Zenzi

Rest : Zenzi
Location : Link Road, Bandra West
Meal : Dinner
Company : Mr.TSI!

I haven't been to Zenzi in years, mostly because its been part of the suburban scene for a while now. My last visit was years ago, before i started writing about food. Honestly, i regret it because my recent experience food wise was absolutely excellent.

Zenzi is located at Waterfeld Road and has a pretty good spot on a busy road. Its become an after work drinks location since there arent that many in Bandra. The place has an outdoor bar with great lighting, while indoors is dim but air conditioned (someone ought to fuse them as my good friend Mr.TSI pointed out)

We started with drinks Gin n Tonic was prefered and i must say there is nothing better than this on a warm summer night.

We moved in for dinner, went for their Wok, which was veggies stir fried served with 4 noodles (yes you read that right) this was absolutely a mind numbingly good dish, no complaints except for portion size. Drool worthy, very very tasty. The Thai Red curry was also excellent, rather than do something heavy and spicy they have gone with something lighter with more veggies and tons of taste.

Overall the food was absolutely excellent, however the service is slow, absent minded and half witted. The place itself has not changed in all this while and you can see the wear and tear on its walls. Time to call the architect i reckon.

The crowd sucks, tv types, model types, loud obnoxious foreigners, if you can look past these considerable faults you will be delighted to find some excellent Asian food. They have Italian on the menu too but i haven't tried. Will go back soon.

Food : 9/10
Service : 4/10
Damage : 2 Entrees, 3 drinks 2000+

Zenzi
183, Waterfield Road,
Bandra (W) Mumbai
Tel : 66430670

Peshawri

Restaurant : Peshawri
Location: ITC Grand Maratha, Near Sahar, International Airport,
Meal : Dinner
Company: Ze Frau

Peshawari is a clone of the Delhi based Bukhara a revered name in food circles. To protect their brand equity Bukhara clones nationwide are known as Peshawari, same menu, same ambiance but lower prices.

Additionally being part of the ITC group means you can expect good service and exquisite food (i have had very few bad meals at ITC restaurants) however my streak sort of came to an end this weekend.

After debating between Peshawari & Celini we chose Peshawari as it was virgin terrirotry. The restaruant is modeled after the famed Bukhara down to the tie around napkin. The seating is expansive but backless stools make a long meal uncomfortable.

The ambiance is nothing to write home about, merely adequate. The menus came pretty quick, a heavy wooden half plank,listing six-seven veg/non-veg. Paneer, Aloo, Pepper, Dal etc. On asking how they are prepared we were told its a kebab restaurant and there would be no gravy nor would there be any rice.



Shocked out of my wits but there was more to come. The prices for each platter are 1050 (for maybe4-5 pieces) We chose the Aloo as it was recommened, the Dal Bukhara along with the garlic naan and rooma roti.



The food was a major dissapointment. A restaruant as famed as this, offered a tasteless, bland unimaginative, aloo preparation, the famed ITC dal bukhara was also not very tasty, a complete let down. Kebabs n Kurries the ITC restaurant at Parel offers a way better experience all around. Our server Graham sensed we were unhappy and insisted on taking the platter to show the chef.

This turned into a minor controversy,after we recieved the check the head server requested us to stand by for Chef Gaurav. The chef poor sod said he had never had complaints for the aloo and wished we had brought it up sooner so he could remedy it. Spent quite a few minutes trying to figure out what exactly went wrong and finally we were told to come again and give them another chance. It was a good 10 minute conversation.

Overall, the restaurant is a speciality joint, so be prepared for a limited menu and not much beyond that. They were nice enough to make the rice for us and i appreciate them breaking a little rule like that to keep the guests happy.

The food is weak, i think Dum Pukth a few feet away is a vastly superior restaurant with a mor varied though generic menu. Neither is a patch on Kebabs n Kurries (KK offers a great experience as it offers all the famed ITC recipes from all its restaurants under one roof)

The damage was also fairly severe without drinks at 2400. However they were nice enough to waive of the kebab platter as we were clearly
dissatisfied to round of at 1400.

I would wager the non-veg is where it lies for them and would urge people to give them a try, if nothing for the tremendous service.

Food : 4/10 Service 10/10
Damage : For 2 without drinks 2400

Peshawri
ITC Grand Maratha,
Sahar Road, Andheri, Mumbai,
Phone
28303030

Soups of Bombay

Soup, little bowls of pleasure. Do you like your soups? i like mine. I had the good fortune of having some pretty fantastic soup last night. Considering i dragged myself to go out and made plenty of fun of my mate who ordered it, i consider myself to taste any of it.

It was plain ol tomato soup, you see i am a soup snob (not quite a Nazi) it irritates me no end when my kid brother gets tomato soup, my wife gets tomato soup when its available. find it ludicrous as its almost always badly made, with cream and sweet and i find it such a cop out.

So as usual i proceeded to make fun of my friend who ordered it, having no idea what was in store for me. Luckily i didn't rib him too hard and when i got a taste, one spoon was enough to go snap snap, one for me too. They got me the wrong one, this one tasted nothing like the one my mate was having. So i asked em to sort it out and they did (hope they didn't spit in it)

What can you do with tomato soup anyway? Well quite a lot. The one we had was borderline criminal in how good it tasted. Garlic, herbs slightly thick, it tasted more like a complex dish rather than tomato and water (face it, thats what it breakdowns to) Pretty impressive.

Along with some soft bread, flavored butter, its manna from heaven. I would recommend folk head right over and have some at the Hornbys Pavilion right away. If it does not taste right, stir, if still does not work, ask them to give you the one with the garlic and herbs.

On the subject of soup some other places where i have had some great soup are

French Onion at Starters & More (terrible restaurant though)
Mulligatawny at Gallop,
Tom Yum at Oriental Blossom.

Pictures coming soon.