Debailleul

Rest : Debailleul
Meal : Post dinner dessert
Loc : Prabhadevi

Debailleul is a Belgian patisserie that opened its doors a few months ago, high end European desserts and chocolates are now available, unfortunately at European prices (one can also get Leonidas chocolates if one were feeling generous, i walk by every other day as its up the street from my place, never walked in, though i have picked up their goodies in the NYC)

Sitting in the bright, cheerfully lit space, one can very easily be transported to Paris/Brussels or Prague as the wife thought. In terms of design, from the menu to the little chocolate boxes, everything is aesthetically superb.

The menu is interesting, you have the whole shebang - gateaux, tarts and macaroons, bonbons and  ice creams(choc, vanilla) sorbets (raspberry, mango sorbet) but each variety has a limited offering.  They haven't gone crazy or tried to do too much which isn't too bad an idea.

The wife chose the Voltaire, chocolate goodness this one, a relatively thick dark chocolate exterior with soft mousse like innards. Excellent. 

Galloway, the one i chose, a blueberry filling in a cream cheese cake was recommended by quite a few but i found it to be a weak choice, pretty weak.

Raspberry Sorbet, brilliant, perhaps the best thing there.. but then i am extremely partial to sorbets so perhaps not the most objective a view.

Overall, the ambiance is nice, the service friendly and quick. The menu interesting and the offerings themselves good, the pricing however is on the extreme side, (Voltaire was 500, Galloway 500, the sorbets 250) at those prices, i would expect everything to be compelling and in that context they fall short. It is certainly not value for money and definetely not a place i would go often, also one could head to an Indigo Deli/Theobroma and pick up a few sterling choices at a lot less.

It is also unfortunately located right at the busy traffic light which leads to South Bombay from Prabhadevi one is guaranteed to struggle for parking during the day, best to drive over on Sunday afternoon or post 8pm.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : Catastrophic 1250.

Pestonjee

As some of the readers here know, i have been hunting down ice cream sandwiches across the city. The first place i came across one was Havmore in Ahmedabad (linked here) and one of the readers Bhairav was kind enough to point out that i could find them at Breach Candy which is not too far from my house. In fact i stop by there often for some coconut milk and never occurred to me that they might do these.

So this is the Pastonji's ice cream sandwich, costs 20 INR same as the Havmor, however it is substantially smaller in size, bout 15% smaller. It also comes quite unfortunately packed in a plastic container, which looks kind of cool but is ridiculous because its quite a task to get it out without breaking it (well one could but it would require patience, time and a knowledge of physics - 3 things which dont lend very well to ice cream) i prefer the regular plastic wrapper, save money on the plastic and maybe give us a flavour or two? or a bigger sandwich?

Taste wise though, it was pretty good so in the end i reckon it was kinda sorta worth it. I dont know if its Parsi owned and run but Pastonjee is a Parsi name and im a great fan of Parsis (my rakhi sisters are Parsi) berry pulao, raspberry soda and a zillion other things.. Bombay would never be the same without their zeal to innovate ! 

Hot Review - Smoke House Deli

Rest : Smoke House Deli
Meal : Lunch
Loc: High Street Phoenix near McDonalds

Smoke House Deli is the brand spanking new restaurant in whats turning out to be the most attractive one stop shop for eating out, High Street Phoenix. The entrance is so subtle you could just miss it, so watch out between for the white door between McDonalds and the Blue Foods monstrosities Noodle Bar & Bombay Blue.

You walk in and the first thing that strikes you is that it is perhaps the most original, interesting and attractive space this city has seen in a long time. While Veda located a few feet away interprets all that is excessive about India, Smoke House Deli interprets, simplicity with quirky hand drawn art on its walls (i have been looking into their design, turns out its actually very cheap for a restaurant so full marks for originality and a lesson to everyone who thinks money trumps originality. More on the decor here)

The menu is directly in competition with the Indigo Deli's and Moshe's of the world, both of which have a presence only a few meters away. There is a breakfast section as well as a separate offering of eggs any which way. Sandwiches & Burgers, Soups & Salads and Mains round up the rest.

They have a full service license which means wine and booze, since we were there for lunch, skipped out on the cocktails but went for a Sangria which was awesome. The iced tea was sans sugar, considering my recent health scare (more on that some other day) but tasted allright.

The Greek salad was near perfect, gobbled it down fairly quick, nothing to say really, spot on.. just what a Greek salad should taste like. The feta makes or breaks it, there have been times when folk have used weaker or staler feta at times, which pretty much kills it.

The second salad we had was a sweety sweet mix of figs, pine , grapes et al. the salad was pretty good but a tad too sweet with grapes in there. if they just through in some goats cheese in there to dial down the sweetness, it would kill.

The spinach ravioli was not too bad, unfortunately for my wife who ordered it and fortunately for me it was not as big a portion as my entree.. :)

The penne in tomato and garlic dashed with Gorgonzola cream was simple and that was great. Nothing heavy, nothing overt, simple taste of tomatoes, garlic and pasta.. good stuff.

The bread basket was small but filled with fresh bread and was served in a little bag reminiscent of how they used to serve their bread back in the day at Salt Water Grill.. (thank you Maharashtra Government for robbing us of a brilliant location and continue pillaging do not stop till the well runs dry) The fresh butter was also pretty awesome.

The dessert was a Creme Brulee, which was pretty good, and a chocolate tort which was everything a chocolate torte should taste like and more.

Overall Smoke House Deli is a welcome addition to what is a crowded and competitive space. As i mentioned before, the theme of the menu is similar to both Indigo Deli & Moshe's and despite  Indigo Deli being the big daddy, the Smoke House Deli is younger and less intimidating (and i still cant get over the decor)

Hopefully SMD can keep up to the mark like Indigo Deli has which has been reason enough to over look what is terrible service.

Price wise too, they score, roughly 20% cheaper than Indigo Deli they are greater value for money and also have soup and half sandwich options for a soup + half a sandwich 400 a pop (which by comparison is a steal) 

Service was reasonably quick and friendly.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 3000 for 2 with a Sangria each.