion pancakes were slightly oily, but allright. the schezuan potato is a disgusting dish i loathe, the Dim Sum again was top notch, very enjoyable, the Spring Rolls, were allright, not too bad, but not great either.

The overall meal was pleasant and above average. The restaurant is also quite huge and we had the chinese contingent peering over their table, walking over to ours and pointing out the dishes they wanted. Quite Funny!

Rating : Food 8/10, Service 6/10

Damage : 900 ($18)
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