Thursday, June 07, 2012

Jjammpong

Rest : Jjamppong
Loc : Walkeshwar Road, Walkeshwar
Meal : Dinner


For the past few days, i have been trying to make my way to the unlikeliest of locations for a restaurant, Walkeshwar. The location is known for many things but not for food. 
The area has a serious limitation of restaurants, Dakhshinayan is around the corner but other than you have trek downhill to Petit Hall for The Sun or Santosh Sagar at Napean Sea Road. 

 Not too much choice otherwise, unless you head on towards Chowpatty & Marine Drive. 

So this is a welcome addition. The shiny new eatery (only 3 weeks old) sits a few metres away from Teen Batti . The decor is minimalist, the ambiance casual, benches red. You could squeeze bout 30 people there and it has a hole in the wall feel to it.
 

Aptly named Jjamppong which i am told is a spicy Korean soup, derived from Chinese cuisine, it also has a Japanese version. The pan Asian antecedents of Jjamppong the soup sort of mirror the menu which has a dish or two from everywhere (cept malaysia) One of the more interesting things that drew me to the menu in the first place was their infusion of quirky ingredients such as lychee, plum, pineapple, raw bananas into dishes. 



 The obligatory and gratuitous shot of a Diet Coke. Someday like 1950's America we might get Coke in classic bottles and world will be a much MUCH better place. 


The Red Wonton Soup was pretty good. For a second it tasted like your regular Chindian Manchow but just for a fleeting second. It was hot, not too spicy but boy was it hot. The wanton was effing brilliant. The wife liked it so much she asked to try the Lychee Wantons.


While our original appetizer was the Kung Pao which was a mish mash of veggies, potato and paneer, the crunchy spears came highly recommended and we modified our order. In all honesty this was not bad, French beans, asparagus tossed in a wok, what's not to like. Not stupendous but not bad.


The lychee wanton, sounds uber weird and the truth is i am not a fan of Lychee i think its a bizzare fruit and looks like eyeballs.  The wife loves Lychee and what she loves she gets. I tried them with some hesitation but it turned out to be pretty good. Just a slight hint of the lychee not enough to distract just enough to entertain. The dipping sauce it came with sucked though. 


They also recommended Corn Curd but the wife shot it down, they brought out a sampler so she could taste it. She didn't approve, I thought they were pretty good if a tad luke warm. 


The gravy was a  veggies with cottage cheese in a reddish hot sauce. A little spicy and hot but not overt which was good. Just the kind of taste i was looking for. Not bad.


While i was leaning towards the Burnt Chili Garlic rice, it was recommended i try the minty Vietnamese fried rice. While this was not bad and without the hint of mint (hehe) it would have just been an ordinary fried rice it went well with the gravy.

We intended to order (when i say we i mean the Mrs) the Pad Thai Noodles but since we were going all Chinese we skipped it, which is good as the portions are relatively healthy and it would have been way too much food.

Overall, the space is small but the food is splendid. The menu has some pretty interesting dishes that deserve a try. They clearly win on imagination and unlike the other hole in the wall eater Francesco's they have got the formula right (when you are this small, the food needs to be superlative)

Best to go with a bunch of friends so you can try out a bit of everything. While there are a few misses, such as the dipping sauces which are weak, the funky bottles need to be clearly labelled but nothing major. There is enough standard pan Asian food and enough new ideas to keep most people interested.

I really hope they keep the standards up.

Service is warm and friendly but the waiters are a bit nervous.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 1010 for two.


Note : They are all Vegetarian & Serve No Alcohol 

4 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
girish said...

hey, long time lurker. this looks interesting, small restaurants can sometimes be pretty rewarding.

Sassy Fork said...

was looking for a review...will try it

Gaurav said...

im keen to go back as well.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin