Loco Chino invited me for a round of tasting at their fort outlet. My father is a Mexican food lover and this was the best chance for him to debut in a tasting session alongside his otherwise experienced son (as far as food tasting is concerned :P). He picked me up from near the Churchgate station and we headed towards the Loco Chino outlet with the aid of the Google Maps lady. Here is my take on: Continue reading
First things first, reservations recommended. We committed the sin of not doing that and had to wait for roughly 40 minutes. The staff was not too firm or clear on the estimated time.
Now, it is not correct to judge a restaurant offering North Indian food only on the vegetarian count so I will update this soon with chicken delicacies tasted.
Now the food, first came the Paneer Tikka, standard stuff. Nothing extraordinary. Expected better and a bit more rustic stuff. Then came the Achari Aloo*ting-ding-ding*. We have a winner here. Baby Potatoes, boiled but not peeled, in a delicious spicy achari masala making up for the Paneer Tikka.
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The place is quite big with a partially open kitchen which doesn’t face any tables. The tables are at some height and so are the chairs. Well lit up and quite a vibrant ambiance.
We were given the menu which is quite thin. It was punched and tied by ribbons and my menu had a few pages coming out. They should probably look into having a better way of presenting the menu.
Starting with the dishes, we ordered the Bruschetta ( The Veg version) first. The basil was laid first on the bread, followed by cherry tomatoes and olives. It was well seasoned and very nicely toasted.
As we sipped on our mohitos and lemon sodas, it took 25 minutes for the next course to arrive. Out came the Roast Vegetable Lasagne and their version of KBC which stands for Kebab, Biryani and Curry. Continue reading
Dinner was delivered piping hot in well packed containers. The containers read ‘The Curry House’. Approached to try out their offerings (here’s the disclaimer 😉 ), I was quite excited to dig into the wonderful looking North Indian fare.
Started off with the Paneer Sufiyani Tikka, a decent beginning to the meal. It tasted good, mildly spicy and full of flavour. A refreshing change from the standard Paneer Tikka as this one was coriander-based.
Humble beginnings often lead to great endings.
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It was friendship’s day. We didn’t really have a concrete dinner plan in place. It was decided that we would meet for dinner in Oshiwara and that’s it. After some thought, we took a table at Lucknowi Legacy. I have crossed this place quite many times and from the outside, it looks royal. The name also has some kind of a royal connect. Here is my take on:
The Ambience: Like I said, it appears all very royal from the outside. However, the place loses its royalty factor the moment you seat yourself inside. Some dim chandeliers enhance the look of the place. However, there ain’t any attractive decor or interiors. The seating is simple but good comprising of sofas and tables. We were seated close to a leaking AC but we were promptly shifted. Negative marks for the crockery used and their menu card. Plastic or melamine plates and a laminated, spiral bound menu card reflects a rather substandard “legacy”.
Movie & Lunch was the plan for Saturday. The movie was decided & the tickets were booked but we couldn’t finalise the place for lunch. After exploring & eliminating all the options close to PVR Juhu, we decided to visit The Silver Beach Café.
This café was on my soon-to-visit list for a while. Had been reading the reviews of this place & was really looking forward to our visit. Walking distance from PVR Juhu/Shoppers Stop, The Silver Beach café is located in a residential lane. From the outside it looks like a small little place & it is a small little place J Ages ago this café used to be a small store, I was told. I had called to check if a table for 2 is available before we landed there. It was Saturday & I didn’t have any reservations – so decided to check.
After watching an interesting play at Prithvi Theatre we decided to try some place different to eat apart from the usual Prithvi cafe. A quick search on Zomato led us to this place. After an eventful 20 minute ride, we reached the destination. The place stands apart from the neighborhood. It’s a small, vibrant cafe and we hoped our long ride to the cafe better be worth it.
AMBIANCE
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The lively atmosphere with a mix of good songs and bright colors cheers you up almost instantly. The walls are covered with graffiti arts. One of the highlights of the ambiance are the table tops. All of the table tops are painted differently and some of them have quotes too. My personal favorite was the fusion of batman and joker (check the images).
Each table also has a deck of UNO cards. They also have various other board games. You can also ask for other games depending on the liking of your gang. The servers are knowledgeable and can help you teach a game 😄
FOOD
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Having all set with our UNO cards, we decided to get started with food.
We ordered 3 dishes: crunch chicken (INR 209), Non veg Alfredo pasta (INR 299), Paneer Steak Gunzanio sizzler (INR 299).
Crunch chicken : This extra crunchy oven fried chicken was an instant favorite. The extra crispy added to the joy of eating. We’re too busy eating and almost forgot about our UNO game.
Next came Alfredo pasta. Light seasoned grilled chicken tossed in a rich creamy white sauce over a bed of hot penne pasta. The white creamy sauce made our day.
For the main course we decided Paneer Steak Gunzanio Sizzler. It was paneer Steak in pepper sauce served along with fettuccini pasta, fries and veggies. The paneer was soft, perhaps a tad too soft and crumbled into pieces once we started tearing it apart. The fries could’ve been crisper. Overall I would rate this as an average dish.
SERVICE
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The service was quick and the server was knowledgeable about the menu and of course various board games.
FINAL VERDICT:
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* Food: 3.5/5
* Ambiance: 4/5
* Service: 4/5
* VFM: 4/5
* Overall: 4/5
Crossposted at http://sushant-hiray.me/food-trail/
Continuing to explore new places, this time as a part of our ERR meet, we decided to give TAP a try. It was a Saturday and we met for lunch. I fortunately managed to reach just in time, before food was about to be ordered.
REACHING TAP:
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Can’t help traveling so much to satisfy my taste buds, almost all awesome food places are in Western line and I stay back on the central one. About a kilometer away from the Bandra railway station, the mall is pretty easy to find once you catch a rick. Well the trouble started here. Without giving a thought I entered the mall, only realizing later that the entrance is from outside the mall. Just outside the mall, there is a small banner signifying the way inside. Moving through a small alley, you reach near a lift, which takes you the final destination.
AMBIANCE:
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Enter inside and you are greeted by a fleet of stairs. The surrounding wall is adorned with hangings of b&w pictures of some of the most greatest artists of all time and their famous quotes. If you’re a sport freak, with quite a high probability you might find your sports idol up there too 🙂 Finally after a not so long ascend, you find the reception and a couple of variants of seating arrangements, open and a closed one. I inquired and found that our gang is waiting inside, so did not venture to give a look to the other seating. There was a mix of arrangement inside too. There was a half sofa- chair combination, on the other end you could also find some high table-stool combination.
Apart from this, the menu card also holds a special attraction. It has differential albeit static pricing menu. So the prices vary according to the day and time. Three categories – cheapest one during the day, next during Sun-Thurs, and the most expensive on Fri-Sat. Interesting pricing structure, I would give them that. The menu also spans three categories: Mexican, Continental and Indian.
FOOD:
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Starters: For the vegans we ordered the TAP Special Veg Platter and the others ordered Non-Veg Tex Mex Platter. The non-veg variant included Chicken Tenders, Chicken Skewers, Chicken Wings and Fries. The fries were crispy. Chicken wings was the take from the non-veg platter, it was succulent, deep fried to a perfect golden brown. The chicken skewers and tenders were strictly okay, couldn’t eat beyond a single piece.
The veg platter comprised of Tex Mex Rolls, Onion Rings, Stuffed Mushrooms, Bruschetta and fries. The veg platter was almost inconsistent with the preparation made. Onion rings weren’t the expected golden brown color. Slightly over fried. The Bruschetta was decent, it had chopped tomatoes and olives. Having suffered a twin blow, I refrained from trying the veg platter further.
Next the vegans ordered Teriyani Paneer Burger, Naughty Nachos and we ordered Murgh Ghilafi Seekh Kabab.
Teriyani Paneer Burger: One of the best presented dishes of the day. The greased butter on the upper bun gave a shiny look. The dripping of teriyaki sauce almost gave it a foodgasmic look. Well that was perhaps the best part about it. It was just an average burger. The teriyaki burger didn’t have a slightest hint of taste of teriyaki.
Naughty Nachos: Well there is nothing much left to comment when Nachos have ppm (read parts per million) cheese. The chips were just fine and crispy. This dish was competing for the biggest disaster for the day.
Murgh Gilafi Seekh Kebab: It was the highlight of the entire affair. Served with green chutney, it just looked awesome with little traces of red, yellow and green pepper. It added to the taste as well. It was literally unresistable. One of my mates who was just out from a root canal couldn’t stop herself from trying it *_*
Drinks: We ordered for a series of mocktails. Priced at INR 109 these seemed to be decent fare. I had ordered a Tornado which was quite refreshing after a long travel to the restaurant.
SERVICE:
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I would say it was not the best day for their service. The servers had to be reminded a couple of times to give the menu cards. Also there was quite a bit of fumbling with the orders.
FINAL VERDICT:
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Ambiance: 4/5
Food: 3/5
Service: 2/5
VFM: 3/5
Overall: 3.5/5
Biryani Affair is an exclusive take-away place. The menu of Biryani Affair is absolutely filmy & we loved the names of the dishes. Short, sweet & extremely crisp menu makes the decision process really easy. Let me begin with saying – I had the smoothest ordering experience with Biryani Affair. The person taking the order was extremely cordial, knew all the details of the dishes, helped us choose the dishes & took the address correctly. A Big Thumbs Up!!!!!!
We ordered for Shah Jahan – Mumtaz Mahal Dumpukht Mutton Biryani (With Bones), Khandaani Dumpukth Chicken Biryani (With Bones) and Makhni Paneer Masala. We didn’t order for any paratha/roti, etc as we had them at home. Continue reading
This review is a special one ☺
Holachef reached-out to us ERR to review their service. Another 1st for our group ERR (Eat Review Repeat).
Holachef is an online food-ordering platform, where they work with home chef’s to provide a unique menu everyday. You can choose from the 3 courses – Lunch, Snacks & Dinner. To begin with the site is easy to navigate & very user friendly. You need to choose your area pincode from the list & the menu comes up. Then choose the meal & the list of dishes available for that meal is displayed. Each dish is described well along with the chef details & the cost. Click on the quantity you wish to order & the same get added to the cart. Once you order is placed, make the payment & done !!!!!! You will get your food as per the selected time slot. Continue reading
Eat. Review. Repeat 