East

Rest : East
Loc : August Kranti Marg
Meal : Dinner

East is not the best located restaurant and one can drive right by it if not paying attention. They serve Pan Asian with a special focus on Malay dishes.

Since one does get a lot of Malaysian to choose from its refreshing to have the option, more so since i live right five minutes away. The space itself is very Tiki like in design with exposed bricks. The bar is in the corner and separate from the restaurant space.

The beverages were fairly straightforward, the Bloody Mary was allright not too spicy which is always good, it apparently had some Asian spices not that i could tell though.
Hoegarden is a Belgian white beer and served with oranges, the drink itself is quite straight-laced but the acidity of the orange if done right adds a great aftertaste, a new favorite .. The Iced tea was lemony and sugary sweet.

They serve these bean sprouts instead of the usual Kim Chi. Ideally i hate bean sprouts but these were nice, we must have polished of like 4 plates.

Usually Thai soups are full of bamboo shoots and other bits that give flavor (which i always end up spitting out) this one was devoid of it. Unfortunately it was devoid of taste too, i found it extremely bland however the wife thought it was great.

The Kung Pao Paneer was excellent, as inauthentic as it was the taste was great, the sweetish sauce is immediately followed up by the heat of the chilli, throw in some sacrilegious cashews… great !

My desire to experiment backfired however, the Roti Jala tasted weird, almost pancake like and it was *gasp* served with Mexican style salsa, what the f*** is that about? maybe its my punishment for having fake kung pao.. anyway, the dish was a total disaster, despite getting the peanut based sauce.

The Penang Curry was very average, nothing to write home about. It was also fairly similar to a Thai Yellow curry, a little more coconut in the base and it would be Thai. Not impressed.

The mushroom medley (i made up the name ) was shitake, button mushrooms in a oyster sauce, not bad a little on the sour side, not very flavorful but overall okay.

The Noodles were fairly ordinary.

Overall, the food was okay, they serve some dishes which are not to be found anywhere else in the city thus far. Unfortunately they dont do a very good job with them. The rest of the food is unauthentic but some of it works. They need to work harder, i have had some good meals here on and off.

They are very well priced and offer a 5 course tasting menu at 600 a head.

Ther service is quick but fairly absent minded. The waiters were chatting amongst themselves and arguing at times, the Chef was walking around aimlessly which probably explains why the food was so weak.

A lot of service staff seems to be badly trained, i had a similar experience at Busaba, curiously both serve similar cuisine though Busaba was many notches above.

Food : 6/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 2000

East
76 Nidhi, August Kranti Marg
Off Kemps Corner, Near Gowalia Tank
Kemps Corner, Mumbai
Phone 23811010, 23821010