Fine Dine

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.