Cebu is a glorious place to Scuba dive and indulge in water sports, which is why we were there. However its not the best place in the world to eat out. Food was pretty weak across the board and we stuck to mostly bad pizza until our last day there when we decided to try our luck with this Thai joint. The decor of the space was pretty far out as well.
Monday, August 18, 2014
Eating Out In Hong Kong & Cebu
Cebu is a glorious place to Scuba dive and indulge in water sports, which is why we were there. However its not the best place in the world to eat out. Food was pretty weak across the board and we stuck to mostly bad pizza until our last day there when we decided to try our luck with this Thai joint. The decor of the space was pretty far out as well.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
ITC Hornbys Pavilion
Meal : 3am snack
the bread basked has not changed in ages. not but not great either.
The veggie burger is actually two burgers, not too bad, come with some home style fries and some really nice relish, more relish would rock.
Overall, the service was quick and friendly however they were very noisy, kept dropping things all over the place. Dishes, silver ware... i know its late and only two people there but no reason to take things lightly.
Food : 7/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 900
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Gulmurg
Loc : Shalimar Hotel, Kemps Corner
Meal : Late late dinner
Overall the place is def an option to go once in a while or when you are feeling lazy to go to far in South Bombay. The service was allright, no complaints.
Service : 7/10
Damage : 750
Shalimar Hotel
August Kranti Marg
Kemps Corner, Mumbai
66641000
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Hornbys Pavilion
Meal : Late Night Snack
Location : ITC Grand Central
I know everyone probably thinks i go to the ITC properties way too often and i promise that is going to change fairly soon. Have resolved to go to all the other 5 stars from now on :) However i will say that i have found some of my other ventures to be disastrous Read
Anyway, i got in fairly late and opted for a fantastic cup of a cafe mocha. Excellent! i just wish it has been even hotter.
opted for an English breakfasts sans the meats of course. Good stuff, its a nice little breakfast option this one. i recommend it.
accompanied with some yummy beans on toast as well.
Also had an excellent Biryani, i wish it came with a little more in terms of accompaniments, however it tasted great. The tomato soup was also not too bad (not pictured)
Overall a decent mid night option. They have plenty of buffets all day as well.
Food : 7/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : for 3 without drinks 1800
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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
Monday, April 14, 2008
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
Monday, July 30, 2007
Nawabi food festival at Shalimar
Location : Shalimar Hotel, Kemps Corner
Company : Rishi, Gotti,
The past week there has been a Nawabi food festival going on at the Shalimar, Hotel at Kemps Corner. Since it is so close to where i live it becomes off limits. However Saturday night, last moment decision and no reservations made us trek up to their restaurant Gulmurg.

The restaurant was packed and there was no chance of getting a table. the option being takeout, however we were directed to sit at their bar (smooth) and get the same menu there as well.A lucky break if we ever had one.
We got going and ordered only from the festival menu. The one thing we ordered off the bar menu was some very good mushroom popper things which came with cheese. Excellent.
We got the Paneer Musallum which was a spicy paneer dish, red and angry but a very good taste nonetheless. We balanced it out with a Nawabi Korma which is a sweet vegetable and went very well with the spicy paneer.
The naans and biryani were not too bad. All the cooking was dum style which i think is cooking it with steam and then letting it marinade in its own juices. A great example of this cooking is the Dum Pukth at ITC, Grand Maratha.
The most interesting thing was the sheermal whcih is somethign we havent had before. Its a flat bread like pizza bread, tough in the centre. The taste was interesting and it seemed like something someone would be chowing down around the palace of the Nawab. Very interesting.The Beverages were Gin n Tonic, Whiskey and Corona. Very unhappy with the billing as they insisted that they served us an Absolut Vodka which they didnt. Absolutely unacceptable behaviour. Shocked.
Food : 8/10 Service 7/10
Monday, May 28, 2007
Hornby's Pavilion - The best city coffee shop after hours
Meal : 4am binge
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.
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 omletteThe 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.
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
























