Indigo Deli

Rest: Indigo Deli

Loc : Between Regal Cinema & Taj Palace
Meal : Lunch

Indigo Deli is one of the more popular south Bombay eateries, new york style in its ambiance. They have plenty of variety in the menu more so than any deli i have ever been to.

We ended up there for a late lunch celebrating a Saturday where i wasnt at work for a change. Got lucky with a table after waiting 5 mins any later and the wait would have shot up to 30 mins.

It also happened to be the 3rd anniversary of Indigo Deli and they had a special menu in place just for today. Plenty of interesting stuff on the menu and we sampled some of it.

The tomato and herbed soup with some cheese was brilliant, i have had similar dishes elsewhere but its always been slightly on the sweeter side. Not so here, the cheese infusion was a master stroke. Brilliant.

Sangria, wow, i havent had any in a while and not a lot of places in Bombay offer it either. Their version came with red wine and green apple vodka as well as a little cranberry juice. Interesting, refreshing and as good as any i have had. Perfect on a hot day.

The thin crust pizza from Indigo deli is not one of my favorite things in the world but the wife loves it. The special menu offered a new version with grilled peppers (i could have done without them) mushrooms and garlic. Except for the peppers the pizza was excellent. Again i continue to think the crust is too thin.

The Gnocchi in Camembert sounded very interesting but i am just not a gnocchi kinda guy so i went for the safety of my linguine in tomato sauce.

The tiramisu was excellent, up there with the one we had in Milan (read about that most religious of experiences here) Brilliant choice, usually i choose the Tiramisu to see how bad it is... this one was good stuff.

Also had a fairly average cup of cold coffee. No great shakes.

Overall the food was good as usual, the service was actually a lot better than i expected, usually its slow and forgetful but always friendly.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10

Damage : For 2 with 2 glasses of wine 2300

Indigo Deli
5, Ground Floor
Pheroze Bldg, Opposite Dhanraj Mahal
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharshi Marg, Apollo Bunder, Mumbai
Phone 66551010

A very Dominos Party !

So i came home to find that there was an impromptu party for 8 happening at home and we needed a quick fix meal for everyone. With a lot of cajoling we decided to call Dominos for pizza. Now Dominos is not my fav pizza place, nor is it my second fav (Papa Johns or no pizza i say) however the one good thing about them is that they deliver in 30 minutes.

This is what we ordered three orders of breadsticks, one GIANT cheese pizza three medium sized thin crusts

The breadsticks were ok, not great not too bad, i am reminded of a really nice tomato sauce that Dominos serve on the East Coast but here you get some silly white cheese sauce.

The thin crust is their saving grace, they always do it well, it tastes great and is a healthier alternative.

This was pretty bad, it didnt taste right and i had a slice later which was slightly on the cooler side and it tasted like the pavement. Horrible horrible stuff.

I say this often enough but seriously never again. if you are ordering Domino's stick to the thin crust.

Damage : 1000+

Da Vinci's

Rest: Da Vinci's
Loc : Pali Naka , Bandra West.
Meal : Dinner


DaVinci's is a small Italian eatery based out of Bandra where i ended up there after a work meet. The place itself looks like a small Brooklyn based eatery on a budget. The decor is a mish mash and though it is not hard on the eyes it does not really work. The pictures of Venice all over are also pretty tacky.

We started of the Minestrone which was a complete impulse, most places i go they always murder it. DaVinci's also sorted of murdered it but in a good way. It was tomato heavy, with cheese, a very explosive, excellent taste, not the most authentic though.

The jalapeno poppers, another impulse pick, chef recommended were terrible. No point to them, cheese, jalapenos and a terrible dip. How can you have cheese and a pepper together and then make them turn out so bland? A lesson in impulse control.

The good old margerita was excellent. thin, crispy and it went down really well. it was a tad too greasy in my opinion but no complaints from the taste itself.

The risotto with mushrooms and cheese was not too bad. Subtle, a little more subtlety and it would have ended up bland. There was a saffron risotto with garlic on the cards but after a bad experience in the home of the dish (Milan) i avoided the urge.

Overall the food is above average and its worth a visit once in a while no doubt. Service is also acceptable. No complaints, nothing bad but nothing spectacular either. Pricing is very value for money

Food: 8/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 800 for two

Fatima Building
29th Road, Off Pali Naka
Bandra (W), Mumbai
Phone 32486033

Moti Mahal - The Tandoor Trail

Rest : Moti Mahal
Location : CR2, Nariman Point
Meal : Dinner

We finished watching Sarkar Raj and headed to Moti Mahal for a post movie dinner (the movie was weak if you must know and it was the wifes choice, she wanted to see how Aishwarya looked in the film. Speaks volumes for our audiences..)

Anyway, Moti Mahal claim to be the initiators of tandoori chicken as well as taking Mughlai food to the masses. They have a special recipe for Paneer, Chicken and their Dal Makhani. I have also been told that the spices they use come from their own kitchen and they wont upset your stomach.

The location is excellent and the place is comfortable. They have nice booths on one side which are isolated and offer a sense of privacy while the other side is tables close to each other.

We avoided the starters (something they are fairly weak at anyway) and went straight into the food.
The Dal Makhani was delicious, thick, heavy but very very tasty. They got it right with this one. However its not like the Dal Bukhara at Kebabs n Kurries, the taste of which lingers on days after one tastes it.

The Garlic naans, were thin, small and buttered like there was no tomorrow.

The Paneer Lababdar was great, succulent paneer, rich tomato gravy with onions and green peppers and peas. Good stuff.

We also ordered their veg pulao which is a lot like fried rice but goes great with everything.

Overall the food was good, the service however was hugely scatter brained. There was not enough people coming by to take the orders and there were many tables that didn't get what they ordered for many minutes.

I can see how some people would get frustrated, they really need to work on their service, they are friendly and polite, just need to get some efficiency in there.

Food : 8/10
Service 6/10
Damage : 1200 for two without drinks

My other Moti Mahal reviews are here

Moti Mahal Delux - The Tandoor Trail
102 Level 1, CR 2 Mall
Nariman Point, Mumbai
Phone 32534134, 66546454

Best Breakfast Buffet Ever - Updated

Rest : Hornby's Pavilion
Loc : ITC, Grand Central
Meal : Breakfast Brunch

I am a sucker for a good breakfast, lots of juices, plenty of options is just the way i like to get my morning started.

Hornby's Pavilion(previous reviews here, here and here) has one of the best breakfast buffets of any place in Bombay (5 star or not) The spread is huge and they cover a lot of ground, you have Mushrooms, Beans, Pancakes, breads, Eggs made to order, fruits, cheeses, variety of juices, South Indian, Parathas, puris.

There is something for everyone with plenty of options and alternatives.

The mushrooms were lovely, the grilled tomato should have been warmer. The pancakes were not too bad, not great but not bad at all.

i didnt feel like freshly squeezed juice so i went for the Tropicana but the wife picked some mango juice and loved it.

The baked beans were pretty good, perfect for the brown bread, however it was a little retarded that it was in little bowls which were piping hot and had to be picked up by hand.

Overall, a first rate breakfast, everything was fresh and tasty. There is actually too much food and there is no chance you will get around to all of it.

The service could be better but they are friendly enough.

Food : 9/10
Service : 7/10

Damage : 1300

Give it a go.

P.S. They have Indian bubbly on the house for all buffet meals .

Update!

Was at Hornby's again this Sunday morning and it was packed. Word seems to have gotten around i reckon. Anyway the spread was good, some changes to the dishes of course but overall the same. I stuck to my beans and toast, the pancakes (strawberry, vanilla) were nice and hot.

Excellent cheeses, its a pity folks in this city stick to their Amul, there is a whole world out there to try out.
I had a taste of the pav bhaji which was pretty good (not Santosh Sagar good though) the medu vada with sambhar and red chutney was outstanding.

Excellent Sunday morning indeed.

Tamnak Thai

Tamnak Thai as the name suggests is the Thai restaurant at Dadar, a lot of people who drive to the suburbs via Shivaji Park will be familiar with the location of the place.

The space is not very large and is decorated in the late 1980's idea of fine dining. Reminiscent of my disastrous visit to Oh! Calcutta.

While the ambiance is nothing to write home about the food is actually pretty decent. I was warned that it was below par but it was pretty allright.

We started with some spicy soup which though fiery was fairly tasty. The appetizers, one of them was the fried, crisp veggies which were pretty good. The stuffed pan cake thing was horrible.

Entrees were the Thai Green Curry, Pad Thai Noodles, Rice with Mushrooms. All of it pretty good.

The place has potential and is worth trying out if you are in neighbourhood and looking for a decent Thai meal.

Food : 7/10
Service : 7/10
Damage 8500 (drinks and food for 8)

Moshe's

Rest: Moshe's

Loc: Cuffe Parade
Meal : Dinner

Moshe's is one of my favorite restaurants and i get out over there fair few times a month. They have recently changed the menu, a little more international and eclectic with a lean on the middle eastern.

There is a strong accent on the health aspect as well, there are plenty of lighter, healthier options like salads, sandwiches etc. The menu in general is fairly light as well.

For the first time in our visits there i got a chance to sit outside, it was a pleasant surprise. The rain in the air and dim lighting, fairly cozy ambiance.

We started off with some ice tea & diet coke. The iced tea was excellent the coke was well, a coke.

The appetizer was the mushroom and onion fondue, good but i wish it was warmer which means that it was probably prepared before hand.

Next to come was the chick pea, mushroom salad in a lime dressing. not bad, it would have been great if it were served cold. Not bad though.

One of the entrees was the cottage cheese and grilled pepper skewers served with vine leaves in vinaigrette and lentil and rice. Excellent, just so much going on in this dish. Dry skewers with the gravy and a dry rice with sweet vine leaves. Excellent.

One of their popular dishes is the Sicilian risotto which is just unique, tomato & mascarpone with olives give this dish a great taste (their signature dish is their Penne)


The blueberry cheesecake was excellent, no wonder Madonna reckoned it was better than sex.

The service was fairly allright, they get busy so sometimes it can be a tad slow.

Overall excellent.

My other Moshe's reviews are here
Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 1500 without drinks

Flamboyante

Rest : Flamboyante
Meal : Dinner
Loc: World Trade Centre, Cuffe Parade
Com : The 5 boys & the Frau.

Flamboyante continues on strongly as one of the few stand alone dining options in Cuffe Parade. The ambiance keeps on changing and they seem to be prepared for the rainy season with some serious plastic. Dinner at Flamboyante is a pleasant and attractive affair, the best time to go there is during the milder Winter.

Drinks were an excellent glass of ice-tea, not to sweet not to lemony, just right.


A must have drink at Flamboyante is the very tasty Glacier, which is lots of ice, sugar and something along the lines of blue curacao. Must have.

For the first time we decided to try out their Indian options and the Paneer tikka was actually pretty good. i wish they had a little more onion and tomato grilled along with but the paneer by itself and the mint chutney worked fairly well.


The second appetizer was mushrooms with water chestnuts. They were ok, nothing special, i am not a huge fan of fried Chinese appetizers. Not bad but not great either.

The mains were the Thai Green Curry with the Fortune Rice. The curry was allright, above average but by no means delicious. The rice was okay but it had bits of something in it, not sure what, might have been elaichi or something but it was really hard and completely weird to eat. I spent more time spitting then i did chewing.

The other main was supposed to be the Kung Pao Paneer which is good choice however what we got was something else other than Kung Pao, which is usually drier, flavorful and garnished with cashews. What we got was a rather generic red sauce, which wasn't that great.


The stir fried noodles were pretty good.

Overall the ambiance was allright, the food was average. It has been better before, was the weakest this time around.

Service was allright, no real complaints.

Food 6/10
Service 7/10
Damage : 4000 for 7 without drinks.

Flamboyante
World Trade Centre Arcade
Ground Floor, Shop #1, Mumbai
Phone 22180434, 22180433

Hard Rock Cafe

Rest : Hard Rock Cafe
Loc : Worli, Bombay Dyeing Mills
Time : After work


Hard Rock Cafe, the mecca of tourist traps worldwide (another one, Planet Hollywood has imploded) mass produced ambiance, overpriced food, memorabilia from rock stars and their rock tunes raging.

This is probably an accurate summation of what a Hard Rock Cafe experience is like most places. However Bombay is truly different. First off, its located the grimy side of Worli and the drive there is not the most pleasant.

HRC Bombay is more of an after work meeting place for most of the offices that let out of Lower Parel. A large chunk of them are either yuppies or college going kids. Wednesday nights is special for media industry folk, so carry your i-card if you are a media whore.

Start off with the Nachos, get a full portion, there is no other place in Bombay where you will get a platter like this, cheese, beans, jalapenos, sour cream, pity they dont have any guacamole. This is the closest you will get to a proper tex mex platter of nachos in this city.

They also do an excellent mac and cheese, you can get appetizer portions of everything if you so wish. Creamy, milky, excellent.

They also do a side of mashed potato, though it does not in anyway go with our meal, i like their version of it usually get it every time. They also do a mean garlic toast.


Their cocktails are pretty weak, except the Bloody Mary and i have been told they water down their liquor. So stick to bottled beer if you can.

The service is ok, can be friendly but fairly forgetful. Its a different, much more casual vibe but the place gets really packed post 9-10pm, so call ahead or get their early.

Food : 7/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : one cocktail and a few entrees 2000

Question for readers : What is your experience with Hard Rock Cafe? Please leave answers as comments


Hard Rock Cafe
BDMC Compound, Behind Bombay Dyeing
Pandurang Budhkar Marg
Worli, Mumbai
Phone 24382888

Dum Pukth

Rest: Dum Pukth
Loc : ITC Grand Maratha , near International airport
Meal : Dinner

Dum Pukth is one of the North Indian specialty restaurants at the ITC chain. The cooking is Dum style which means its cooked in its own juices by sealing the utensils and heating it from both ends.

We got in fairly early and were the first ones there, seated right away and out came the papads and the onion salad.


The decor of the place is a little weird, it tries to recreate a dining royal, nawabi dining room which it does fairly ok, however there is this stained glass wall to one side which completely does not fit the decor.

Anyway we started with a glass of chaas (buttermilk) which was slightly spicy but would have been great had it been chilled, all the ice in the world didnt turn it the right kind of cold.

The Merlot, went fairly well with the food, a tad on the acidic side but not too bad, not a bad choice.

The smartest thing to do when eating at a specialty Indian restaurant is to either go for appetizers or main courses, no matter how large your appetite you will never be able to eat both. We started with the Bukhara Kofta Salan which is potato in a hot (not spicy) gravy, it was excellent, the potato was soft, tender and the gravy was rich and very tasty. Once the dish cooled a little the potato hardened a little around the edges and got even better.

The only the dal on the menu was a yellow dal, however they were willing to bring out the black dal even though it was off the menu. The black dal was a dal bukhara (my fav daal) not a dal makhani. It was great, just how a dal bukhara should be, a whole notch above the dal we had at Peshawari not 30 feet away.

The rice was the subz biryani, it was ok, nothing great, i would have expected a bit more taste in the dish itself, but it was just rice with veggies, not a proper biryani.

it was served with a bowl of a cool raita which went fantastically well with the biryani, the cool raita with the hot biryani, great combination.

i usually don't get desserts after Indian meals however i was keen on trying out the kulfi and i am glad i did. it was great, the hard kulfi, some soft and delicious malai on top of it. Excellent.

The problem with the food is that its insanely heavy, you feel like a python just trying to digest it all. Hard on the system, no wonder all the ruling class disappeared, all that food has to make you lazy.

The place is good, the ambiance classy and quiet, the service is fairly efficient but not the most friendly.

Food : 8/10
Service 8/10
Damage : dinner for two with a glass of wine 4100

It was one of the most expensive meals i have had in Bombay, that too with just a single glass of wine (400) as good as the food is i am not sure if its value for money.

Question for Readers : What is your most expensive meal ? Where ? Please leave answers as comments

Dum Pukt
ITC Grand Maratha,
Near Int. Airport, Sahar.
Tel : 28303030