Great Bar

Description:

This is a restaurant complex with

Crossover Point - Veg Restaurant (the others are non veg)
Grill - Self explainatory ;-)
Fire and Flakes - Lounge
The Silver Tube - Music & Dance
Ville Chaumiere - Food from Europe, Mediterranean, the Far East, Middle East and India

I only had cocktails here so this isn't a comprehensive review. But the cocktails were great. The second best Long Island Ice Tea I've had in Bangalore But the Dog Beach Ice Tea was a killer. A bit less stronger than the LIIT but it had Absolut & Bombay Sapphire Gin. Rocked!

Cocktail were between 250 and 300 each. I'm definitely going back for the cocktails if not anything else. More later.

Description:

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.

Description:

Mainland China at Sakinaka junction is possibly the best Chinese food in Mumbai. They are a chain of restaurants in India and the Mainland China webpage has addresses and phone numbers of all restaurants. The ambience of all restaurants is similar and soothing. They are usually full on most nights, so 'please wait to be seated' or reserve in advance. The service is usally excellent and friendly except when they are overflowing with customers.

Having gone there about a dozen times I have sampled most of the variety on their menu. The bar menu is good, with a large variety of cocktails, beer, and wines (local and imported). This is definitely on the expensive side - they try and say on the menu that due to recent cut in import prices they are passing on the benefits to you. This is the only place I have seen where a small Glenfiddich is available for 175/-. But wait - read below for their tax information.

They have great starters with a large selection of dimsums. Most of their main course dishes are categorically very good. Most random choices work out well in this place. The waiters will help you choose but go ahead try anything. I like their chicken and pork preparations so much that I rarely take any rice and just eat the curries.

Now for the truth on taxes - I firmly believe that Mainland China fools you with the price list on the menu. This is the one place in all my years of eating out where the bill consistently exceeds your expectations and estimates. The taxes are high at 12-15% minimum and not declared beforehand. If you have had alcohol you are doomed. There is an additional 20% odd tax for alcohol (local or foriegn). In the VAT regime they even write VAT twice shamelessly. This is unacceptable - this is not a 5-star to take any luxury tax or something like that. The whole tax deal is shady! I am ranting and victimizing Mainland China though people will disagree and come up with their own examples and defenses. But this tax thing has been a thorn for many years. I must say, regardless of all this, the food and place are excellent and I will continue going there repeatedly given the money or on treats.

Description:

It is quite hard to understand Indian cuisine speciality restaurants in the country. They claim to serve authentic Indian food - wouldn't I just wander into my friend's house? I never understood this but it has been pointed out that these places are mainly for treats, business meetings, and entertaining foreigners. They also give you a taste of far-off places within India while retaining the correctness of the items prepared. Saffron Spice successfully does all of this and more.

Saffron Spice is located at the start of Hiranandani Gardens in Powai above Pizza Hut on IIT main road. There is an adjoining good lounge bar with good cocktails though all this is expensive. Saffron Spice is also expensive at well over 200 for each dish. The food hoever, is excellent. Over a few visits, we have tried and liked the Mutton Bhuna, the Gosht, Chettinad chicken, Kerala roast chicken, many coastal fish dishes, and a large variety of the usual chicken dishes. They have good Indian deserts too but they are ridiculously priced.

In summary, Saffron Spice tries to fill the void of hi-fi eating places in Powai. It is expensive, but serves excellent food. That said, the service is sloppy and lost - once the host of waiters were confused and hassled with just four tables occupied. Things definitely worsen on a full night with their large seating capacity.

Description: Located right under Amoeba, nothing like a couple hours of bowling and coming down to chillax with some beer and good food.

Starters (free)

Cucumber and Cabbage in a weird (but excellent) Garlic Sauce (free)

Liquor is on the affordable side, comparable to any other decent joint in town. Rs 110 for a beer, Rs 90 for a Virgin Colada, etc.

Description:

Shiok is a very cool elegant place and has both a restaurant and a
lounge bar.

The restaurant was designed to give people privacy and comfort and is non
smoking section. Part of the restaurant is divided into private dining
booths with candle lights, giving everyone the chance to sit down, relax,
and enjoy their meal, without the feeling of being packed like a can of
sardines with the waiters armpit in your face.

The lounge bar is a smoking zone and severs the Bangalorians staple diet -
beer - to wine ,exotic cocktails and single malt. The music is mainly soft
but one can ask the manger to change to jazz or to whatever you feel like
listening too- other than heavy metal of course!

Trivia

Shiok" (pronounced 'she-oak') is a Malaysian-Singaporean slang word roughly
meaning "damn good", "heavenly" or "yummy" that is a common expression of
their love of good food.

Description:

A bunch of us ended up here when Ruchi was in town. I had never been to the place before. I like going to places where I'd go often—that often means that the place has to be good, and not terribly expensive.

Some of us were a bit apprehensive—it being at Taj and all. From the way I'm writing you must've guessed that this place ended up not being expensive. Right. And thank God.

So, yeah, this place is nice. The bar is called 'The Blue Bar'. It's located in the gardens of the hotel. However, when you enter, you might get a tad confused—there's a Vietnamese restaurant close, called 'Blue Ginger'. It's kinda weird—the entrance leads to both places. Of course, you won't have trouble figuring out what is where.

The bar is circular and huge. There's about two (one-and-a-half?) feet of space around the bar. And there's open-air seating space around the bar. If you come in late on a weekend, you're assured to get no place to sit. Music's techno (well, at least the day we were there).

Booze is not costly. A bottle of Kingfisher costs 120 bucks (that's cheaper than Taika, by by the way). Peanuts are complementary. :-) Bacardi (small) costs 200 bucks or something. No idea about the cocktails.

Nice crowd too, by the way.

Description:

Starters and More holds lots of festivals related to booze and food. Watch out i you are ever in the Churchgate area. They have one drink free with every one ordered during happy hours (till 8pm).

Most of their cocktails are good. The flavoured martinis and shooters (flaming too) are cool. The cocktail list is extensive. Starters are imaginative and good. Haven't had too much food there. This is the place to start any bar or restaurant hopping trip in town.

Description:

Definitely an elite eating place if you want to experiment exotic stuff. They have sushi, eel, Norwegian salmon, Chilean bass, etc. You get the idea. Largely seafood but very good menu on the whole.

Avoid their super-expensive miniscule-quantity sake unless you are a wine freak or someone else is paying.

Description:

Rodas is actually 3 eating establishments in one. A fashionable restobar, oriental restaurant, and all night coffee shop.

Parabola - the coffee shop has decent, cheap midnight buffets (199 on weekdays). It usually has lunch and dinner buffets at 275-375 depending on the day. The buffet is quite ok. There is no Midnight buffet on Monday nights. Some Indian and Continental main courses, and coffee is available all night.

Far East - this is a very good oriental restaurant on the first floor. They offer Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese starters and main courses. Most are quite good. Price is steep as expected, but food is usually very good. A standing pomfret curry of theirs is a favourite.

Aura - this is the fashionable resto-bar. It usually holds Swiss/Italian/other International food festivals. Haven't particularly like any. The price/satisfaction ratio is skewed. Otherwise, Aura is a very good bar with live music, fashion shows, and occasional pole dancing.