7

Rest : Seven
Loc : Shangri La, Lower Parel
Meal : Dinner

Once a year comes the great feast of my friend Vishal Patel, who once a year splurges money on a party for his friends. Although he resides in Hong Kong now, he was in town and as is the practice he picks a new place to dine at which is not revealed until the evening of the dinner. 

Seven at the newly launched Shangri La is quite a space, gigantic with a huge buffet it puts just about every coffee shop this side of town to shame. The Lotus Cafe at the Mariott perhaps comes close in size and the erstwhile Palms at the Oberoi. Pictured above however is the creepiest, freakiest thing i have ever seen done with bread or otherwise, truly disturbing. 

                                             

The spread is huge, covers a lot of ground, so its best to be placed close to the food i suppose, howevet the staff will bring out just about anything you desire. 

They served some pretty good pizza, which i enjoyed, more so when i got pineapple on mine and no one took a piece. 

The made to order Pasta was not bad, i wish they would add some finesse into these live counter stations beyond the usual pesto, aglio olio and arrabiata or cream. 

One will face a problem of plenty, we found ourselves surveying the buffet and planning a move at times. However the Asian selection was a little weak, though i enjoyed the dim sum the other dishes were weak. 

no one seemed to have like the Indian selection but the appetizers were pretty good. 

                                      

the dessert selection was pretty massive as expected, complete with just about everything imaginable in the right bite sized portions. 

my fav thing was this moving wheel of goodness containing some amazing flavours, the sorbet was awesome as were the chocolate and the strawberry. 

Overall, the place is huge and the service good, the hotel seems to have gone for size and grandeur and has done it well. The restaurant itself needs to work out a few things, they offer something for everyone but if they play their cards right and experiment a little, they could have an unbeatable combo. 

The pricing i am told is pretty reasonable for a five star coffee shop, however i am sure that will change once the patronage goes up.

Food : 7/10

Service : 8/10
Damage : 14000 between five with wine. 

The Pier

Rest : The Pier

Loc : Behind Radio Club, Colaba
Meal : Dinner

I first heard about The Pier when i received an invite to the T winnings tasting session, the invite mentioned the restaurant was as yet closed to general public. In any case, after learning on twitter that the place has good solid reviews, I thought i would check it out for myself.

The space is elegant, dimly lit with tables, booths, a large private dining area and best of all, a nice long bar.

The menu is largish and covers a lot of ground. At its heart the space is a high end bistro but the menu is more varied with and they even have some gourmet/cafe style eggs as well. 

The caiprioshka was wicked strong. 

and the bloody mary was delicious. 

they have a pretty stellar bread basket, the bread it turns out was freaking delicious as well. unfortunate that they charge for additional bread, which is a pet peeve for me. I am told they make their bread in house and unlike Serafina, their bread basket is at least worth paying for.

they do flavoured butters as well, the spicy red one is the best ! 

Mrs Jain bailed on the mushroom capuccino but i stuck to my guns and got me some French onion soup. delicious. served inside some garlic bread which you must break into. 

Mrs J ordered the stuffed portobello with cheese and broccoli. delicious, little thing this, the little side salad was pretty tasty too. 

The eggplant parmigiana with fried zucchini was pretty nifty. delicious. The scrambled eggs with truffles were bland though. 

The sundried tomato and ricotta ravioli with pesto was just something else. just stellar.. the dish had loads going on, with the pesto, the ricotta and then finally the sun dried tomato doing a little jig in my mouth. 

The cappuccino souffle with kahlua sauce was a great idea but needed just a tad more taste, the flavours were a little too subtle. not bad however. i like my soufflés and didn't mind waiting for it. 

The tiramisu was HUGE.. made me gasp when i saw it. easily enough for two people and more. Taste wise though, it could again do with a little more flavour, everything seemed a little too subtle.. hate looking for flavours.

Overall, the place is a very interesting idea. The décor  the presentation and the style is all high end. I loved their choice of bottled water.

Food wise it competes well with the Indigo Deli and Table, just needs a little more finesse which i am sure will come in the coming days. 

Their greatest strength lies however in their super aggressive pricing, which is pretty value for money, more so than most places in the area. Sing Kong last week too had competetive pricing, perhaps the restaurateurs are waking up.

Their long bar is also a plus, making it one of the few casual, restaurant+bars around Should be there Saturday night to hang around the bar and see how it goes. 

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 3000 for two with a cocktail each. 

Sing Kong

Rest : Sing Kong

Meal : Dinner
Loc : Bandra/Khar

Sing Kong is the brand spanking new Pan Asianish eatery in Bandra located above Sancho, the iffy Mexican joint. The invitation came in and since i was in the suburbs already and the fact that they were having some of my fav food bloggers on the table, was all together too great a temptation.

The place has gray colored walls, large glass windows and a bar covered in turf (which i think is super cool) it apparently used to be a place called Tasty Tangles (unfortunate name for a restaurant) and the menu covers Sushi, Dim Sum & related mains.

Started off with a caiprioshka which was very mandarin heavy but it worked, was not difficult to sip on this considering the heat that has prevailed in the city of late. delicious.

the virgin mary (i was driving) was delicious as well, not like the horrible ones i was served at Land's End a week or two ago. 

                    

This was the very interesting potato nest on a sugar cane stick, looked very cool and didnt taste too bad either. 

the cottage cheese was a tad dry but tasted allright. the wrapping was disgusting though. 

the cucumber and cream cheese was okay, not too bad but just too experimental. 

i did enjoy the asparagus, avocado and cucumber. nicely done. 

these were the other cottage cheese cakes and while they were enjoyable they were just too spicy to go in for seconds.

                         

the may spiced corn fritters, very nice cream corn kind of flavours, pretty good. 

the spinach and vegetable dumpling was decent, but my take on dumplings is they are more about the dipping sauce then they are about the dumpling itself. atleast for vegetarians. 

                

This was the Frozen Margarita ordered by Nikhil Merchant but it was pretty much plundered by all of us to the point where he got another one with similar results.

the stir fried oriental greens were by far the weakest thing on offer unfortunately, the taste just did not sit right. 

The black pepper paneer too was strictly okay. 

the noodles were crispy and my guess is wok fried. delicious. 

Overall, the space is well laid out and the ambiance is pretty upmarket.

The food has promise, the appetizers are spot on, the Dim Sum & Sushi are good, the mains that i had need more work. However they have quite a large menu and we didn't try everything but there is something for everyone.

The pricing is aggressive and they should make a solid dent in the Five Spice space.

Did someone say cheese

I've been a lover of cheese for as long as i can remember and have long lamented that not enough restaurants offer a cheese course in Bombay. Indigo Deli is my preferred supplier and i have a particular fondness for the Cheddar they stock. 

We certainly have come a long way from the days when Kraft's Cheddar was considered the high end. Anyway, this story is about the stash I got from WestSide, Kala Ghoda and the RRO Cheese Bar.

They have quite a commendable selection there and possibly the only reason why i would consider going to Westside anywhere and it was the only good thing that came of my visit to the Kala Ghoda Festival.

Since Mrs Jain is gone to her parents for bout ten days, i thought it would be the right way to fight of the loneliness that is bound to creep up (or reward myself) and so here we are with a Fontina, a Cranberry Stilton, Herbed Gouda and Brie. 

Good quality cheese should be treated and consumed with respect. My little cheeseboard consists of grapes, pimento olives, walnuts and crackers. A little baguette with some olive oil, which is not pictured here. 

The cheese was good, the Brie was amazing as was the Fontina, the herbed Gouda was a tad too experimental for my taste and i completely disliked the Cranberry Stilton. However that does not mean the cheese is bad, i got the Stilton for Mrs J who will appreciate it surely.

Overall, they have quite a wide selection of international cheeses and i think these i think are available online as well. The prices are between 250-400 per 100 grams which is a little over what you would pay at an Indigo Deli.. but then these are imports and if you fine one you admire, its not much by a long shot.

I was really keen on making a sandwich with marinated peppers and sun dried tomatoes and cheese but i realised i dont have any ingredients except the cheese and i hate the kitchen, so i put together another cheese board, the next night and the night after that and the night after that.

You get the picture !

Aoi

Rest : Aoi

Meal : Dinner

Loc: Somewhere in Bandra

The Justice League of Bombay food blogging descended on Aoi, a relatively new entrant to the resurging Sushi/Japanese scene. This is the second wave (Kofuku is another joint that has opened doors in Bandra as well) the first was of course silenced when Tetsuma closed doors. 

Aoi, serves familiar dishes but they do twist things around, especially with Sushi. 

I have had a lot of Miso soup in my time as my college room mate was a new yorker who had lived in Japan and would eat like the last samurai. Never learned to love miso unfortunately.. 

This one was pretty good, the tofu and the sauce were fairly light and had a refreshing taste, probably one of the best things i had all evening.

Button mushrooms and leeks in what i think was a ginger sauce, were not bad at all. they had a Japanese bent as is rightly expected but i have never been a fan of that particular after taste. All in all good lil thing. 

It is not everyday that one gets sushi with tomato and cheese, as weird as it sounds, they did make it work, id highly recommend it. 

The noodle bowl, i dont recall being very enjoyable, strictly okay. 

The curry and rice was interesting, for those who don't know, the Japanese do a fair bit of curries and some of them are okay. this one too was not too bad, lacks the intense flavours of a Thai curry but decent fare.

can't recall his !

the dessert looked like fried chicken but was kinda like a biscuit dipped in maple syrup, interesting but not something i would order again.

Overall, the place is small, seat about 35 people in a tight configuration. The menu is a gentle introduction to Japanese cuisine with plenty of adapted or experimental sushi thrown in for good measure. Anyway, it was a terrific evening with some amazing people so the food kind of took a back seat.

The prices are mostly okay, as our party was about 25 people we had a set meal with tasters of just about everything on the menu for 1000 per head.. Going by the menu prices, one can do it for less than that.

Food : 7/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 1000 pp.