Serafina

Rest : Serafina

Loc : Palladium, Phoenix Mills,
Meal : Dinner

Serafina is a New York based Italian restaurant/pizzerias specializing in Northern Italian cuisine, they opened doors only about a week or ten days ago with much fanfare. My twitter timeline was populated with Serafina chatter and since a bunch of us were getting together this evening we settled on Serafina.

One of our friends got there about 8 and asked for a table for 8.30 and was told that they would not reserve any more tables and we could come in first come first serve. When the party descended roun 8.20 we were told we would have to vacate the table at 10.  Funnily enough there were empty tables throughout our dinner and even when we left, so the hard sell was really not required. 

Anyway, the menu is reasonably expansive and typical of an Italian restaurant, you have the salads, the soup of the day, risottos, pastas, pizzas and mains. Plenty to choose from for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, there is also a liberal sprinkling of truffles and dishes cooked in champagne.

The bread basked if you can call it that was a bit of a joke, four slices of some pretty ordinary bread between five people.. not sure what the deal here is but the best part was when mid meal we asked for some more bread and were told we would have to pay for it.. the waiter was quite embarrassed bringing this up himself. And no, it wasn't worth paying extra for...

The Bruschetta, was good, fresh and crunchy.

The Minsestrone was the soup of the day, completely ordinary, no strong flavors.. avoidable.

Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli in sage butter, tasted exactly like i expected it, the butter works nicely but the spinach & ricotta was not terribly exciting.

The Mushroom risotto was good, flavours came through nicely 

The Marinara was pretty awesome, tasted just like a load of pizzas i had in college, tomato & garlic do it for me every time.

Didn't order this one, was the goat cheese pizza i think, sourish taste, served with a little salad and some cheese, nice. 

The mashed potato's were a decent side.

The Tiramisu was above average, too strong on the coffee though but everyone else seemed to like it. 

Overall, Serafina was a disappointment in more ways then one. It was loud, like Trattoria loud, which is acceptable when the food is good but when the meal is just about average it gets grating. The front of house staff needs to take the hard sell down a notch, you have tables, give them.. why the pretense? 

Some of the dishes said 15 minutes to prepare but i think a lot of it was prepped and ready (which is fine) and just heated and brought to the table. The waiters too try to push their big ticket items, the truffles etc.. which seems a little duplicitous.

The pizzas were good but then again, Indigo Deli does pretty good pizza and everything else..

All in all, above average and certainly not an impressive showing.

Food : 6/10
Service : 6/10
Damage : approx 5000 without drinks.

Edit : A spate of new restaurants have opened doors in Bombay and almost all of them have spent immense amounts on décor, the kitchen and have the ambiance down pat. However staff in most places is not trained well enough to operate at a high level, add to that the ridiculous pricing which does not reflect in the food or the service, this state of affairs does not bode well.

Some say they import a lot of their ingredients, which is impressive. They go the extra mile and its sad that we cant offer quality ingredients but if you don't know how to use them what good is it?