Samrat - Thali

Rest : Samrat
Loc : Churchgate
Meal : Lunch

Previous visit here

Another thali afternoon at Samrat, the busy Churchgate eatery patronised by businessmen in the area, women on their kitty as well as some of us who just come there for the food.


the thali is usually decent at Samrat, my brother had never in all his years had a thali here, while i havent had the a la carte North Indian food here in a long time.

one of my fav things was the chaas, which was served chilled with plenty of refills.

the salads, the snack and munchies were more or less average. nothing spectacular.

the sweet dal and the sweet kadhi were both fantastic and are usually the mainstay of a thali most places.

unlike other places they didnt offer a bhakri but a thepla and a normal roti. they also serve rice, pulao & khichadi which is slightly more options than most other thali places.

the dessert was an average rasmalai.

Overall, its a busy place at lunch time and the service is geared towards dealing with it. I like their thali i find its better than their sister restaurant Status.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 550

A primer on thalis is here

My other thali visits are here & here

GONE - Delhi

Shall be in Delhi from Wed-Mon. Shall try and bring in some food porn and updates from there.

Cheers,
Gaurav

Cream Centre

Rest : Cream Centre
Meal : Lunch
Loc : Opp Chowpatty Beach

A somewhat authentic Mexican dining experience can be had at Sammy Sosa

Cream Centre is a fairly well known and popular venue with a pretty solid location, i have been going there forever but unfortunately the charm has been lost long ago. It has become part of the Blue Foods group which also runs the Noodle Bar, Bombay Blue & Spaghetti Kitchen & Copper Chimney joints (which except for the last two are more or less mediocre) They have recently been taken over by the Kishore Biyani led Future group.

The menu covers a lot of ground, popular fast food staples like onion rings, corn cheese balls etc, it then moves to offer Indian fast food, Pasta, Pizza and some Mexican. Most of the food is fairly Indianised and covers most ground for a quick, unauthentic but possibly enjoyable meal out.

We had an awesome Ice Tea and some diet coke to drink, there is no alcohol served at Cream Center unlike the others in the Blue Food Chain.

Started with the staple Nachos and cheese, fairly standard, not bad but nothing spectacular at all.

Cream Center was initially always known for its Chole Bhature and its next door neighbor/sister restaurant New Yorkers was the one that offered American fast food. Not so anymore, the sisters have split and the menus are now the same.

The Chole Bhature were okay to taste but they made me sick which says something about what they are made with. Possibly something to avoid but i dont think that is going to happen for most people !

The wife poor thing does not eat Chole Bhature & that left her with not a whole lot to go for, so she chose the pretty average Margherita

I went for the fairly inauthentic half n half enchiladas, served with beans and corn n cheese, it says something when the corn and cheese tastes better than the beans. Served in a hot tomato sauce, while these arent exactly the Tex-Mex enchiladas, in their own Indian way they work nicely. Not great but def above average.

Overall, the place continues to be monotonous but fairly popular, i see less and less reason for going here now that chole bhature is not on my radar.

The service was average, slowish and fairly cold.

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