Its raining Burgers... Hallelujah

Review: Burgs

Grey dog hound kinda entrance, white washed walls with blue imprints... Not a place you would expect burgers to be served. But Burgs claims to be the place for ‘Gourmet Burgers’. Is it? CM finds out!

One look at the menu & you are tempted with all burgers looking even bigger than the Big Mac! In the words of owner & young entrepreneur’s Krishna Kilachand  "I don’t believe in bite sized food; I want everyone to be completely satisfied when they leave the place". CM loves the attitude!

Dijon Chicken

So I start with the Grilled Chicken with Dijon Mustard – perfectly grilled chicken supremes dressed in yummy mustard sauce. A chunky burger full of deliciousness albeit the fluffy burger bun overpowered the burger.

Notorious PIG

The next one Notorious Pig – yummy slivers of slow cooked finely shredded pork shoulder drenched in a beautiful sweet and spicy sauce made for a perfect burger. This is a must have here.

Prawn Kracker

We move on to Prawn Kracker – too greasy and had this weird stench. Not recommended.

Mac & Cheese Bomb

In the vegetarian ones, I had the Mac & Cheese Bomb Burger. Firstly it’s hard to imagine what a Mac & Cheese would look like, forget the taste. But this was a good surprise. Molten lava of soft Mac & Cheese inside some crusty patty was awesomelicious (if that were a word).

The Fries and Onion rings too were good – crispy yum!

In the drinks, I tried the the Strawberry Crush which tasted like cough syrup but the Peanut Jelly Butter Shake was really good!

In all, I think Burgs puts McDonalds to shame if not giving it a run for its money! The only drawback CM found was that the bread sort over powered the taste of the burgers being a tad bit bigger in size and fluffy.

Just to make a note, with burger fests catching up, Burgs offers a really good variety of burgers compared to other places & at cheaper rates. They even seemed to have designed their menu keeping vegetarians in mind with variants like Aubergine (I didn’t try it but the lady next to me loved it), Corn Colonel & Gardenia.

A meal for 2 would cost between Rs.300 -600/-

Verdict:

Food: Good

Ambience: Different

Service: Very Polite & helpful

Quick Tip: Go get you fix of some really filling and appetizing burgers! Notorious PIG is the must! Even if you are not a pork fan.

The Co-ordinates:

Burgs

Where: 4 & 5, New Kamal Building, 248 Waterfield Road, Bandra West, Mumbai   

Tring Tring: 022 26552242, 022 26557722

Timings: 11 AM to 11 PM

Food Type: American Fast Food

Payment Methods: Credit cards accepted

Review – Wich Latte

Pic Courtesy http://www.wichlatte.com/

Culinary Muse has been gallivanting all over Mumbai in search food that would make her yell ‘Yummy in My tummy’. Now, It feels like full circle to be back to Colaba, her Alma Mater in some sense, and gauge through causeway not jewellery, not clothes, not artifacts but some pet pooja!

Pic Courtesy http://www.wichlatte.com/

Pic Courtesy http://www.wichlatte.com/

After you have passed, the usual hangouts like Leopold, Montegar and the once rumored to shut Café Churchill, you will notice Wich Latte, right opposite the Parsi haven Curow Baug. Started in the fag end of 2007, Wichlatte was set up to give a New York style café experience with white, yellow and coffee interiors. Today, it seems to have a got a new lease of life with Green & Purple hues, that make it look more like a garden than a café. They have retained the high tables & chairs and the open kitchen which is good thing though.

Coming to the food, since this place just a hop and skip away from mine, this is an account of the multiple occasions that I have been there.

Cream of Brocolli Soup

A must have there are the Soups which come in bread bowls like the Chowders in San Francisco. They have a different soup every day and the one to die for is the Chicken Soup – thick, creamy broth with pieces of chicken. Scooping the bread (from the bowl) drenched in the soup has the most yummylicious taste on this planet. Paradise is made of things like this. But they don’t serve this everyday and they apparently don’t have a fixed day for the soups. So all of it depends on your luck L. The other soup that is good is the Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Brocolli, Cream of Peas (yes don’t make that face) and Cream of Carrot (no its not puky, and a good excuse to have your vegetables and eat it too). The only one that I thought should not be had is the Cream of Tomato – it’s pathetically sour and too peppery!

The next, is what they are most famous for, no prices for guessing – The Sandwiches! They have international ones and also their own signature one’s, you also have an option of making your own sandwich.

The Tuscan Verde is a good option –with chicken and basil pesto. Quiet Filling and Yum! Clintons Wich – chicken salami topped with tomato salsa in a Panini on the other hand didn’t impress me much! The tomato salsa in it wasn’t quiet tomato salsa!  The usual Chicken Hot Dog is also a good option. On the Veg front the Focassia Funghi is good– sautéed mushrooms, sprouts, parsley all wrapped in rosemary focassia with this yummy tang of balsamic vinegar!

Fussili Pesto with Chicken

In the mains, the Arabiatta Penne was to die for! And if you’re lucky you still might get it. But I guess the food is really unpredictable, the last time I went there the Arabiatta was tasting more like tomato sauce than the homemade thick tomato concasse that you would expect. The Pesto Fussilli – is brilliant with basil, creamy and nutty flavor! They serve 2 pieces of garlic bread with the pastas.

A great accompaniment with all this is their Lemon Ice Tea. The used to do Pizza’s and they had this yummy Chicken Pizza but unfortunately they have stopped.

In the desserts the Blue Berry Cheese Cake is to die for. Love the fact that it’s shaped not like a slice but like a round pudding with a thick layer of cream cheese that just melts in your mouth.

On the whole the place has good food, albeit a bit unpredictable and not so well managed. For e.g. they don’t have a fixed day for a particular soup! So I can never go there hoping for a Chicken or a Brocolli Soup!

Warning: They also have no sign that says “We do not accept credit cards” and don’t have that facility. So Visa really doesn’t have any ‘power’ here!

A meal for 2 would cost anywhere between Rs 300 – Rs 500

Verdict

Food: Good but sometimes Unpredictable

Ambience: Dil Garden Garden Ho Gaya

Service: Courteous

Quicktip: Good option place to grab a quick bite or even experiment with making your own sandwich.

The Co-ordinates

Wich Latte

Shop No. 4, Ground Floor, Western Breeze Building, Colaba, Mumbai

Phone: 65254827, 65265047

Timings: 9:00 AM to 11:30 PM

Food Type: American, Snacks, Desserts

Serves Alcohol: No

Payment Methods: A BIG NO

Band, Baajaa, Baraat

Review – Wedding Café & Lounge

 

Located on Andheri's very much buzzing, traffic choked and crowded Link Road, above the Mercedes and Apple showroom; Wedding Café's is the newest addition to the burbs. With an exterior brightly lit like a house where someone is to wed, the interiors were quite a contrast, soothingly lit in mellow lighting. The place isn't much of a café, more like a lounge; it has an impressive bar area, sofa's for the lougy feel, the dining tables and private dining areas. Earlier they had a designer store by Umair Zafar which is now being converted into another private dining area. The wedding café brings into India the new trend of themed restaurants that have already been popular abroad. The Café is positioned to be a one stop shop for wedding planning – with the owners, the Lucknowalla's wedding planning consultancy called Vivaah, and tie-ups that offersolutions from the mehendi, outfits to jewellery. Novel concept but popularity? we still need to wait and see.

Coming back to the place, everything at the café was white in a very western way. Whoever designed this place took the concept of the 'white wedding' too seriously. From the table covers, a frosty white lace to the walls, eggy white to the annoying lampshade in the middle of the table again white. Frankly I was sort of disappointed to see a lack of the whole Indian shaadi touch to the place. I'd expected to see bright coloured dupattas for white curtains, diyas instead of electric lamps, genda phool instead of roses. Yeah am a sucker for Indian traditional wedding, s Chopra style, those that start with mere haathon mein 9 -9 chudiyaan hai and end with Shahrukh Khan devouring his phirni. But I am not complaining the the dim lighting, rose pink brass cutlery and not to forget nice techno music made for pleasant ambience.

Coming down to the food! Oh wait did I mention the menu looks like a wedding album? Oh yes a long horizontal wedding album which lists down the menu along with perspective honeymoon places! So ladies whenever you want to make the hint take the guy there :P. Also the menu boasted of Italian, Spanish, French, American and Japanese cuisine. Every dish also had a wine written below indicating the 'Perfect Match'. Impressive

Finally coming down to the food, we started with the soups. The first one a Cream of Asparagus, which was light, creamy, mildly flavoured in short quite nice but the killer was the Cream of Chicken Soup – lighly flavoured and creamy with chicken juliennes the broth should be truly embodies what is called chicken soup for the soul. The soups were served with toasted garlic bread which just added to the delight.

Moving on to the appetizers we ordered for Vegetarian Tapas. Tapas is a Spanish word for snacks, usually served with drinks (See More in World Café Section). The presentation of this dish was brilliant, but taste wise it was quite a disappointment. The tofu, deepfried and crusted in a bland black cover, the veg balls tasted like koftas gone bad, the sautéed mushrooms were very okay, the Mozrella sticks were palatable and the stir fried vegetables were insipid. The next dish was the Shrimps on Skewers – which tasted delectable with butter garlic sauce painted on it. However the shrimps tasted a bit stale, not fresh succulent.

Moving on to the main course, we ordered for the Fettucini with Basil and Grape tomatoes – the flat pasta cooked in scarlet red tomato and basil sauce was fiery and flavourful. The Chicken Marsalla – chicken grilled to golden brown perfection stuffed with mushrooms topped over saffron flavoured risotto (there is a choice between mashed potato and saffron risotto, choose the risotto) was brilliant from the well cooked chicken steak to the flavoured mushrooms and mild saffron milky flavor of the risotto, the dish was a delight. The next dish – the Costa Rican Stuffed Tortilla with Pumpkin Sauce - a sort of rajma wrapped in tortilla was too dry and lacked any kind of flavor. And pumpkin sauce? Is that even edible?

In dessert we ordered for the Love Boat – with again looked really impressive on presentation but tasted nothing better than a Mongenise pastry. Not the goeey melt in the mouth kind

On the whole, the place had some really good moments and some not so good ones. The vegetarian food needs some serious working on. Priced on the richer side of the world, a meal for 2 would cost anything between 750 – Rs 1000 w/o alcohol

Verdict

Food: Mixed bag

Staff: Hospitable

Ambience: Good

QuickTip: 'To be Weds' come here with the folks, yours and the laws, for a nice continental ambience and meal. Or ditch the folks and come celebrate your last few days of singledom with your single friends, who are turning green out of jealousy and those that are married, who will tell you about the 'grass' that may be greener but is also catching fire on the other side. Whoever you come with try and order as much as non veg.

 

The Co-ordinates

Wedding Café & Lounge,

B-104-106, Kotia Nirman,

Above Mercedes Showroom,

New Link Road, Andheri (W), Mumbai

022 61558999 

Timings: 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM, 7:30 PM to 12:30 AM

Food Type: Continental

Payment Methods: Visa, Master, Cash