Mulund

Its is a place were in you can hang out wid almost everyone. It serves you good food.
Customer satisfaction is our moto !

I would be happy to have your views on this !

Cheers n Peace !!

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Describe the place. As long as you want. Include some food/drink tips, what not to miss, what to avoid, etc.

A rating based on one visit might be misleading - try and keep things fact-based. Remember, we are a hitchhiker's guide to eating and drinking.
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I have a new found respect for vegetarian food. A few more places like this, and the veggies can take over the world. Fine Dine comes from the owners of the famous Rajadhani chain of Gujarati Thalis in Mumbai.

A very sidey name 'Fine Dine', lacking imagination, but the resto-bar does it full justice. It serves vegetarian dishes from around the world and has a great bar to boot as proved by their Long Island Ice Teas. Fine Dine is on the second floor in Nirmal Lifestyles mall, Mulund, above MacD. The ambience is very classy, some oriental food is made in open kitchens, the bar section is presented very well in the middle, and the place seats maybe 60+ people. Next time, I'll take my camera along. It gets very crowded on weekends so be prepared to wait upto an hour. But since it is in a mall, the wait is peaceful.

The food itself is first class. The flavours are good, the presentation is excellent, and portions are large (say 4-5 dishes for 6 people). We started with Mushroom soup, Singapore Steam Boats (wanton-like starter), Gucchi Lasooni (very good), and Long Island Ice Teas. The bar is very good and has a good wine list and cocktail selection priced between 175 to 225. VAT on alcohol is 20%; there is no VAT or tax on the food.

We had Burnt Garlic Risotto, Greek Mousakka, Ceylonese vegetables in coconut milk, Chilman Biryani, Vegetables in Honey Chilli Mustard (oriental), and Lentil Rice. The top of the pick were the Mousakka and the Ceylonese curry. The Biryani and Risotto were good too. The oriental curry was good but probably misplaced in our order. Most of all of this was pretty rich food, not exactly diet friendly. The next visit, we should be trying the extensive Thai/Korean/Malay curries by themselves and another trip must be for the continental, pastas, Mediterranean and Mexican stuff. We had no space for deserts, but I have a hunch they were nice.

Pop Tate's is an American style restaurant in R-Mall. They serves Pizzas, Pastas, some mexican food, burgers, cocktails, beer. All in all a nice place with a lot of choice. The place is surprisingly big despite appearances. They have about 20 tables, slightly close together, but no matter. The place is apt for a bite or drink before the multiplex movie or in between shopping.

The starters and pastas are really good. The pasta is slightly too soft and not crunchy enough, but their sauces and gravies make up. Maybe not gourmet stuff, but value for money - large portion of a good non-veg pasta and garlic bread for 125/-. Cocktails are good. Indicative price is 110 for a Long Island Ice Tea. There is decent college classics or new pop like music blaring away and 3 TVs play music or sports. The ventilation is slightly non-smoker repelling. The service is decent. There is a large yuppie college going crowd in gangs sipping away draught beer which, incidentally, is flat and sad to be avoided even if it is given to you for free.

Rajadhani is an extremely famous Gujju thali institution in Mumbai. One doesn't really need to know anything more about it :)

The place is classy, a/c, with good courteous waiters. The servers get a bit intrusive; but they are a busy lot. The standard thali has about 4 veggies, 3 daal/kadhi like liquid items, theplas, rotlas, chapatis, biscuit bhakris, various farsaan, dhokla, papad, dahi. Plain rice, khichadi with rivers of ghee follow. Winter serves Undhiyu I hear. The deserts are pre-packaged gulabjamun, shrikhand, rasagulla types; quite avoidable and nothing special. The thali itself is extremely satisfying; expect the sweetish Gujju tinge of course.

The Grill is a decent enough sizzler joint in Thane and Mulund. The Mulund branch plays excellent music which would put some of the rock pubs to shame. Hopefully our evening wasn't a one off on the music front. The sizzlers themselves are decent and priced at about 200. These guys only serve chicken and mutton sizzlers. The ambience and decor is good, but they have made a phenomenal blunder in ventilation. The place is sealed shut in a sizzler joint which leads to a lot of smoke sometimes.

Good food apart - we are pissed off at the shady business policy these guys seem to have. They take cash only, no cards. That in itself is ok. The bill looks very shady and is hand written, not printed on a computer. The menu says, 'prices exclusive of all taxes', and no taxes are added in the bill. All these things combined, the impression we were left with was that the owner pockets all the money and probably doesn't pay his taxes to the government. Decent food apart - we are probably not going there again.

Sandhya is a simple standard quarter bar in the Mulund check naka area. There some tiny sidey restaurants, couple of high flying dance bars, but this is one of only two quarter bars in the area. They have a non-a/c and an a/c section. The service as expected is efficient.

This is not the same as the Rajdhani thali in town which is very famous.

One of the cheapest Gujarati thalis. Good Undhiyu (oily). Fresh, hot, tasty, and unlimited. As you expect.