CPK

Rest : CPK

Meal : Dinner
Loc : Lower Parel

The Mexifornia festival was happening at the CPK outlets across Bombay and i was invited to hang with some of my super entertaining fellow bloggers. My experience with CPK has been wildly inconsistent, going from very bad to pretty good. 

The Tacos, i was a little disappointed with, considering we were going Mexifornia, we really could have avoided Paneer. The rice was not too bad but the taco suffered. Its well and good to go native, i think its a commendable effort but there is clearly so much more that CPK can do with Mexican in mind. 

The Banana Chocolate milkshake was fantastic, just super delicious. 

The Enchiladas too had the same Paneer filling, however these werent half bad, i did enjoy them. the portions were kinda small and they could have done way more with these. another missed chance.

The pizza was not too bad, thin crust, with beans, onions though it was on the HOT side, not for everyone.. should come with a warning. The portion too was pretty big. 

I am not a Churros fan, however the mousse was pretty delicious. 

Overall, if CPK make a few valid tweaks to their menu here, they will have a winner on their hands, it is kind of neither here nor there for now. 

Indigo Deli Bandra

Rest : Indigo Deli
Meal : Lunch
Loc : Bandra, West. 

Indigo Deli, the old war horse, has a Bandra outlet, this was my second time there for a peaceful little lunch. 

I have always criticized Mrs.J's obsession with the Indigo Deli Pizza but the truth is the pizza is just deranged good and tastes fantastic. We wanted to order quickly so i didnt scan the menu and went with the standard. it was freaking good is what it was, i regret not ordering it more often. 

the penne with char peppered coulis tasted weird, should have stuck to the spagetti, 

the seared mushroom with brie was good as usual, seemed a tad small though.. not sure why that is.

the king of desserts, Belgian Choc with a strong alcohol after taste, winner for sure.

Overall, i am not a huge fan of the decor and its a tad small but the food is good, and its nice to know if you are lost in Bandra you can get some good food nonetheless.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 3000 for 3

Moshe's

Rest : Moshe's

Meal : Lunch
Loc : Bandra, West.

Moshe's is an old fav, been going there for years now, however my preferable venue has always been the Cuffe Parade outlet. This was mys second time at the Bandra outlet, its got a nice comfy feel to it and you can get a seat at the window, watch the poor suckers stuck in traffic. 

Mushroom and Sundried tomato sounds too enticing but it does not work as a soup at all. more like mushroom water. 

Greens, tomatoes, onions in a balsamic vinaigrette with boconcini was refreshingly tasty and light, pretty good trick for a summer day.

The fondue as always was sun dried tomato in gorgonzola, awesome is the word here, dish hasnt changed in the past years and rightly so.

The Aglio Olio was so good we had to call for another helping. 

The shahslik with lentil rice was my choice, i somehow recall it being different at Cuffe Parade, brown sauce and drier cottage cheese, unfortunately this didn't work at all. very disappointed. 

Overall, the food was stellar except for the mis step with the soup and my entree, my guess is if you stick to tried and tested favs you cannot have a bad meal.

Service was quick, friendly and efficient.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 4500 for 4.

ITC

Rest : Hornby's Pavilion

Meal : Lunch
Loc : Lower Parel

On an atrocious day when nothing worked, we decided on our long drive back from the far suburbs to stop by and have a decent lunch. Since we hadnt been to the ITC in a while we decided to give them a shot.

True to form the spread is massive as would be expected from a chain like ITC. They have salads, appetizers, hors d'ouvrese, plenty for even the most picky. 

The dips, salsa, hummus etc were first rate, fresh and tasty. 

The appam and stew were freshly made and possibly the best thing they served. absolute winner

the Indian selection was very weak, the generic paneer, the non descript black dal, for some reason the Indian selection at Hornby's is always weak, unless its part of a festival. 

A decent selection of cheese. 

beverages are not part of the buffet. 

good stuff if you stick to salads, south Indian etc. The Chinese selection has almost never been half way decent, let alone acceptable. So the mains are to be avoided

the dessert selection is fairly expansive.

Overall, everything was great except the Indian & Asian main courses which were below par as they always have been. So in essence i should not really have been disappointed.

Service was excellent as usual, quick and attentive.

Food : 6/10
Service 8/10
Damage : 2000 pp.

Sanchos

Rest : Sanchos

Meal : Lunch
Loc : Khar, 16th Road.

I have always found it surprising that Bombay has not had a proper Mexican restaurant since the days of El Mexicano (President) and Casa Mexicana (Oberoi) especially sad since Indian's should not find the heavy flavours and familiar ingredients difficult to like. Especially if you are getting some truly Tex-Mex dishes. 

 Instead what we do have are some interpretations of the cuisine with Sammy Sosa in Oshiwara which is a little scatter brained with the execution, Starboard which is more on the authentic side (and therefore a tad disappointing)

Sancho's for all practical purposes should have been able to fill this gap with their location, appeal and pricing. However they have gotten it wrong since the start. Since my previous visit there has been no real improvement, sad as my experience at their Delhi outlet was pretty stellar (here) 

The bean and corn soup was totally tasteless despite the tons of pepper i added, just a damp squib. The corn was uncooked i.e. it was just sweet corn thrown into pre-prepared soup. 

The Fiesta Nachos were great, everything just came together nicely and they went so quick that we ordered another portion. 

The Enchiladas were a disaster, a great big soggy, tasteless mess of vegetables and cheese. Dish has not improved in two years. 

the rice and beans are pretty good but then, they aren't a meal. 

Overall, the space is nice and comfy and the service is quick, friendly and attentive.

The food however needs work, they really need to re-imagine some of their dishes because this is still not working for me.

Food : 6/10

Service: 8/10
Damage: 2000 for two without drinks.

Banana Leaf

Rest : Banana Leaf

Meal : Lunch Dinner
Loc : Somewhere in Versova

The last month has been quite trying on me, having to drive long distances into the suburbs, for work which can be testing and many a time not being able to get decent food, such is the location of the studios where i have ended up working in.

On one such evening, when we had eaten absolutely nothing since breakfast, i happened to call @Anaggh to play Virgil to my Dante and guide me through the infernal maze that is this part of the world can be to the uninitiated. 

A pleasant looking space with indoors and outdoors seating, the weather was okay so we sat outside and since we were starving we gorged on the chutneys which were pretty good.

Mrs J is on a fresh juices kick of late and that is all she drinks, she went for orange which was pleasant but could have done without the added sugar. 

the buter milk was nice, not as tangy or sour as i would expect but still fairly refreshing. 

The Butter Idli looked like anything we have had before, very unlike the flaky, disc shaped cakes one usually gets, these were gentle mounds, flattened and just tasted different and better. super impressed. 

I chose the Thali as i wanted to get a feel for their dishes and the truth is it was pretty good. nothing on there was disappointing however nothing was spectacular either.

Good curd rice, a little chilly and some pickle would go a long way however, chutney isnt the best accompaniment. 

Overall, i liked the food, it has potential, they have quite a few curries and stews that are of interest to me and its a pity i only made it here after my weeks of eating mostly crappy food in the area. Its pretty modestly priced but on the higher side for a South Indian joint.

Food : 8/10
Service : 7/10
Damage: 650

Jyran

Rest : Jyran

Meal : Dinner
Loc : Sofitel, BKC

The Sofitel, opened a little while ago and i had heard interesting things about the place, they have been quite audacious in setting up an all vegetarian/jain restaurant which is quite a first for a Five star property, however i am pretty sure its doing well, when i swung by to have a look at the menu they had been taken over for a private party. 

In any case, Jyran their North Indian/Frontier/Afghani cuisine restaurant is where i wanted to dine and is where we went. The chef in charge is from the famed Qureshi clan which works at most fine dine North Indian restaurants and are actually the force behind Dum/Awadh/Lucknowi cuisine. 

I found the decor most interesting, a sort of high end Dhaba imagined by a Frenchwoman, is the vibe, very earthy yet quite posh, along the lines of Veda however far, FAR more restrained. 

a tall glass of peached ice tea, very nice and quite appropriate for the hot food coming up. 

We got them to give us a piece of each appetizer instead of a platter of the same and boy was that a smart move (the price is the same for all) The Tandoori Bharwan Aloo was as delicious as it was simple, fantastic. The paneer was good, the rajma tikki too was pretty amazing, and the shammi filled with cheese was like nothing i had tasted before. Very different. Thankfully we shared the portions or we would have been dead in the water. 

For the mains we had the paneer which was okayish, felt foolish getting more paneer, should have gone for the chana or something else all together. the kadhai paneer is turning into a bete noire. The other dish we had was amazing and i feel foolish that i cannot recall the name now. it was aloo something but it was a creamy curry with soft dumplings which were not potato based. amazing. 

the black dal was disappointing. 

the naan was good, also had a mughlai paratha which is cream aand ghee but actually quite light to taste. 

the Biryani was quite Dum Pukthesque which is to say it was pretty good. 

The Raita was light minty but not in the ITC Burhani Raita league, a tad garlic and a little sweetness would go a long way.

The Kulfi was the appropriate dessert and pretty good. 

A special mention for Farzana who was managing the restaurant, this woman knows her food and her hospitality. On a lark i asked her how was the mughlai paratha different from the shirmal and she went into an explanation almost immediately. Kudos.

Overall, the ambience and layout of the space is very interesting, good to see they have not gone Indian ethnic out of a pre-ordered kit as some hotels tend to. The food too has potential, the appetizers were just stupendous, in the mains i seemed to have ordered the wrong thing with the paneer, the dal though was weak. A little more finesse and they can cross into the Dum Pukth league.

The pricing is on the easier side when compared to an ITC or a Taj so it does feel relatively more value for money. They also do rather large set menus from 2500-4000 pp.

Food : 8/10
Service : 9/10
Damage : 4500 for two with a glass of wine.