Indigo Deli - Again

Rest : Indigo Deli
Meal : Dinner
Loc : Behind Regal Cinema, Apollo Bunder.


I have long been a supporter of Indigo Deli but it seems the strain of having a marquee restaurant, two spin offs and a new upcoming Indigo clone is putting the strain on Rahul Akerkar's resources. There can be no other reason to explain the drastic drop in quality at Indigo Deli.

A good glass of some Italian red. Not bad.

Mushrooms on Brie, very nicely done.

The spaghetti that they always do so well was undercooked and sans garlic. The taste was horrid.

Again, their famed pizza fell flat, mushrooms and jalapenos. Terrible.

Indigo Deli seems to be just phoning it in of late, i for one am going to stop going there for a while. ANYONE seems to be showing up there and the pricing too has gone out of hand. i dont mind paying top $ for food but not when its below par served by inattentive wait staff.

Food : 5/10
Service : 5/10
Damage 2000.

Olive

Rest : Olive
Meal : Dinner
Loc : Turf Club, Mahalaxmi

Olive opened on this side of the suburban divide a while ago. Since then, i have been there a couple of times but never for a serious meal (until last night). The Bandra Olive has been the THE place for the Bollywood crowd which is why i avoided it for the longest time (and the fact that it was across the pond)

The Mahalaxmi joint is closer to home at the Turf Club. In fact it is right next to the stables and is done in the regular Mediterranean white washed style, not a patch on the Bandra Olive which is unfortunate.

They have always had a sense of style which is good because we dont have near enough stylish places in this city. Food wise though, they have always fallen flat. If one wants a proper gourmet meal the options are limited, Indigo, Zodiac Grill maybe but not Olive. Olive is for the tamasha (pageantry)

True to their name they offer a selection of black and green olives along with a selection of breads. Fun to munch on Olives, the breads too are okay, same as the ones they serve in Bandra.

Had a pretty decent Bloody Mary, however a horrible Margarita was served to the wife which was duly sent back.

The Feta salad was bunch of green leaves, almonds and feta cheese. Nice, just wished it had more feta cheese though...

The Asparagus was served with Gorgonzola, a little dry pate on a mushroom. Very good !

We shared the entrees, the mushroom crepe was pretty good, you really CAN'T screw up mushrooms and cheese though... The risotto was grilled vegetables and was utterly bland. It was highly recommended which didn't help much. My other choice would have worked out much better im sure.

My dessert was the Rose Panacotta with Jasmine Tea Jelly, not bad.

The Tiramisu the wife said was non-existent, she found no flavor or taste, just a smattering of Cinnamon and a lot of fluff.

Overall : Olive is a big disappointment, honestly though i expected it as they have never been about food. ,The wife likes her Italian which is how we ended up there. I found little worth talking about, the food was average as was the ambiance. The service is aloof but acceptable.

None of the good stuff was memorable in any way either.

If someone wants to grab a drink or two on a good night to check out the scene head to Olive. For a good culinary experience head elsewhere.

Food : 6/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 3000

Olive
Amateur Riders Club
Mahalaxmi Race Course
Mahalaxmi, Mumbai
40859595

Hyderbadi Food Fest at ITC

Rest : Hornbys Pavilion
Loc : ITC Grand Central, Parel
Meal : Dinner


Was honored with an invitation to dinner from the very beautiful Kulsum Begum who happens to be a master chef with the ITC chain and specializes in Hyderbadi cuisine. She is also a family friend and is running a festival till the 20th of August at the venue.

I have been fortunate enough to have dinner at her apartment many a time from simple khichadi to salans, the food has mostly been fairly incredible.

The buffet was quite heavily laden, covering Hyderbadi dishes as well as an assortment of other dishes including an assortment of salads, cheese, Sushi, dips, etc. I started with the dal tikki, curd rice, a kofta that looked like gulab jamun(a popular dessert) and a potato dish.


the food was extremely rich in taste and texture although the vegetarian selections were somewhat limited. lets face it, Hyderabadi is more about the meats and apparently there was all kinds of meat, my other dinner companions were very very happy.


There was also a yellow dal not pictured here, which had a lemon, garlic taste and was very different from your usual yellow dals. The biryani was not too bad and the black dal was allright.

There was a huge expanse of desserts of all kind, the ITC buffets dont leave you wanting for much and i have always found them impressive. Since this festival is more less like a family event for me, i have little to complaint about.

The service was very prompt and i would highly recommend the food festival if you are a carnivore. If you cant make it for this festival ensure you attend their breakfast buffet at least once, i dont think anyone in this city does it better.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage 1500 per person.

My piece on Animation in the India Wall Street Journal

Hi Guys, i am a part of the animation industry as a content producer. I was invited to do a piece for the India Wall Street Journal and it can be found here

An update on the Royal Hyderabadi Food Festival is coming soon.

cheers.

Bellagio

Rest : Bellagio
Loc : Opp Asiatic Library, Fort
Meal : Sunday Lunch

Bellagio is a small region near Lake Como known for its beauty and not really for its cuisine, that should have been the first red flag but being a Sunday morning the itch to try a new place got the better of us and we ended up at this relatively new eatery in the Fort area.

The place is small, with wooden panels, the tables are very close to each other and spacing is fairly limited. In a situation like this a restaurant has to either churn out some incredibly imaginative fare or conversely churn out the most pedestrian. The fist inquiry from the waiter was if we were Jains (second red flag) which we were but didnt want anything remotely Jain like and yes, it was all downhill from there.

The iced tea was pretty good but it was a shame it showed up half way through my meal

The bruschetta was just tasteless and horrible, the ricotta and spinach triangles were not triangles at all but rolls, with a tzatziki dip which really was not a tzatziki dip at all. Both utterly tasteless and boring. (How can you screw up a Bruschetta)


The salad of peppers and lettuce in some disgusting dressing. Over marinated peppers, the taste seeped into everything and the lettuce was not even fresh.

The spinach risotto came with CORN and was fairly below par, the cream overpowered the taste of everything else

The roulade in a tomato basil sauce was just like a punjabi gravy dish and if you thew paneer in there and supplied a Naan no one would miss a beat. A roulade has to be delicately set up, try Moshe or Basilico and theirs are incredibly done, tomatoish, sweet but very sharp. Nothing like that here, overdone heavy handed little dish.

Overall : Bellagio is terrible, the service is friendly but not very good. There was some sticky stuff on our table AFTER it was cleaned, i asked for a bread basket and got exactly four slices of bread measuring 1/4 of an inch....

Food wise its a massive flop, not a single dish was acceptable to anyone with a discerning palate,. Even people who like Indianized version of international dishes will not enjoy the food here because there is no real effort being put into it. New Yorkers, Cream Centre and Relish do a far superior job of localizing.

I for one, dont think i could ever come back in this lifetime.

Food : 3/10
Service : 6/10
Damage : 1000

Im not even telling you where this monstrosity is.