This place holds a special place in my heart. The story that I am gonna pen down over here is one of a kind and I can bet, you won’t get to read such a story for a long long time.
Offside is located very close to the famous “Chakli Circle” of Vadodara. This place is spread out on the first floor of Kanchan Building. A question might have just popped up “Why is this guy making this review so unnecessarily detailed?”. Kanchan building’s first floor used to belong to my cousin’s family. We’ve had beautiful memories in that house. Every summer vacation, we used to visit Vadodara and stay there. A few years back, this very building was proposed to be commercialised and the residents rehabilitated themselves. Our primary motive of visiting this place was to sit and have a meal in that very house where we have had a million beautiful memories and flow in the river of nostalgia. Structurally, nothing had changed. We entered from the “Computer room”. Our cousin’s room was converted into a kitchen and we took seat in their “Dada-dadi” room. Here is my take on:
The Ambience: Off side is categorised as a lounge or a sports bar. But, I am afraid its ambience is nowhere close to one. Just because you have a big screen showing some high level sporting action does not mean it is a sports bar. The interiors are way too simple. Nothing funky at all. Plain white walls with a couple of no-eyeball-catching frames here and there. Tiny, one coloured halogen lights embedded in the ceiling above. A small bar counter (a mocktails counter actually). We got to sit on a couple of sofas surrounding the table in an L-shape. The seating arrangements were basic. The music was not up to the mark and the crowd was family-type. They were gonna screen an IPL match that evening on their big screen. However, we could only see the match and there was no sound. So, even the match viewing experience was killed.
The Food: First came the Nachos with Beans and Cheese (INR 200). The first look of the nachos was not impressive. Pale yellow thick cheese and sparsely spread light brown beans. The first dig at the nachos stood by the first look. The cheese was way too thick and granulated. The beans were overcooked and tasteless. The tortilla chips beneath were strictly okay. All of this was topped with grated Amul Processed cheese. NO! That’s it! How much can you ruin a dish? A disappointing start to the meal.
Next came the Mexican Bhel (INR 140). Our dear friend had tried this one before and he recommended this to us. Super stuff. An amazing mix of mexican ingredients to make a bhel. Boiled kidney beans, american corn, crushed tortillas, chopped onions, tomatoes and capsicum mixed well with lime juice, chaat masala, salsa sauce and a sprinkle of oregano. I am gonna try making this at home sometime. Really loved it! It was a 3 hour long match and hence, we were ordering for all the food stuffs and drinks in parts.
After a while, we called for the Garlic Mushrooms (INR 180). What I feel is that the person making this dish was in a dilemma. He wasn’t sure whether he was making a oriental dish or a mexican one. The mushrooms were big and way too juicy, so much that my friend’s first prick with the fork squirted out some water directly onto my pants. The red sauce in which they were tossed gave a mexican touch. However, the first bite revealed a very prominent taste of garlic and the tanginess was badly missing. There were some finely chopped bell peppers in there. It was okayish overall.
We then called for a Bistro Salad (INR 140) which comprised of fresh slices of mushrooms, yellow and green zucchini and onions in a yellowish mayo dressing. Again, this was their in house thing. A desperate salad. The mayo dressing was too less and all we could taste was the veggies. Not impressive.
Then came the Veg Lasagna (INR 270). The best was in store for the last. This was the highlight of our meal. The lasagna was brilliant. The pasta sheets were boiled well, neither too hard, nor too soft. The sheets were filled with a lovely spinach based kidney beans gravy with some chopped veggies in it. There was oodles of molten cheese poured from the top in the baking dish and it was then baked to perfection yielding a slight brownish texture on the top. Simply amazing!
A string of Mocktails were called for. Coconut Pineapple Driver (INR 110), Kiwi Delight (INR 140), Peach Bull (INR 140), Red Strawberry (INR 140), Tornado Twist (INR 110), Vanilla Cinnamon Coffee (INR 110) and Virgin Bullito (INR 140). In their bill and menu card, they have spelt “virgin” as “virjin”. It should not be intentional. And yes, that was a turn off!
The mocktails were brilliant. I tried the Virgin Bullito and Red Strawberry both of which were drinks made from Redbull. Considering the energy drink content and the glass size and the taste, these mocktails are very reasonably priced. Similar Mocktails back in mumbai tend to burn a hole in your pocket.
The Service: I found it to be a little slow. However, the staff was courteous and warm.
Money’s worth: The comparison with Mumbai and the prices there is kind of unavoidable and that’s where we see the surge in the VFM factor. Rs. 2056 between 4 people is fantastic considering the string of mocktails that were called for.
Final Scorecard:
1. On the Ambience front:
a. Lighting – 6/10
b. Seating – 7/10
c. Decor – 4/10
d. Music – 3/10
2. On the Food front:
a. Taste – 6/10
b. Presentation – 7/10
c. Quantity – 7/10
d. Quality – 7/10
3. On the Service Front:
a. Promptness – 5/10
b. Courtesy – 8/10
c. Efficiency – 6/10
4. Value for Money: 8/10
Final Word: This place is not a lounge. Neither is this place a sports bar. Its more of a family restaurant. If you are thinking about catching with some sporting action with a group of friends, I doubt you will be able to have a good time. The music should be foot tapping and the place should have its own euphoria in order to qualify as a lounge. A sports bar should ensure the best match viewing experience and the absence of audio is bound to hamper all of it. The food is decent. This place needs to work on their ambience – big time. Else, remove the word “Lounge” from the name and that will make things simple.
Eat. Review. Repeat 