Trattoria

Rest : Trattoria
Meal : Dinner
Location : Taj President, Cuffe Parade


Trattoria is an old old city favorite, I have been going there for about 12 years and its always been consistent in cuisine, service, popularity and ambiance.Its also open 24 hours and one of the better options (vs something like Shamiana at the Taj or Marine plaza's Bayview) at 3am.



The place is designed allright but be aware that it is just slightly quieter than a fish market at full bloom (or boom) the people are loud.


I started with a mushroom soup which i did not find all that impressive. it seemed to lack a strong taste of any kind. It seemed more watered down in taste rather than texture. Weak would be the right word for it.


they have a decent selection of dipping sauces, we chose the spiced tomato which was excellent if a little too sweet.


The tomato soup was good, not as good or strong as say the one from ITC but it was still fairly acceptable.


The pizza was the coup de grace. Excellent. The thing was cooked to perfection, the cheese was just slightly sour. Good ol plain cheese was wow!

Overall the food was above average, pizza was great and the service was okay. The place continues to be consistent, loud and popular.

Food: 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 2100


Trattoria
Hotel Taj President
90 Cuffe Parade, Mumbai
Phone 66650808

Late night at Hornbys

Hornbys Pavilion is the coffee shop at the ITC Grand Central in Parel (yeah, i know the location sucks and is out of the way) and is probably the best after hours dining alternative in South & central Bombay. With the closure of Palms and Shamiana past its sell by date - Hornbys is the place to go for a 2 am chowdown.

The place itself is nothing too special, generic coffee shop with ample seating, the tables by the windows are the best. They run a breakfast buffet (best) lunch, dinner and midnight buffets. ITC has fantastic food, i cant recall a single meal at any ITC restaurant that was below par. Service too, is always top notch, quick, effective, only draw back is they are always too afraid to do what the customer asks and always need approval.

Food : As i mentioned already, the menu is quite expansive, i have had some excellent Biryani as well as sumptuous buffets before. However this time it was the English Breakfast for me (sans the meat) the Spanish Omlette for my friend and chocolate mousse cake for the wife. I asked for the meat to be left out and if they could just give me additional mushrooms and beans instead, they didn’t answer me nor did they comply. However the food was good, the beans didn’t seem canned, mushrooms were tasty, the hash browns were ok, the orange juice however was pretty crap. The Mousse cake was just insanely sinful and out of this world. My friend Pat said his omlette was also pretty much top notch

Drink: Cafe Mocha was absolutely excellent. top notch. The Margarita was actually served in a martini glass and tasted like one. They insisted it was a Martini and that was the only thing that was unacceptable.
Overall :
Food : 9/10
Service : 5/10
Damage : 2100

Oh Calcutta!!!!

Oh Calcutta
Hotel Rosewood, Tardeo
Dinner
With ze wife.



After a fairly intense session of considering where to Moshe (too much) Indigo Deli (boring) Trattoria (just went) Swati (too crowded) Vong Wong (no reservations) we decided to head out to Oh Calcutta and enter the realm of another indigenous cuisine. The last time i tried this was at Sri Krishna Udipi which ended in tears.

This one however, was a complete rout. Oh Calcutta is touted as a premiere destination for Bengali food in our part of town. I have heard of Bengalis coming in from everywhere for their macchar jhol and hilsa.

Unfortunately we are vegetarians and this is not our fate. So we went in for some veggie options Cheese croquettes and another patty with home made cheese and mung dal. The guys could have told me how similar the two dishes are but they didnt. Turns out one is a traditional bengali dish and the other a western mix. I couldnt tell the two apart. Go figure.

After some agonising over what to go for next, we chose after a recommendation a dish made of channa patties in some brown sauce. This with a side of steamed rice. Completely out of this world taste. I didnt know what i was eating but it didnt taste like food. Hardened patty, tasteless sour sauce.

We ate our pappad (30 bucks for 2) some onions and got the f**k out of there ran into the nearst Barista and tried to drown the evening (all 40 mins of it) in an afogato.

My take is that my palate is cut out for the rich Italian, complex French, heavy duty Mexican, the exquisite North Indian, the fiery Chinese & Thai but when it comes to indigenous Indian i am completely lost at sea.

So even though it was a terrible evening for me, i can understand how Bengalis might go for some of the dishes listed.


The service is friendly but not the best trained lot to help the uninitiated.

Food : 3/10 Servic 5/10

Damage : 2000 without drinks.

Hornby's Pavilion - The best city coffee shop after hours

Restaurant : Hornbys Pavilion
Meal : 4am binge

Location : ITC Grand Central
Company - Ze Wife, Mr&Mrs Singhania, Mr.Patel

You getting a pang of hunger at midnight? or post midnight? where do you go?
In Bombay only hotels are allowed to have restaurants that stay open for business beyond midnight.

Therefore your choices are limited especially Palms shut down and Shamiana refuses to improve. Trattoria isnt exactly a coffee shop, The Bayview is just boring and Flavours is just plain bad.

Having finished a night out around 1.30. we hoped to get to Ra for the 4am deadline. However when we got in and the cops were already there peeing on the parade. Not wanting to end early and considering the above choices we avoided the drive back downtown and head to the ITC Grand Central.

Mr & Mrs Singhania at The Hornbys Pavilion

Their coffee shop is the Hornbys Pavilion is on the first floor, an average looking coffee shop (average for a 5 star anyway) but it rocks where it counts. The food was superlative (as usual) offering an expansive menu overall,which is only slightly shorter for the midnight version. They also offer a midnight buffet (550+taxes)and an all day light breakfast dining menu which is also lighter on the wallet.

Ze wife looks on at the hungry lunatics

Drinks - Cold Coffee (150), Cappuccino (125) (good)

Eats - We ordered Beans on toast (220) The Hornbys Omlette (210) Pancakes (195). The beans on toast seemed canned to me, the taste was just too uniform and seemed but they were pretty good nonetheless.

Mr.Patel is extremely pleased with his omlette

The pancakes were fantastic, i finally found a place for decent pancakes in this city. The best pancakes money can buy this part of town (better than the Indigo Deli pancakes)

The Hornbys omlette was amazing, soft, delicious with veggies and mushrooms served with a side of toast and a grilled tomato.

Me defending my pancakes at all costs

There are plenty of other usual options like dessert, ice cream and heavier courses western and Indian depending on how hungry you are. The service was good but can be inconsistent. The crowd there was plain weird.

Service : 8/10 Food 9/10

Damage : 1700

Hornby's Pavilion
ITC Grand Central Sheraton & Towers,
Dr. Ambedkar Road, Parel, Mumbai
24101010

Hornbys Pavilion

Hornbys Pavilion

Rest : Hornbys Pavilion
Meal : Dinnerish
Date : 10/12/2006
Location :ITC Grand Central, Parel
Company : Pie, Mr.Mattu.

Experience- We got to the hotel and werent willing to sit down for a MEAL coz of a truncated schedule, so we did what people with no time and hunger do, go to ze coffee shop. The ITC coffee shop is called Hornbys Pavilion, its tastefully done up, very classy, very generic. The place has an extensive menu, which is wider and fuller than any other coffee shop around (palms, shamiana, bayview etc) however its def priced on the higher side and located on the shitter side. So its a trade off for sure.

Drink :Water, Fresh Lime Soda, Bloody Mary, Margarita

Food :Ok, i didnt order the food coz i was in the loo, mr.Mattu is a ITC, Delhi chap and had been eating at Parel for sometime apparently the place to go there is Kebabs and Curries.

Anyway we got this veggie Kebab platter thing which is paneer, bread, tikkaish sauce, small cups of biryani, salan and raita. Fantastic little thing this. Great taste, for the accompaniements, the paneer itself was soft, velvety, very good.

Mushroom Wrap, not very interesting, it was tasty but just no real love, it came with a tomato sauce which didnt help it much.

Lasagna, not bad actually, tasty, tangy, enough veggies but the pasta layers itself were very tasty. Nice stuff.

The drinks were terrible. The Lime soda was ok, the bloody mary served with no ice, tasted below par, the Margarita was just plain BAD. they dont know how to make drinks over at ITC.

Service itself was slow, menus took a while, drinks too longer, the chaps were polite and nodded, but didnt understand much it seems.

Rating : Food 8/10, Service 7/10

Damage : 2900 ($65)