Arola with Chef Sergi Arola

So every once in a while, the sun shines on me, JW Marriott has brought Arola Restaurant & Bar to life by converting a corner of their hotel into a pretty snazzy eatery. The lights are dim, the space comfortable and the bar stools impossibly high.

The concept is of Spanish/Tapas style individual dishes to be shared by the table, more appetizers then courses, mostly Catalan/Spanish but not strictly limited to the area. The Marriott already had 3 restaurants, a humongous coffee shop, a bar and a night club. To add a relatively risky proposition  like this is laudable. Pity they are in Juhu.

I had the opportunity to dine with Sergi Arola himself and its not everyday that one gets to hang with a Michelin Star chef (although its my fourth 'star' meal and second time hanging with a star chef in the last twelve months)  the man speaks his mind and is passionate about his food.

Not to judge a book by its cover but Sergi has a vibe that is more of a rock n roll biker than two star Michelin chef.  Even more interestingly the man has trained and worked with both Ferran Adria & Pierre Gagnaire which is the equivalent of being mates with Superman & Batman.  

While I waited for the rest to troop in i sipped on a delicious Sangria and noshed on even more awesome olives.

In no time at all the party had accumulated, my fellow diners were a fun food and booze loving bunch.  @CulinaryMuse1 @nikhil_merchant @MissShwe @Manvi22 @romibites, @shweta_m89.

Interestingly enough, one of the first things brought out was a bunch of Naan's served with salsa, salt, olive oil and cloves of garlic & no instructions of what to do. Sergi mischievously kept deflecting when asked how to go about it.

There really is only one way, you rub the oil, then the garlic, sprinkle some salt and then salsa on to taste. Frankly, i couldn't stop, i just kept going after them Naan's. Its a great way of being faithful to the concept yet incorporating local dishes/ideas/produce.

The salad was tomato, onion, olives with olive oil, the dish was all about freshness, frozen ingredients and it would die pretty quickly.

The eggplant carpaccio was okay, a little bland but not bad overall.  

The Patata Bravas were deranged, sauce and cheese and potato.. bite sized little babies would do all kinds of wonderful things when popped into your mouth. Impossible to stop at one.

The desserts again were okay, the lemon sorbet was uneven and much too hard, the chocolate looking thing was actually possibly tamarind based which was weirdly good an the chocolate soufflé thingy was on the money. 

Overall, the place has a very nice ambiance, the drinks are great, especially their Gin bar and the decadent gin and tonic served in a huge goblet with a burnt orange peel. That thing will shake the sadness out of you. The food is interesting, I didn't get a chance to look at their regular menu but from what we were served the dishes are middle of th road.  The flavour profile is relatively weaker and I think the Indian palate will struggle and find them bland.  On the one hand i think Indians need to up their game and accept newer flavours like they have for Teppan and Sushi but from the restaurant point of view, some dishes might need a tweak as well.

Without a doubt it is worth a look. 

Yauatcha

Rest : Yauatcha
Loc : Raheja Chambers,BKC
 Meal : Lunch

After a few false starts we were finally able to make it to Yauatcha, although originally we had a table at Otto Infinito we ended upstairs and for once it was not a let down. Sundance last week was good as was Yauatcha, perhaps my luck is finally turning.

Chinese tea houses are a rarity in these parts, Yautcha opened doors a few months ago, they are the cousins of London's Michelin starred Hakkasan who also have a restaurant in Bombay. Spread across a massive floor, complete with a long bar, Yautcha is a lot more than a simple tea house. Since i am not a Chinese tea person i skipped the whole thing all together and went on to the food. 

The table service is a little weak, the chilli oil is great as is the little ginger sauce thingy, the pickled cucumber and carrots need to be sorted out, four pieces on a table of four is a little cheap... get a bigger bowl, especially since the wait for food can be a little long.

The Kiwi and something ice tea didn't look right but tasted pretty great.

Nice to see people carry Ginger Ale now, so sick of drinking Diet Coke.

The Hot & Sour soup with mushroom was not bad, good to taste, well done but it lacked a punch

The Asparagus roll tasted like a vietnamese spring roll, from the freshness standpoint. Not bad at all.

The three style mushroom cheung fun was pretty average, fell apart almost right away.

The Golden Fried Veg Puff was fantastic, all dim sum should be this good.

The Schezuan clay pot with vegetables and tofu was again not bad but lacked that strong finish, especially for a dish expected to be spicy.

The spicy vegetable fried rice was under salted and not spicy at all.

They serve flat noodles but we chose the vermicelli and it was a good choice, the noodles were excellent. No idea why they were served with tomato though. Weird.

I honestly was not expecting much from the jasmine tea cake but boy was i wrong. the base was a little too hard which made it difficult to eat but with just a hint of jasmine this was quite something.

The jaffa cake, tasted just like a jaffa cake, they got the essence just right, perfect. 

Overall, the food is not bad, a little more attention and it could be pretty great, they just need to ensure everything comes together. The food has i believe a Cantonese bent and unlike most Ch-Indian restaurants, the meal is relatively healthy and the desserts are pretty amazing.

The service needs a little work, the staff is happy to help but they get flustered easy and the food turn around was slow. While i put that down to the food being prepared as the orders come in.. i think they need  better table service to get things by.

Also, I wish they would serve even number servings of appetizers, odd numbers cause fights.The drinks menu was crazy, 700 odd bucks for a cocktail (ketel one) and 200 bucks for a ginger ale is steep. The prices on the food on the other hand was not so bad.

Food : 8/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : 7000 for 4 without drinks.

Sun Dance Cafe

Rest : Sundance Cafe
Cafe Meal : Lunch
Loc : Eros, Churchgate




Sundance Cafe, evokes nostalgia, having gone to school and college in the area.. it was one of the two spiffy eating joints in the immediate vicinity (Gaylord being the other) It was also a practically unaffordable place to dine at throughout school and junior college.


I lamented its loss a few years ago, however its time had truly passed. After some unfortunate changes in avatar first as the French bistro Chez Vous and another even shorter lived version which i cannot recall, the lease was taken up by the team behind 212 who were smart enough to retain the name and updated the menu to keep up with the times.

Lunch with VB, fellow foodie, writer, ex GQ online editor and budding entrepreneur was scheduled a week in advance and i for one was looking forward to it.

It continues to be a split level eatery and takes a page out of the LPQ book of wood & veneer styling. Its cheerful and fairly comfortable, although the tables are packed fairly tightly. The menu was huge, designed to look like a newspaper.. dishes range from eggs, pancakes and other breakfast goodies to salads, sandwiches, burgers, you name it and they have it. I am not a big fan of huge menus because invariably the larger the menu, the worse its execution.

Started off with the Falafal in little pita pockets, served with labneh and hummus. The falafal was excellent, dont just right, the labneh was pretty good too, the hummus could have been better.

The Baked Camembert was on the money too, served with some bread and massive potato wedges, burnt my mouth a little but boy was it worth it.

I forget what the salad was called but it was rocket leaves, red wine poached pear with yellow peppers and goat cheese i reckon. Very nicely done too, went down quick and easy as it rightly should.

Overall, the place is nice, the menu is too big, perhaps they can go through and remove what does not work eventually but for now you are pretty spoilt for choice. However the place offers something for pretty much everyone and i certainly see the need for more places like it, that do good things and do them well. It has the potential to be a strong alternative to Indigo Deli, Moshe, LPQ if they can be consistent.

The service unfortunately is slow and a little disorganized. The salads took 20 mins to show up and were served with the salads, this is one of the cardinal sins in my opinion of the restaurant biz.

They staff mean well but really need to be trained a little more when it comes to knowing their menu and being able to communicate information. A separate menu for smoothies was on our table and VB spent 5 mins figuring which one he liked only to find out smoothies were not available.

You guys can add a service charge but come on, earn it. I blame management for this.. wake up folks.

Food : 8/10
Service : 6/10
Damage : 2100 without drinks.