Sky View Café

I love food tasting invitations. They kind of overwhelm me. Food overwhelms me. The PR team of Sky View extended a warm invite which I gladly accepted. The name sets up a scene of some kind of a rooftop restaurant right in the midst of the concrete jungle of Lower Parel with sky high towers encircling it in a huddle. That’s however not the case really. We reached by around 8:30 pm and the guard at the gate of the Kamla Mill Compound informed us about the unreasonable parking charge of Rs.150 which could be set off against a minimum billing of Rs.1,000 at any of the restaurants in the compound. We chose to park on the road outside. Here is my take on:

Villa Vandre by Tanvi Oak

The thing about breakfast places is that they have a reserved place in my heart (and stomach) and they usually determine the rest of my day. So when I headed to Villa Vandre for breakfast, it was safe to say that my day was a good one!

The place is slightly tiny but very welcoming, it has about 5 tables so you mostly end up waiting outside. While we waited for about 15 minutes, I ordered some Peach Iced Tea and it’s probably the FIRST place to get it right. Very little sweet with perfect amount of ice and a refreshing flavour.

Peach Iced Tea

When we finally got our seats, I chose to order the huge Villa Vandre Breakfast and trust me, you DO need an appetite to finish it. There’s quite a few options to make your breakfast, I went with Scrambled eggs, chicken sausage and bacon. The Scrambled eggs were nice and runny as I had requested which they perfected to my palette and the sausage was soft and very juicy on the inside. The bacon didn’t particularly please me as they fried it a tad bit much which gave it the burnt flavour.

The Traditional Breakfast

I particularly like the toast they serve which are two huge slices of bread and I could only finish one. I nibbled on a bit of the French Toast Tanvi Kataria had ordered and though she didn’t quite enjoy it, I loved it! That’s definitely my order the next time instead of the Villa Vandre breakfast. The juice that accompanied my breakfast was a Watermelon juice and it was pretty nice too, wasn’t too dilute so; yay!

French Toast

Now, to heaven. Sushant Hiray ordered the Cheese and Ham omelette and I do not exaggerate when I say that the cheese was so divine that it literally made me smile when I stuffed it in my mouth. There was an overload of cheese so much so that strands of cheese literally had to be separated manually! Good choices in life.

Cheese Omlette

To end the meal, we ordered the Pancakes with Maple syrup. That could have been a bit more fluffy and we also found it slightly undercooked. Maybe, it was just that once as I’ve heard nice things about their Pancakes otherwise.

Pancakes with Maple syrup

On another occasion I happened to try some other dishes. We tried the Raspberry drink there and it was slightly on the sweeter side which is why I didn’t quite reach the bottom on the glass.

Raspberry

For the mains, I ordered the Aglio Olio pasta with chicken and I think it’s actually the first non-cream pasta that had me craving for more. Also, they are very generous with all the toppings so I’m definitely giving them a thumbs up for that. The moment I had my first bite, I could taste the subtle flavours coupled with plenty of butter. Divine. The next dish was the Seeded Tune Bagel Sandwich which is not quite appetizing. The bagel was burnt way too much due to which it was bitter and it literally hurt to chew it. Two bites are all I had. It’s a definite no-no.

Seeded Tune Bagel Sandwich

Aglio Olio Pasta with Chicken

Love the service, love the cosy atmosphere. A definite try for a wholesome breakfast. Food gets a 7/10 from my side.

Bombay Blues (Phoenix Market City)

Bombay Blues has been a part of Mumbai since those days when it was called “Bombay” (I still prefer calling it Bombay). This chain is decades old and it belongs to the same group that owns Cream Center, New Yorkers, Copper Chimney, etc. Back in school, the day exams got over, the whole group used to have lunch at Bombay Blues. It was somewhat a tradition. This time, we were a group of around 20 to 25 people. We had had a fantastic Bowling session in the mall. Lifting those 10 pound balls required an effort and at the end of the game, we were all extremely hungry. There was a 25 minute waiting period in Cream Center. Exactly above cream center, we saw this Bombay Blue outlet which had the tables ready to accommodate all of us. No second thoughts were given. We went in and took our seats. Here is my take on:

Cream Centre, Lower Parel.

Cream Centre has been a part of Mumbai since much more than a couple of decades now. What I remember is that I had my first exposure to Italian and Mexican cuisine over here. Also, this is the first place where I had the Sizzling Brownie with ice cream speaking of which, I can recollect that significantly burnt tongue. It was a consequence of taking the first bite in haste. As an aftermath, the taste buds of my tongue were numbed for quite many days. In all these many years of its existence, this iconic place has had its own share of highs and lows. In the wake of severe competition, I see them struggling and striving hard for survival. It was a random weekday lunch plan with some awesome newly made friends right before our training session. Here is my take on:

Joey’s Pizza (Malad)

My 2^nd time at Joey’s. Have tried their Andheri outlet once and I had an awe-freaking-some experience. No doubt they are among one of the best pizza guys in town. It was a weekday. I had a couple of dear ones from Vadodara visiting Mumbai. They are pizza freaks. We all are. You just cannot hate pizza. Weekday, lunchtime and we get a 20-minute waiting period. I guess that tells a lot about this place. Here is my take on:

The Ambience: Very simple. Nothing fancy at all. No frills. Standard tables and chairs, standard lightings and interiors and below standard plastic type plates. It’s quite a cramped place.

Smaaash…!!!

The guy gang decided to meet up on a weekday, post working hours. Since most of them work around lower parel, we decided to meet up at smaaash. The sports freaks were in a mood to thrash some of the legendary international bowlers and even get beaten by their mind-blowing deliveries. We were a group of 7 and we called for all the food while playing 2 hours of cricket. Here is my take on:

WOW Popcorn by Meghana

Popcorn & Movies – One of the best & favourite combinations ☺ Flavoured popcorn’s with more than the basic salted/chilli/caramel flavour’s without the movie & which is already made you – possible? Yes ☺

WOW Popcorn

The busy carter road lane dominated by Lebanese food shops now has a good option to satisfy your sweet and salty cravings at once. The freshly made Popcorn can tantalize anyones smell and taste buds instantly. The variety of toppings that goes with simple and irresistible popcorn makes it a perfect movie or TV time snack.

With an aim to bring the WOW experience into the city, Mumbai’s one-of-its kind popcorn outlet chain WOW Popcorn came into existence on April 28th, 2013.

The highest quality of ingredients and best technology are used to make quality products keeping the health factor in mind.

Say Cheese

The size of the shop of pretty small and is meant only for takeaways and in case one wants to eat inside, he/she has to stand and eat. The order taker Alex was polite and had a very good knowledge about each and every variety of popcorn available in the store. He informed that on weekdays popcorns are made in two batches and on weekends when the takeaways and home deliveries are more they cook in 3 batches.

Most of the varieties takes 15-20 minutes for the preparation but the caramel ones consumes the highest time to cook. Most of the items are cooked oil free but few drops are used while garnishing.

Mumbai Cheese Tadka

Alex served samples in tiny little glasses. The Salted Bolted (Plain Salted Popcorn) were made to perfection and had the perfect salt taste in them. Utter Butter Flutter (Butter Salted) were a bit disappointing as the butter taste was clearly missing in them. Sizzling pudina were scrumptious and had a refreshing taste of mint in it. The cheese popcorn were an absolute delight to eat. The taste was a light fresh cheesy melt in your mouth experience. Cheddar cheese was of the highest quality was used in it. The Mumbai cheese tadka had little less cheese in it and additional flavors of chili and black pepper was present in it.

Mexicano

The flavor of the season- Mexicano had a good tangy taste in it mostly because of the jalapenos. The garlic flavor was hardly felt in it. Everyone’s favorite Caramel popcorn was crispy instead of being sticky like found at the most theatre places.

The puffs were properly covered with caramel and tasted heavenly. The Cocomello had a dark chocolate spread on the caramel popcorn. Instant favorite of all the chocolate lovers out there.

The unique flavors of WOW popcorn are on the expensive side but they surely will send your senses to the 7th heaven if you order the correct ones. Do try their cheese and caramel products, you shall definitely love them. At the end I was given a WOW box of caramel popcorn as a small gift.

Overall Rating (Out of 10):

Food: 8
Ambience: 4
Service: 6
Value for money: 8

{ERR were invited by WOW Popcorn to review their service}

Caramel