Up in the Sky...

Review: Sky Cafe

Alfresco dining is not a very popular choice in Mumbai. Two reasons for this 1) not many options 2) its too hot most of the year. But with the weather getting cooler by the day (yesterday Mumbai was 11 degrees, yes 11 degrees and yeah in Mumbai), its great to share a meal under the starry sky.

Sky Cafe is one such place. Located bang opposite my favourite cinema hall Sterling, Sky Cafe is actually the porch to FreeMason Hall at Fort. Am sure the word freemason reminds you of t'he sting operation on the Roman Catholic Church novel' - 'The Da Vinci Code'. So is Freemason a secret cult? I would say more like a Machiavellian cult based on the principles of ‘humanity and brotherhood’. But this would make another topic of discussion, for now lets discuss Sky Cafe and it’s food.

The decor of this Cafe is simple, lots of plants around, blue and white mosaic chipped tables and wooden chairs.  On a hot summer day you need those several wall fans and coolers facing you but on a winter night you would need a stoll and warm holding someones hand to keep you warm. A perfect setting for a romantic meal!

The menu is a mix of middle eastern food with mezze and shwarma, Chinese with burnt garlic fried rice and European with Pastas & Risottos.

We start of the with Cream of Mushroom and Almond Soup – the creamy thick broth was beautiful almost silky however the only thing disappointing was that there were no chunks of mushrooms.

We move on to the Chicken Khowsuey – with a colour so saffron, the Shiv Sena would be put to shame! However it was not all that bad, it had a slight zesty flavour to it but not the authentic ‘Busaba or Joss’ one you would expect.

We move on to Penne Romano – penne in a creamy white sauce topped with broccoli and French beans – scrumptious and cooked a la dente. Pair it with the garlic bread and you would know why Bryan Adams sings ‘Cloud no 9’

The next was the Pan Fried Chicken in Paprika Cream with Spaghetti – while both the grilled chicken and spaghetti seem to be delectable separately they didn’t go well together as a combination!

For drinks we had the Virgin Mojito which was nice and refreshing.

A meal at Sky Cafe would cost anywhere between Rs 200 - 350

Verdict:

Food: Good, Sasta ne Saaru!

Ambience: Beautiful

Service: A bit Slow

Quick Tip: Great for a quiet alfresco meal, serves some good variety and inexpensive food which is quiet a rarity in Mumbai. Must go in this weather!!

The Co-ordinates:

Sky Cafe

Where: Freemasons Hall, Marzban Road, Fort , Mumbai

Tring Tring: 22055557, 22055558

Timings: 12:00 PM to 11:30 PM

Food Type: Chinese, Continental & Middle Eastern

Payment Methods: Credit cards accepted

La Dolce Vita

Review: Mezzo Mezzo

Yes Culinary Muse has been living La Dolce Vita or the Good Life lately. It almost like Fergie singing G.L.A.M.O.U.R.O.U.S in the background! She has dining (and wining) at Mumbai’s finest places! And the latest to join her list is the celebrity Italian Restorante at JW Marriott – Mezzo Mezzo.

With it’ dim (read: close to nil lighting) and wooden flooring (that went tock tock with her heals), you’d believe you are on the sets of God Father with the mysterious music playing in the background et all.

As for the food, here goes Culinary Muse’ take

 Citrus & Herb Marinated Alaskan Sea Scallops

Picolli Morsi or as they say Small bites  -  We started with the Citrus & Herb Marinated Alaskan Sea Scallops – juicy chunks of the fish marinated in this divine herb and zesty limoncello -  tasted just beautiful. The next Proscuitto San Danielle – Shaved Parma Ham with Warm Buffalo Mozzarella – the rusty saltiness of the parma ham combined with slightly bland mozrella was amazing. Then was the Pizza Biance Con Rucola – a delicious pizza sans any tomato sauce just Mozrella and Cream topped with the picante taste of rocket salad – brilliant again (Check out Chefs Corner for the Recipe & World Cafe for more about the dish). Not thats what I call exotic yet tasty. Who would say that Italian food is bland.

Proscuitto San Danielle

Wine - Alessandro Comin, Maitre D'Hotel suggested we pair this course  with Wine Zardetto Procesco Brut NV (Rs 700 per glass), a sparkling wine. Though it had a nice fruity flavour to it, I personally found the Vini too dry.

Primi Piatti (First Course) – We then moved on to the first course where we had two kinds of Pasta’s-  Rigatoni in tomato based sauce – giant flat pasta in a tomato consomme with braised egg plant and fresh ricotta – I thought this needed some more flavour or seasoning to it. The next one was a Giant Shell with Chantralle Mushrooms, Truffle Cream Sauce – ambroasial flavours of truffle cream cheese with the mildly peppery taste of the chantrelle mushrooms! However Culinary Muse thought that pasta was a bit thick and doughy.

Wine – We paired this with Ferragamo Family Estate II (yes Salvatore Ferragamo) Borro lamelle 2008 (Rs 750 per glass). The wine was straw yellow in colour and had an intense floral and peach taste to it with a hint of vanilla. Brilliant! Now this is the kind of wine Culinary Muse would love to get high on!

Secondi Piatti -  For the second course we start with Branzino al Forno in Guazzetto di Marre (thats a mouthful I know)– roasted Sea Bass Fillet, Clams, Mussels & Shrimps in a sort of white wine broth – I loved what the white wine did for all the sea food – just enhancing the flavours and not over powering them. Delectable. The New Zealand Rack of Lamb, however had some great flavour with perfectly mashed potatoes but was too rare and it took CM hell of time trying to cut through it. (almost felt like butchering it all over again). The meat was also quiet chewy

Wine – Again a  Ferragamo Family Estate II Borro Pian di Nova 2007 (Rs 600 per glass) was a ruby red in colour.It had this spicy taste to it that didn’t impress CM much!

Dessert – For desert we had the Classic Tiramisu – a bit sweet Italian delicacy – think I had too much of coffee powder on mine, the Mango Tiramisu however added different dimension, quite a welcoming one I would say. But a must have dessert was the Calzone - kanranji shaped bread filled with Nutella – one bite into it and you know what paradise would taste like!

Verdict:

Food: Excellent

Ambience: The God Father with music et all

Service: Good

A 4 course meal without Vini (Wine) at Mezzo Mezzo would cost Rs 2500 aprox plus taxes

Quicktip: To get a taste of authentic Italian supper Mezzo Mezzo is the place. Culinary Muse would it rank amongst the top three places in Mumbai where you could get a fix of Italian khaana.  Do try the seafood there, the scallops are to die for!

You Sang To Me Under the 'Banyan Tree'

Review: Banyan Tree Bakery+Café, Fort

(not to be confused with Under The Banyan Tree at Peddar Road)

 

“All the while you were in front of me I never realized
I just can't believe I didn't see it in your eyes
I didn't see it, I can't believe it
Oh but I feel it
When you sing to me”

I enter this café on a hot summer afternoon and Marc Anthony sounding sonorous as ever is crooning about his moment of epiphany, of finally finding his love. He says he couldn’t see it but he feels it, when she sings to him. Am thinking - Good Music: Check. And I am definitely with someone whom I would love to listen to sing to me. Good Company: Check.



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Located a little ahead of my favourite cinema, Sterling (because seeing a movie there is not like eating a five star restaurant and one can still afford a samosa and popcorn in the intervals without getting broke for the entire next week unlike some hoity toity cinema (read Inox), Banyan Tree is a quaint café cum bakery and a part of renowned artist Bose Krishnamachari’s gallery BMB. The concept is not new with Jehangir Art Gallery Banyan Tree gives you this artsy feel the moment you enter it, you know the kind you get when you watch a Rahul Bose or a Nandita Das movie. There is a small book shelf right at the entrance displaying books or variety of subjects like art and culture along chic merchandise like tote bags for sale.

Blackened Chicken Satay

We take seat on these minimalistic yet spacious chairs, a wooden table with menu ahead of us. At the first glance the menu has quite an impressive spread with Mezze Platters, Asian styled appertisers to soups and salads, grilled and baked range to pastas and pizzas. To begin with we order for a Malabar Cooler and the Blackened Chicken Satay. The Malabar Cooler a mixture of coconut water, mint leaves and lime was rejuvenating is this  blazing Summer of 2011. The Blackened Chicken Satay however is overly spiced with peppercorns. It tasted like chicken satay mixed with chicken chilly. That’s a lot of confusion for the taste buds

Corkscrew Pasta

Our next dish is the Corkscrew Pasta (wonder where it got that name from) which is a fiery cheese and paprika based fusilli pasta. Brilliant flavours of Chantilly flavoured cheese asparagous, piquat paprika and artichokes. The dish is served with a sizable bun that is copiously dripping of butter and is mildly flavoured with garlic and oregano. Garlic Bread with some zing. But it definitely tastes brilliant with the pasta.

Garlic Bread

Our next dish was the Penne Arrabiata –  mildly flavoured however the shitake mushrooms just spoils the whole dish. Not recommended for the Arabiata fans. We ask for the Olive Prawns. However the waiter comes back saying that it is not available so we try the Green Thai Curry instead. Quite a disappointment the curry was milky and bland quite unlike Thai Curry.

On the whole the food is pretty average, but the ambience of this is brilliant. The Corkscrew Pasta is a must have here. Quite a reasonable affait with an average meal for 2 costing Rs 500/-

Verdict

Food: Average

Staff: Friendly but mismanaged

Ambience: Exellent

QuickTip: if your fed up of the CCDs and baristas drop in for the Corkscrew Pasta with someone you would love to listen to sing, if you know what I mean ;)

The Co-ordinates

The Banyan Tree

Gallery BMB, Queens Mansion, GT Marg, Near Cathedral School, Fort
Mumbai

Ph: +91-22-65109308

9 AM to 11:30 PM

Foodies Haven? Or Just the Lookalike....

Review: Villa 39

SoBo’s newest chic ristorante, Villa 39, is the closest you can get to depicting heaven in India or on our planet for that matter. If you’ve already been there, then you know what I am saying if you’ve’ not am about to make myself clear. WHITE –  is the colour of the flooring, the sofas & other seating, the curtains, windows, walls and even the cutlery. Everything at this place is ivory, milky, pearly white. Located at Amarchand Mansion Villa’s precedents have been the famous Golden Gate & Flags. Brainchild of first time entrepreneur Kaajal Fabiani, a lot of detail seems to have gone into designing this place.

Pristine

Fluid

Minimalistic

These are the first things that came to my mind when I set foot here. It was a Monday afternoon an unlikely day & time to lunch out I know, but August 23^rd  is special day and this elegant eatery was a natural choice. Immediately after we were seated on the 1^st floor in a pearly divano (sofa), I couldn’t help but notice this wall of wine right across me. Exhibiting wine as object d’art, the wall has different types of wine well spaced and stacked. Quite different from the usual miniature wine cellars that one sees at today’s fine dining places. This was something you could go to with the maitre d’, look through, get some details and choose your poison.

Getting down to the food, we started with soup. Wait! before we move on to that let’s just rewind a bit, starting with the seating – pearly white as I mentioned earlier, the table is well laid out with ivory colored plates & sparkling silverware. Lots of sparking silverware I would say. Yes if you have been to a finishing school and learnt how to eat with those different types of spoon, knives & forks and you would like to practice your skill this is the place. For me I hardly know how to operate these things, but one tip I learnt is moving from inwards that is your first course cutlery will be always kept the outermost on both sides from your plate.

Anyhow let’s get down to business, we order for the food.  In the meantime they get us a bread basket with assorted breads. So we chomp on some bread dipped in the heavenly mixture of Olive Oil and Vinegar. If you’re wondering about this odd combination try it the next you go to an Italian restaurant - Make a puddle of olive oil in your plate the size of a golf ball and add about 2 or 3 small drops of vinegar one it. Dip your bread in the mixture and eat. It’s a great combination. The caustic taste of vinegar merges with woody flavor of the olive oil to give you a balsamic combination.

Our soups arrive, the first one - Mushroom Cappuccino, a frothy broth of mushrooms which is quite a delight. Served with a lavache on the side, it is a little bland but you will be offered some ground pepper to add some pizzazz to it. The Minestrone, a tomato based creamy soup is too thick and filling. The other one the  Asparagus Soup, served with small bread doled with some cream cheese and an asparagus stem, is also nice, a bit bland again but then again you know what you need.

We order for a portion of Bruchettas , fresh tomato finely diced tomatoes, pepper and cilantro make a beautiful combination. What I like is that it is not gooey that kind it gets otherwise. We move on to the Pizza. We order for a half and half combination (thank god for that option) of Margherita and Chicken Ham. They both are pretty bland. The Chicken Ham specially doesn’t impress us.

Then our Pasta arrives. A little dope I learnt about Italian food - incase of the main course, your plate should be piping hot so that the cheese of Italian cuisine (most of Italian cuisine has loads of it ) remains molten and does not solidify and become difficult to eat and swallow due to its heaviness. Villa 39 disappointed us in this case. Our plates were not hot or even lukewarm. However, the first one Penne Mamarosa a pink sause (combination of red and white) is ambrosial. Not too tomato or too creamy, a perfect combination of both and a little sweet. The Pesto Pasta one is a bit disappointing, quite tasteless if I may say and lacks the nutty flavor that pesto should have. The Spinach & Cottage cheese cannelloni also was quite unsavory, with hardly any flavor.

All an all, a pretty average place with not so average price. The per head cost would come upto minimum 800/- and with alchohol minium of Rs. 1000/-  plus taxes. Villa also offers a Sunday Brunch 11:30 - 4:00 it costs Rs 2,200 plus taxes

Verdict

Food: Average

Ambience: Excellent

Service: Slow

Quicktip: Drop in only if you would like to enjoy the ambience and probably experiment with a little Italian food, don’t expect to be totally satisfied after the meal and do it obviously only if you have some extra dosh in that pocket of yours

The Co-ordinates

·        Villa 39, Amarchand Mansion, 60 Madam Cama Road, Colaba, Mumbai

·         Phone: 66573939

Let There be Light...

Rays Café & Pizzeria

Nestled in one corner of Hill Road Bandra, Rays Café may just go unnoticed while you’re driving through Mumbai’s hip suburb and even hipper Hill Road. But don’t make that mistake because this namesake of New Yorks famous chain of pizzerias (Rays Original), is really worth it for those looking for a nice Italian supper.

Once you enter through the wooden gate and the façade you feel as if your transported to Italy more precisely Tuscany (not that I have been there in person, Discovery TLC  zindabad). The flooring is made of natural stones, the one’s you find in cathedrals, with wooden tables and chairs under the shade of huge umbrellas. There is also an air-conditioned section again characterized by white walls and wooden seating. Gives you the feel of those road side café’s in Italy (again TLC and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam)

Enough about the ambiance and the interiors will get right down to the main purpose of my visit – FOOD. Rays offers an amazing variety of pizzas in 9, 12 and 16 inches. And the best part about this place is that a limited selection of pizzas is also offered in Single Slices! Yes you heard me right for those of us who like eating a little bit of everything than just 4 pieces of the same pizza, this is the place. So I tried the Margherita which was excellent, just the perfect amount of the homemade of tomato sauce, cheese and sprinkled herbs on a thin base. My next was Barbeque Chicken, in Shania Twain’s words “that don’t impress me much”. I thought it was a bit sweet for barbeque. I also tried the the Rays Special, a pepperoni pizza, which was muchos  delicias! After slurping on it (yeah am quite a slop) I kissed my fingers. I wanted to kiss those of the chef as well. But my friends just rolled their eyes and asked me to behave!

Now am about to tell you what you must order if you are non-vegetarian –Weisswurst Sausages. German smoked pork sausages that are out of this world. Am not much of a fan of pork and hence I called for the Chicken Sausages but when my friends called the pork one’s and I tried  that, the chicken was damp squib. These pork sausages are mouthwatering and delicious and a must have at Rays.

Moving on to the pastas, the Linguni with Asparagus and cream is a delight for those who prefer white sauce pasta’s. You may want to add a little salt to it but otherwise its delicately flavoured with asparagus and cream, the right ‘kiss the chefs fingers’ blend. However the Chicken in Tomato Cream Penne  a bit drab. For the red pasts fans the Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato and Herbs is fiery with the generous amount of  chilly flakes and cooked in that right kind of home made arabiatta sauce.

There are a variety of salads to choose from including the Classic Ceasars and also the very Italian.  Insalate Capreseis a simple salad from the Italian region of Capri, made of sliced fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil. But I am not a very Salad person so I did’nt try. Salads,I feel, are food for ruminating animals and not for humans who have better options like the ones I described the one above.

There is also sandwiches, burgers & hotdogs but by now me & accomplices were ready to hit the bed so none for us. They serve wine over the weekend – Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays.

Verdict: Good Food, Good Ambience, Service is a bit confused maybe because they have hired new staff.  The Damages: Rs. 500-600 per head(if you’re a moderate eater). Yes it’s a bit stiff on the pocket because of the 10% service charge. So don’t tip

Quick Tip: If you’re a guy, blindfold your girl/wife take her to Rays in the evening and get a table in the patio area (non air-conditioned), now would be the perfect weather for it. The moonlight, the breeze and Italian food would make for a perfect romantic date (yes I am a total sucker for Mills & Boons). If you’re a girl, ditch your guy and just take your best girl buddy (one who you would have married if she was a guy) and forget the diet for that day.

The Co-ordinates –

Rays Café & Pizzeria, 133 Hill Road, Gazebo House (Behind Godrej Nature's Basket), Bandra (W)
Mumbai, Maharashtra 400050
022 26451414

Timings: 12:00 PM to 11:00 PM