Italian

-Venue : Cafe Appetite
Bhagat Singh Colony
Andheri Link Road
Chakala
When : Sunday Dinner on 4th October,09

Decor : The location is good.If the owner removes the glass doors, it would remind you of eateries in Paris/ Italy. The decor is OK.Yelow coloured it walls is something I personally dislike. But, many restaurants keep it that way.The seating is comfortable, not too lavish. Just chairs and tables in sets of twos and fours.

Experience:
It was raining heavily. And, it being a Sunday ritual to go out for dinner I searched the internet for something new and closeby.Came across Cafe Appetite an Indo Italian Indo Chinese restaurant.So off we went.Its a small restaurant run by a husband and wife.He is a friendly Sardar guy lets call him Mr. Singh who goes personally to every customer and asks about the order, food, likes & dislikes etc. Takes an interest with what you order. And lets you know of his journey from the beginning.

We ordered a Tomato & Basil Soup priced at Rs 60/-

The aroma of the soup was something.The consistency was good ,not very watery. The basil leaves were quite fresh. It was also liked the family.

For starters we wanted something which the baby would like. As, she eats the main course very meagre.
The owner suggested Garlic Bread with Cheese again at Rs. 60/-

Yes, yum it was! The bread ,we were told, is baked by the restaurant themselves.It was a herb and garlic bread. The garlic was not too strong as is found at many places.So, was loved by the baby even.

The main course was farfalle in Alfredo pasta
It was a creamy pasta. The only negative was the oil. The olive oil used in the pasta for two was enough for a pasta for four.The owner explained that he needs to emulsify the pasta in the end.Anyways, the layers of taste which should come out were subdued because of the oil.
They have a variety of desi pastas too.But, I think no one can beat them at joints like Bombay Blues etc.

Next, We ordered a Triple Shezchuan Rice for the brother at home.

That too was good enough.Quite spicy as it should be.The quantity was enough for two.One can get good chinese at many places in Mumbai.It would be good when they serve it fiery hot.
Overall the food was good but for the excess oil in pasta.The shezuan was very generic in its taste.The sop and starters were excellent. And, it being recently opened you get a table without hassles even on a Sunday.
I would suggest the restaurant menu should have more of desi stuff. The owner promised me some good kebabs when i visit him next.
Hope, he has more options for vegeterians like me by then.
Price: Rs. 350/- for 2

Another Italian restaurant. The city is crowded with lots of them. They are located in the central / swank / upmarket UB City. But like any other restaurant inside the UB city their prices seem to be comparable to others.

They have the usual standard Italian menu that looked vaguely familiar.

What did we order

Drinks
- Belgian beer for me and a mocktail for my wife. This was the first time that my wife did not complain.. otherwise she normally cribs that she gets a sugary concoction

Starters
- Bruschetta : 3 pieces.. with tomato, mushrooms and veggies. The mushroom and the veggie ones very average

Pasta
- Flat pasta with sun dried tomato, olives. Very good and i wished the quantity was more

Pizza
- Rustica : Thin crust wood oven pizza (onion, spinach and olives). Amazing!!! I will leave it at this.

Cribs
- Seating is too close. I could see what the other table is upto.
- Service is a little inefficient. They got the starters without the drinks that came almost 10minutes late and it took them 15mins to give me some ice for my water despite asking repeatedly.

In all it costed us 1500 bucks. Will we go back? Definitely yes to try their other pizzas.

The hoardings tempt you. "GRASS"... the name sounds like a vegetarian paradise.. it was a flop show.

Dare not use their washroom/loo-s, especially after eating. The horror of the place might make you lose your lunch/supper.

Nice place, interiors.. Grrreat potential.. these guys (who are running it) are just RUINING it.. :-(

We (spouse & self) were the only 2 people eating there at 10 pm on a Thursday nite.. That pretty much sums up things.

Some lousy movie was on the wall projection cable TV. We requested the waiter to change it to any Eng News channel, the reply came back, All Eng News channel are paid channels and we have not renewed our payments !!

They have pizza in their menu. When we enquired the waiter about it, he said it was a nine inch 'pijja'. Thank you very much !

The prices are very expensive for what they serve. They slap a VAT of 12.5% but it is not mentioned anywhere on the menu. Further there is no Mah. ST/ CST Regn. no. on the bill. God knows where the VAT goes.. (to fund their VAT-69s.. I guess)

Six tiny pieces of mushrooms with two tb-spoonfuls of a gaudy red sauce - The starter - was INR130.. a big flop

I suspect they dump the sauces/ketchups used by the road-side sandwich-wallas inti their gravies.. you get tha unmistakeable (dis)taste in your mouth.

That sums up the experience of "Eggplant-in-Hot-Garlic-Sauce" (INR115). It would have helped if the dish had even traces of garlic.

The steam rice (INR50 per small bowl) was woefully under-cooked.

The tragedy that followed was the Green Thai curry (INR130). It tasted like paint. The texture of the curry was terrible.
The basil leaves were burnt (literally). The curry was loaded with just small pieces of cauliflower and carrots (aaaaarrghh !!)

However hard we tried, pushing the stuff down the throat was becoming a task that was getting more painful by the minute.

(Packing that and giving it away to the needy on the streets would have brought us their curses; not blessings!)

Couple of tables away, the waiting staff were sitting with legs on the chairs, slurping some drinks and noisily gossiping. Every three minutes a staffer comes to your table to ask whether he could remove the plates, even while you were eating !!!

The hotel management is JUST NOT SERIOUS ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS. It is amply clear.

Considering that we were the ONLY diners in that hall, they took an AWFULLY long time to serve the food !!!

INRs-525 spent on a flop dinner show.

Maybe my review is based on only their Oriental cuisine. Its a case of first impressio is always the best (here - worst) impression !!

As a rule, We are great supporters of pure veg restaurants; but this one was abominable.

Stay CLEAR of GRASS.

Like the great Ivan Lendl once remarked "Grass is for cows"

The restaurant is a solid attempt at authentic italian cuisine, doesnt try to indianize its offerings

We were 6 of us, and did order a fair spread.

The soup (minestrone) was average.

The pizza on the next table looked good. We ordered a chicken/mushroom topping one, and it was inherently bland, but nice. The thin crust was very nice for those who hate the big thick crusts that most chains have on offer.

The fish ravioli was BAD. it tasted typically of fish that had been cooked and stuffed a while back. I am not being nasty here, we had 2-3 pieces and let go of the rest.

We also had a prawn starter. It was a mustard based sauce, but that disappointed as well. The flavours hadn't gelled well, and you could tell that the shrimp was defrosted and the sauces separately. You can go to da vinci's close by for an incredibly good concoction of the same inputs.

We either ordered some fettucine or it came as a side with one of the dishes. Was a red sauce, but nothing to write home about.

And the final problem was this, except for the pizza, everything had above average salt, the soup, the pasta and the ravioli sauce.

The restaurant is nice and small, and promising. hopefully will improve soon.

and yes, they didnt have a wine licence until a month back, but that may have changed by now.

foooooood!

Wonderful place.

OUTSTANDING FOOD. We are talking veg here.

The mushroom starter was scintillating. Probably one of the best funghi you will get to eat.

These guys know how to make magic with Pasta. The spaghetti was cooked to perfection. The white sauce was magical. I personally summoned the chef to shake hands with him.

Their pizza was incredible. The pizza chef from trattoria should take lessons from these guys.

The waiting staff are pleasant and go about doing their work with a smile.

They have an amazing range of continental desserts. Do try the veg brownie.

Didnt try their drinks. But I am told that their drinks offerings is a formidable list.

Lacking points:

We went on a weekday at 11 pm. There was zero crowd. That does not spell good for a place like this. Hope these guys dont shut down the place.

Do not go to Da Vinci wearing knee-length shorts (like I did) The mosquitoes feast on your calf muscles and ankles.

The Ambience is tooo dimly lit to the point of making you feel insecure.

Ratings:
===============
Food - 10/10
Ambience - 5/10
Service - 8/10
VFM quotient - 7/10.

Will visit this place again and again (provided they dont shut shop soon) and strongly recommend this place for conti veg food.

These guys take the food business very seriusly and it shows in the final product that lands on the table.

One of the finest pasta I 've ever eaten. Every strand of the spaghetti in white sauce reminds me of heaven. Sheer magic.

Do try their Charcoal grilled stuffed mushrooms.

the honey mint ice tea was a royal way to wash these delicacies down your throat.

Watch out for that waiter 'Devendiran'. He is really good. Knows his stuff and honest.

Planning to go there again to try something new vegetarian.

Been here few times...but for some reason writing the review only now. I went there today and i got a feeling that they are getting jaded. All their items in the menu seems to be a concoction of veggies, olive oil and different types of cheeses. So you need to be careful about what you want if you dont want your food to be killed with overdose of Cheese. By the way they also have some mexican on the menu.

We had a Crostini Platter and Avocado salad for starters. The platter was good and the salad could do with less tomato on it.

Wife decided to skip the main course and i ordered myself a Risotto with some Porcini mushrooms. I asked the steward to customize the dish but without checking with the Chef he said no and started explaining why the dish cannot be cooked like what i wanted. After i insisted he went and checked and the Chef was more than ready to do that.

One thing that i noted is lot of people around us had the look on their face that said "the dish doesnt look like what i had visualized based on what i read". May be the waiters can start becoming knowledgeable about the dishes and explain to the customers. If i want to rank the Italian restaurants in the city.. i would rank it 3rd behind Italia, Fiorano (in the order). But the place is quite popular. They have 3 sections...1) Enclosed non - smoking area 2) Lounge - smoking 3) Al Fresco

Wallet Factor : Approx 800 to 900 bucks per person including drinks for a 3 course meal.

As a pizza lover, I have eaten pizza at almost every place in Mumbai.. (psst.. I dont rate the stuff dished out in the countless UDIPI-s in the name of 'pizza', cheese 'pijja'.. stay clear of them)

Till recently, the tragedy of eating pizzas at places like smokin joes, dominos and the other chains was that their pizzas were invariably 2 cm.s plus thick bread-y base (aaargh !).. rendering pizza eating a punishment rather than an enjoyment.

This is precisely the reason we (spouse and I) hopped on five-star restaurant to another.. in search of the perfect pizza, really really thin crust, with gourmet cheese/toppings...

Of course, we did come across some good ones price around Rs 350-500 for a standard 12-incher.. thin-thin crust ():

- Oberoi Hilton Nariman Pt
- Taj Lands End Bandra
- Hyatt Vakola
- JW Marriott Juhu

non 5-star
- Don Giovanni Juhu
- I-forgot-the-name-of-restaurant in the Pantaloons shopping complex in Lower Parel
- Penne Juhu (yes.. their pizza is indeed good !)

Recently,

- Dominos (try their thin crust pizza)- I have become their latest fan
- Garcia's (try their whole-grain healthy thin crust.. its amazing)

But pls pls AVOID the following places for PIZZA. Once bitten, forever shy !! They made me think if these guys knew anything about pizza at all !!

- Le Meridian Sahar
- Trattoria (yes..Unpleasant surprise..I was shocked beyond belief !)
- Leela Sahar
- Hyatt Sahar
- ITC Sheraton Sahar
- ITC Sheraton Parel
- Intercontinental Sahar

non 5-star

- smokin joes (god !! they do not understand the concept of thin crust.. hope they do sooner.. for their toppings are pretty good.)

- the various udipi eat-outs in mumbai (their standard 5 inch 'pizza' or 'pijja' is about piling up some grated cheese, capsicum, onions over a readymade 1-inch thick disc of maida)

If anyone has come across really good thin crust pizza-s other than the above, pls let me know. Happy navratri.

The New & Hip venture of the one at Irla, also has a couple of banquet halls & hotel.

Well spaced out tables, similar menu, lots of parking outside (one of the reasons of giving irla a miss)constantly improving service & willingness to help you with off the menu trials.

The vegetarian edges out the non vegetarian by a wee bit; probably because of some new dishes, whereas the non veg does not seem different.

Afternoons are quiet & evenings till 9 are ok before it starts getting crowded.

This is part of the chain of restaurants by BJN Group (Samarkhand, Hypnos, Sahib Sind Sultan etc).

First the ambience

- The lighting is too bright for my taste
- Music is too loud
- Too many staff hovering around. On top it they have open kitchens.. so the staff inside the kitchen add to the crowd.
- Staff has a very funny green colored uniform

Now coming to food

- I had a cocktail made out of Vodka. I hate white sugar in cocktails. The best is cane sugar.
- Ordered Jalapeno bites... too hard & the Jalapeno tasted like Capsicum.
- I ordered Pasta in tomato sauce. Too much Garlic & on the salty side. These days i am very low on salt and prefer to get the natural taste of the food. Pizza hut's Pasta tastes better.
- Wife ordered Pudina roti (Where was the Pudina???) and Veg Jalfreizi. Strictly Ok.

Overall was disappointed as i had started having high expectations of any BJN group venture as their restaurants are always of high quality when it comes to food. I gave the feedback & the manager was sincere in telling me that they are looking for feedbacks to improve. They are new.. so my sincere hope is that they improve.

Till then i would advocate this place only if you have a crowd with mixed preferences to eat. If you are focussed on a particular type of cuisine then there are speciality & better options out there in the city.

cheers
Anand