I Spikka di Italiano ?

There is this rather nice restaurant called Italiano in Gurgaon. Oddly enough it's located a bit off the beaten track and is nowhere close to any of the normal hangouts. Enough about the geography and on to the food. The short eats viz. Bruschettas, garlic bread are decent. The Pizzas were good but not quite in the same class as Vera Pizza. The revelation was the sole which was done just right. While the food was not standout by any chance it was competently done Italian. A word about the wine list and alcohol though - Just because the wine is Australian does not mean its good and of course the maitre'd was completely clueless and kept repeating. And 800 bucks for 2 pegs of 100 pipers ? Now thats being cruel.

I spy Ivy

Ivy is a nice pleasant place much like Banyan Tree. The only difference is that Ivy is by the Indage guys and supposedly to propogate wine drinking. Well we did end up having 4 different wines (by the glass mind you) but the experience was so so. While the wines were reasonably priced with the most expensive topping out at 175 bucks a glass the storage seemed to be indifferent. While the more expensive wines which perhaps were not selling well were a wee bit corked the cheaper wines were decent. The food was competent although the olives in the spaghetti seemed to have a herd instinct and the feta cheese in the salad was a wee bit inadequate. The bruschettas and garlic breads were done well. The desserts are from Prive and hopefully good. One sour note though was that they have a impressive listing of wines for sale but the non Indian wines were largely unavailable and what was available were all stuff produced in house. Anyone tried Tiger Hill and found it to be tart or is it just me ?

Pot full of Pourri

Pot Pourri at Bandra is sort of like the place we never go to because everyone raves about it. Anyway finally did go there and the food frankly was decent. The Chicken wings were done very well (Actual chicken wings mind you not the bloody excuses u get elsewhere). The Salads were nice (Zucchini actually did taste good) and the mashed potato was just done so right. The beef was so so and I believe the beef burger was also good since all I got was the bread. The patty was consumed by a unnamed friend of mine. The Goulash was not as gruesome as it could have been and the lamb was ok. Uncannily enough the sauces were good enough to mask any deficiencies so wonder if Underneath the Banyan Tree learnt from Pot Pourri or the otherway around ? The desserts at Underneath The Banyan Tree were way better. I wonder why all the desserts at Pot Pourri were so chocolate based ????

Underneath The Banyan Tree

The Banyan Tree is a very nice place to be. While their meats are a bit so so their sauces are insanely good. And with a great sauce everything tastes wonderful. Their desserts are bliss. Nice small place with a eager to please staff. One of the few places in mid town where you get half decent pancakes and waffles at breakfast with a good choice of breads.......

Mahesh

I have fond memories of Mahesh. Some of my first sea food experiences have been at Mahesh (Thank you Arvind!!). For some obscure reason I stopped going there when it became cheaper to drink at a quarter joint and then do Vandana for dinner. Whatever happened to Vandana incidentally ? Great sea food at Mahim it used to have. Anyway last weekend went there and was somehow disappointed. Its not like the food was inedible or bad but just bleah. It was competent but nothing stuck in my mind. The Bombil fry was done the bawa way with the whole fish being fried and not flattened but Brittania is much better, Ladyfish fry was so so and the pomfret in green sauce is way better at Excellensea. The only thing that stood out for me was the yellow dal which was a weird hybrid between Sambar and Dal oh and of course the wine list had some very decent wines. We had a nice tart Chilean white which cost us 1200 bucks which was a steal.

It's all Crystal Clear

The best kheer in Mumbai is available at Chowpatty. On a clear Sunday you step on to the beach and then keep walking towards the Air India building. This old lady who sits somewhere on the beach opposite New Yorker does the most amazing kheer. According to her it's stirred for about 7 hours by Bihari dwarfs.

Oh all right enough with this. The best kheer in Mumbai is available at Crystal. The place is near Wilson college on the same side as Wilson on Marine Drive. While the kheer is definitely one of the highlights I love it for the palak paneer, Chole and Baingan Bartha. Actually screw it anything punjabi including the chaach is awesome there. Some poor misguided Gujju souls still wander in for the Pav Bhaji but who really would eat anything other than Punjabi @ Crystal. The decor is not the most uplifting but listening to Manna Dey songs is part of the charm. The door to the kitchen is firmly closed but I really don't want to see in what conditions is the food turned out in. Suffice to say this is one of the few vegetarian places that I would walk a mile to. Which incidentally I almost did thanks to Jayesh's idea of parking....

Shanbhar Barobar

A million miles away from Mumbai (Seems like anyway) is the sylvan bird sanctuary of Karnala. It's nice and green but this is a food blog so lets focus on the Shanbhar Vishranti Gruh. Its about a couple of kms or so before Karnala coming from Mumbai. It's a bit of a drive but the food is seriously worth it. It's the perfect way to spend a Sunday. Leave at 11ish and hit the place by 12.30 ish. A couple of beers with some insanely great prawns and then the serious business of eating. The Pomfret is awesome, the Surmai is about as good as it gets (I'm not a great fan of Surmai), the bombils are delicious. But the trip is worth it for the prawns alone. And a honourable mention to the Kharvas. This underrated sweet is just about sublime at Shanbhar. All in all worth spending the hours commuting for the bliss of Shanbhar.

On a aside forgive if this is beginning to sound way too much like Rashmi Uday Singh but sort of tired and sleepy after dinner at Crystal and lunch at Brittania. There you have something to look forward to...

Southward Ho

Was in Chennai and points south. (Kumbakonam, Pondicherry, Mayavaram if you must know) on a 2 day 20- temple tour. The only spiritual benefit for me was putting up with all the relatives. Anyway on the food front nothing spectacular. Galloping Gooseberry prolly deserves a seperate review but frankly nothing exceptional. The lovely roadside stall with divine idlis deserves something exceptional but for the life of me what do I say the location ? Fourth level crossing when u go from Pondicherry to Kumbakonam. Suffice it to say that the quality of food is pretty good as long as you stick to core competencies of South Indian food and not try and experiment with Chole Batter or Alu Parotta.....

Soul Fry Casa da Case

Soul Fry Casa is a nice place to go. I guess it would be the upmarket equivalent of the Irani. If ever there is something like a Irani diner then Casa would be it. The caveat here is that the food is not exactly inspired or exceptional but fairly competent. The non veg section is fairly large but the vegetarian selection is also quite good. The Fried Calamari was exceptionally fresh but the mutton sukha was average. Having gone there with a vegetablarian I had a taste of the Mangalorean Potato Spinach (Tasted like Aloo Palak but who am I to comment) and Okra Coconut Fry was quite good.

I do like to have my meals in peace but there was a live band on. (Somewhere a Mack wedding was missing it's singer). Standard rock numbers were being mutilated but the diners in general were having a blast singing along. I guess it's just me being reactionary....

Goa Portugesa : No Sa

I really hate it when a supposedly speciality cuisine restaurant serves you food which is so very clearly tweaked for the mass market. If I wanted that I would have gone to a blooming multi cuisine restaurant or a frigging five star. Not that the food was bad but my basic issue is that when I go to a Goan food place I expect to get authentic Goan food not Goan as done by someone who has never left Mumbai but read a lot about Goa. The crab cakes were delish but the rest of the food was good. Liver, Brain and Pomfret along with Squid. All done well but again not quite goan.

Incidentally I perhaps am becoming a cynic (Probably am) but really the thought of knowing who the host is or how he met his wife and what all he does is sickness inducing. All i want to do is know about the awards won or what he suggests we eat.

In one respect at least the place is Goan as the service was very Susegad.

Crappy Chinese

Given that Chinese is now a recognized ethnic Indian cuisine can we please try and do better Indian chinese. The amount of places that do extremely crappy chinese is phenomenal. So much so that my expectation when ordering Chinese is the crappy sort. I can handle Punjabi Chinese (My explorations in La Land for Chicken Manchurian not withstanding) but all I ask is that it be done competently. So far my experiences in ordering Chinese have ranged from having coconut drizzled on top of my fried rice (It was a Udupi restaurant so somehow should have expected that) to Veg manchurian with fried aubergines as there was no cabbage available.

Anyway the main point of this extremely pointless post (oh all right Pointless blog too) is to say that the Chinese restaurant opposite Wanton house on Hill Road is quite quite crappy. Unpleasant experience to the level where I forgot the name of the restaurant, what I ate there and why. It's the kind of food where you feel extremely relieved post your next visit to the restroom that it's all come out safely without any major side effects.

Thai @ Shivaji Park

In the quest for Thai curry like the one Thai Me Up used to do we (Me, Rikhav and Sandy) have experimented with Thai curry at the weirdest locations. The fiasco at Fu Yong stands out fairly strongly. Tamnak Thai @ Shivaji park stands out as something which is almost but not quite. The Raw papaya salad is smokingly awesome especially if you ask them to make it slightly spicy. The prawn curry, sfried vegetables, the lamb, the chicken oh well the list is endless. And amazingly enough they have a fairly decent wine list. Incidentally anyone know whatever happened to Thai Me Up ?

Inappropriate Times

Now that the monsoon is upon us it seems to be a perfectly reasonable time for me to write about Fresh Catch. Fresh catch does sea food so well that I'd prefer it to be completely unknown. Situated as it is in one of the bylanes of Mumbai it's amazing that it's survived for so long. Tiny as it is the food that comes out is just (insert your hyperbole here). The bombils are done just so. Not over fried or over crisped but just right for you to get the initial crunch and then let the flavour take over. Some of the best shell fish i've ever had . The Dal is just so very varan like that I like it. Ambot Tik done well and then some righteous fish dishes not easily available else where. The Solkadi tends to be easy on the tongue but then everything can't be perfect. On the veggie front (why bother) the dishes are also typically very konkani style and I can actually be tempted to order one.

On a completely different front why on earth would anyone want to have Vada Pav with Szechwan sauce ? I mean Kakhra with Szechwan flavor was bad enough but don't mess with the Vada Pav.

Anyone for Monk Business ?

Ah a lazy sunday. A non brain stretchy movie and then a nice long lazy lunch with some of my favorite friends. What could be more bliss ? Anyway in one of my trips down to Dilli was taken to Monk which is somewhere on the Jaipur Highway. Monk is one of those uber cool decor which ever so often have more attention being paid to the ambience rather than the food. Thankfully the food was pretty decent. The cocktails were first rate (Watermelon martinis !!!). Oddly enough the food is served in combinations. Viz any main course meal is complete by itself unlike in Indo chinese where you order the rice and then a gravy. Much like in China the monk system works brilliantly as you get a more harmonious combination. Monk also has a incredibly good soya sauce. A good soya sauce enhances your dim sums and ilk so much that I can't complain. Anyway all in all Monk was a good experience.

The Travelling Belly - Part Deaux

Vera Vera Vera Good Vera Pizza. Oddly enough the pizza is probably the least of the dishes here. Pizza done amazingly well wrinkles and all. One of the best Risottos I've had even though it was vegetarian. Good Pastas and awesome desserts. Best of all they also do a decent wine list which in Gurgaon non five star is supremely amazing. Away from the malls and not so crowded as the location is slightly odd. Thats two good reviews for Delhi restaurants perhaps I'm going a soft in old age.....

The Travelling Belly - Part 1

In case anyone is bothered apologies for the delay. Work has been slightly insane and posting has not been helped by some incompatibilities between Opera and blogger. Wonder why. Anyway this is part 1 of my travel eating in Delhi. In which the intrepid stomach wanders over to Karims in Old Delhi.

Being in Delhi for a wedding meant the usual. Eg land up late and discover the baraat has not yet landed. And then wait like a moron for the groom (Who might be one of the few people you actually know at the wedding). Then finding a convenient car boot bar and get drinking. And like in Delhi people get irritated at not getting their favourite drink in the boot of a car. Wonder how much longer before some one converts a Qualis into a travelling bar for weddings along with the baraat band and caterer.

Thankfully this was a ex colleagues wedding which meant I did know people other than the groom. It also meant there were like minded people who were completely sick of their social obligations and wanted to get the heck out of there. In this case it meant 3 of us going down to Karims in Old Delhi. And the best part was one of the trio was a newbie to Karim

The food at Karim's was as usual excellent if slightly marred by the presence of a drunken bunch in the table next to us. Thankfully K's has little patience and they were soon shut up by the staff.
We had the usual shammis and botis and bheja and mutton and all of it was supremely excellent. Dunno what they do with the tandoori rotis but they're good enough to be a stand alone. The regret of not getting really good mutton in Mumbai is exaggerated when u have mutton @ Karims. Then when you're done with the food you end up with a divine phirni. Oh blisss....

Rajdhani - Gujju plus plus plus

Made the trek to Crawford market on a hot summer Sunday. Lunch at Rajdhani has always been a mixed bag. Frankly this time around nothing really really stood out. Aamras was good and the teekha dal was also good. The kadi was unbearably sweet and the sabji's were nondescript. So why in the world would someone trek to Crawford market for the food there ? Or is Rajdhani just a habit that no one could break. To be honest I'd seriously debate whether the trip is worth it. Wouldn't mind taking visitors there for a hygienic gujju lunch but definitely not a culinary hot spot. Wonder if Rajdhani is becoming a Gujju McDonalds type.

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

Mumbai has to be the sea food capital of India. (Amongst other things it's the capital of). The beauty of Mumbai is that you have restaurants at so many pricepoints where you can get the same food in just differing order sizes. Anyone who's paid 100 bucks for Fried Bombil and got as good as or better at 20 bucks knows what I am talking about. But seriously if you go past the crab and lobster madness and the bloody showcasey places like Trishna or Gajalee the amount of great sea food places is astounding. I'd gone to my safety bet place Excellensea on Sunday. It's amazing in that I've been to that place a billion zillion times and very rarely have I gone beyond my core orders. The dragon fish is just brilliant - ask them to go easy on the spices and the flavor of the fish comes through. The Pomfret in green sauce is also very competently done. Sadly one of my favorite combos is no longer available. I say bring back idlis. They go so brilliantly with the prawn gassi. The appams are avoidable. And if you really want to watch your arteries harden while you eat the Konkani Sungta is very very highly recommended. And for dessert just drive out to Baadshah......

Vada Vada Voom

Everyone in Mumbai has their own favourite Vada Pav Wallah (As also Bhel or Pani Puri wallah but that's another post) but the purists amongst us prefer the Vada unsullied. No Pav no masala no chutney. Just the simple goodness of Vada with a wee fried chili the way god intended it. By far the best Vadas I have had have been Shri Krishna Batata wada in Dadar. The rate at which those vadas sell ensure that allatime you get hot hot Batata wadas. And boy are these yum. Over the years the price has increased (last I went was 12 bucks for 2 I think) but quality to quality hai. They taste the same as ever and don't seem to have acquired the incredible shrinking disease. Yumlicious....

Wasabi on my mind

I Japengoed on Saturday last. Good food, decent decor but nothing really stuck in my mind. What makes a memorable dining experience is something that I need to resolve. I think I have somewhat of a reverse snobbery bug where the worse the decor the more I enjoy the food. Enough already with this goop.

Quick review about Japengo - Nice Sushi, very very good wasabi, highly impressive Beef noodle soup and good Nasi Goreng. But somehow nothing about the entire experience made me want to go back again. If anything else the Beef noodle soup was the standout experience. There were other items which seemed interesting but for the life of me dont know if I will ever be back there again.

Also they don't have a liquor license which is a shame. If ever there was a need for some good sake or wine then their food deserves it.

In sum good food, good service, price is what you'd expect to pay in this area....

Brittania On My Mind

oh Brittania. Imagine a restaurant thats open from 11.30 am to 3.00 pm (or till food lasts) Monday to Saturday. Does not open on Sunday and never in the night. Brittania is all of this and still serves the best Irani/Persian/Parsi food that I know of.  To have the mutton berry pulav is getting as close to paradise as possible. My recommendation is to go with a group of 3-4 friends and then do the time honoured thing of ordering multiple dishes and sharing. My recommended menu at brittania is as Sali Boti (Lots more Sali nowadays which is not something I like), Mutton Berry Pulav (Chicken or Veg is also good but somehow Mutton ranks right up there), Fried Bombil (It's done the Bawa way here and done insanely well), Patra Ni Machi (Dunno if it's a daily thing) and then some Mutton Cutlets. (Warning that of late the cutlets are served with a very tomatoey gravy which detracts. If I wanted tamatar gravy would go to a bloody Punju joint). All of this has to be washed down with Duke's Lemonade. A Mangola is permitted also but Lemonade is bliss. The upside of going with 3-4 people is that you eat very well as well as can sample the best of Brittania. If perchance the berry pulav does not appeal (Hey it takes all sorts) the mutton dhanshak or the prawn curry rice is also highly recommended. Last but not the least is to wrap up things with the Caramel Custard. Its insanely great.

Deli delicious Ast

Apologies for the long delay but been a bit tied up. Quick round up of places where I have dined in this period. Will get a review together whenever I can
Excellensea
Brittania
Indigo Deli x 2
Sharada Bhavan
Ananda Bhavan

Suffice it to say that life has been good dining wise.....

Brun Maska and Chai

The sweet pleasures of Mumbai life. The bliss of having chai and brun maska is something which I miss. And having a classic Irani close by is double bliss. The minor pleasures of walking in. Going to the regular table (Oh the bliss of actually having a regular table) and having the waiter bring you the chai. And it is so much more blissful when you are all aglow with the healthiness of having walked a kilometer to have it. Nothing beats it. Not even the incessant inaneness of bratty mothers screaming for their kheema pav or inflecting their baby gossip on you......

Idle Thoughts of a bored stomach

Having spent 3 years plus away from Mumbai I returned about 3 weeks ago. In the recent past trips back have always been revisits to the same old places since the time to explore was minimal. But and this is a extremely big but now that I am back (hopefully for good)there seem to be very few places to explore. The food scene in the BMC limits seems to be dead. What gives ?