burrp! Stats
- 25 Reviews
- 2 First to review
- 4 Places Added
- Been to 104 Places
- Yet to try 19 Places
- Burrping since Mar 26, 2007
- Burrping fromJuhu, Mumbai
Personal Stuff
- Favourite Foods
- Italian, Mediterranean (Lebanese), Moroccan besides traditional Tambram food Check http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com to see what I cook!
saffrontrail's Lists
Reviews by saffrontrail
Oct 02, 2008
1st Floor, Mohid Heights, Lokhandwala Road, Andheri (W), Mumbai
Good
Surprised at their honesty
A lot has already been said about this place, and their food seems to have been consistently good since they've opened. While we are regular patrons of its group restaurant Urban Tadka, this is more spacious with less or no waiting compared to UT.
5 of us walked in for lunch today, and we were happy to see that their 40% off on weekday lunches - food only (MON-THU) held good today despite being a public holiday.
We ordered plenty of tandoori starters - aloo, mushroom, achari paneer which all came in promptly and they were seasoned just right - not OTT on oil or salt.
The main course took way too long to make an appearance - but it turned out good for us to take a small break after binging on the starters washed down by chhaas. After a long long wait the rajma, lahori aloo gobi and hara bhara kofta curry came in, but only with 2 of the 5 rotis ordered. On asking the waiter, he admitted that they were short on staff and the rest of the stuff would come in soon. I quite appreciate this 'no BSing' approach, instead of trying to run away and avoid the questioning looks of customers. Given that all the food was lip smacking we were more than willing to wait for the remaining stuff.
I'll highly recommend the butter garlic naan made from wheat flour along with the rajma rasseywala. There was no faulting any of the food ordered - actually much better than Urban Tadka which tends to go overboard with the salt many a time.
We decided to end the meal with a kheer, which again took too long to come in, so we asked for it to be cancelled. However a plate of rabdi-jalebi and kheer came in a bit after the bill, which the waiter declared to be on the house.
So a wonderful leisurely meal for 5 at 40% off came to 1300 with taxes and tip. I see some complaints about the service by the other reviewers, but honestly we were quite happy with it, especially their honesty which is a rare commodity nowadays.
Sep 29, 2008
Mega Mall Food Court, Malad Link Road, Oshiwara, Andheri (W), Mumbai
Awful
Exists no more
Shut down already.
We were in the foodcourt looking for this place, but looks like its no longer there.
Sep 27, 2008
Shop No 6, Senapati Bapat Marg, Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel, Mumbai
Awful
Daytime Nightmare
For want of better ideas we decided to stop by Phoenix Mills for lunch - Lemon Grass was closed (for good?) and therefore despite our dislike for the Blue Foods chain, we decided to step into noodle bar.
They were promoting their unlimited starters menu - as it was lunch time and we were in no mood for hogging, we decided to order a la carte...we ordered the pepper tofu soup and suimai to start with - while the soup came out immediately, the suimai took over 20 minutes to make an appearance, this in peak lunch hour - i cannot imagine them getting away with such slow service during a weekday lunch hour.
For mains we ordered a shitake fried rice, 'exotic' vegetables in black bean sauce and a portion of make your own noodles where we opted for soba noodles with a whole bunch of veggies.
The rice was good but it could do without the overpowering flavour of too much clove. The EXOTIC veggies contained mainly potatoes - since when have potatoes become exotic, I do not know - must ask Blue Foods!
Service meanwhile became extremely slow, and the waiters behaving typically by choosing to ignore us - they have this instinct of who might want to call them and their footsteps hurry automatically away from that table.
Water refills after being asked for 2-3 times, happened very grudgingly. The noodle bowl finally arrived and sadly it looked like a bowl of Chinese KHICHADI. The soba was overcooked to death and it made a soggy mishmash with some equally done-to-death vegetables, (we had ticked almost 7 from the list and we has to really hunt through the gooey noodle maze to find any). I refused to take any more goop from the staff and asked about the state of the noodles! No prizes for guessing the answer here....staff are trained to answer such questions - "soba noodles always cooks like this only" - I promptly told them that we prepare soba at home and it depends on how much you boil...yeah if the chef decided to take a nap while the noodles are boiling then it does turn out like that.....finally he agreed to replace, but we did not want 30 more minutes of stressful waiting, trying to catch the staff's attention and receiving some more goop in the end.
A meal for 2 without drinks - one starter, one soup, one rice dish and one vegetable came to around 650.....no tips were required where people literally have to SCREAM for attention from the staff!
A word of advice to Blue Foods - Improve or Please Shut Down!
Aug 15, 2008
Clifton Trishool Housing Society, Oshiwara Village, Link Road, Lokhandwala, Andheri (W), Mumbai
Excellent
A superlative experience
At the 5 stars recommendation of the previous three burrpers, I decided to use a special occasion to land up there yday evening for dinner....
The warm smiles of the hostess with whom I had exchanged a few calls asking for directions was a harbinger of good things to come...the inner separate non smoking section was quite empty except for the owner sitting on one table and another small group, and we chose our table for two..
The menu is quite exhaustive and I went for a berry drink, while the husband took to his single malt.
From the start we noticed that the service was refreshingly friendly and attentive...something that we always find lacking in this city.
We started off with a grilled vegetables and heart of palm salad which was delicious to say the least. The ultra thin crust pizza with pesto, tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella was out of the world, so much so that the two of us were tempted to order another one and skip the mains. However, we opted for the wild mushroom and red wine risotto that was crackling with flavours of rosemary. We also devoured a basket of garlic bread somewhere in the middle - which was a tad too buttery in taste for my liking, but was topped with loads of garlic and toasted to perfection.
All the while we made fun foodie conversations with the mother-son duo sitting on the table next to us. A gentleman whom I presume was the partner came to our table after each course to ask how we liked everything, and we enjoyed the interactive lively ambience...should not forget to write about some great music going on, unintrusively in the background. We skipped desserts - as the husband wanted something without eggs which we did not find on their list...and our attendant promised to rectify that the next time :)
Anyway, the highlight of the food was extremely fresh, good quality ingredients and superlative service - for which we are willing to pay top bucks - are the other restaurants listening?
We are going to back here soon, and I'm going to order my pesto-mozzarella pizza when I call to reserve seating :) This was a most wonderful dining experience in a long long time.
A small clarification here - they don't do wood fired pizzas, coz we specifically asked them for one after reading in a previous review; but whatever they do with their pizzas is good enough to get stuffed on them :)
Just in case you are wondering how much it all came to -
Food - 1400 and Liquor - 2400 inclusive of VAT
May 29, 2008
Shop No. 18, Meera CHS, Oshiwara Link Road, Oshiwara, Andheri (W), Mumbai
Average
Good food, but not all good here
[ I am not related to the restaurant owners, and I paid for my meal. So you will read some truths about this place...unlike some other reviews that have only good things to say conveniently masking their faults! ]
Reading the previous two 'going-ga-ga' reviews on Burrp, the first opportunity of an evening out with the hubby, we landed here yesterday evening, with a couple of friends joining us there.
Expectations were high after reading only good about this one...The welcome was warm by a guy who looked like the owner / partner ? of the place. Ambience, menu cards, the whole package of the look-feel of the place has been well thought - and executed...with a Mexican movie running on a projector screen and mini TVs mounted on the brick wall, which made me wonder if couples coming out for dinner would be looking at the TV on their side instead of talking to each other or eating ;)
The menu is pretty long - Beverages, Starters, Main course, Soups and Salads - covering both Mexican and 'Continental' cuisine. We chose the Whacko Tacos [Rs.110] filled with mushroom and corn along with the recommended Mexi skin filled with broccoli. The tacos were accompanied by four dips, one of which was the Guacamole.
Now, according to me, the proof of a Mexican meal is in its guacamole. Having had the best of the lot from a large stone pot in Dos Caminos, NYC - I was looking forward to this....especially after reading in an earlier review that they made it on the table!!! No such luck here, barely a tablespoon of it made an appearance on the dip-platter, which they did refill once....coming to the taste of it - I like my guacamole to be chunky, where I can see the lightly mushed up cubes of avocado, tiny flecks of finely minced onion and coarse cumin and chillies...here it was all ground up like a green chutney....so I cant even say if it was all avocado or some foreign invasion of mashed potatoes to bring down the cost.
The Potato Skins - while they tasted really good - they served 3 pieces in a platter...and we were 4 of us. 3 is quite an odd number and I haven't seen 3 pieces being served on a starter anywhere, minimum being 4, especially when the potatoes were of a medium size and each piece having half the SKIN of the potato, paying 150 bucks for 3-half potato skins felt like a complete rip off!
Here, I must add that it took quite a while for the starters to arrive and when we were ready to order the main course, both the owner and the manager seem to have got themselves stuck to a larger group in the corner, probably discussing the history of Mexico and the origin of the chipotle chilli! God knows what, but it took nearly 10 minutes after we had finished the measly starters to order our mains. It is odd that when the order was taken, we were told, it would arrive in a jiffy, which got me thinking....
So we kept thinking, arguing, looking around, and generally killing the next 45 minutes, until the mains finally found their way to our table.
I had Mama's enchiladas [Rs.140] which turned out pretty flavourful and filling thanks to the beans. The Fajitas Aztec style [Rs.180] - where soft tortillas were stuffed with veggies and served on a bed of Mexican rice was high on the taste quotient. Our friends ordered the Chicken loco stuffo [Rs.210] and the Boatman's Dream [Rs.290] (Grilled prawns on bed of mexican rice), which were both reported to be good. Spice was slightly on the higher side in all the dishes.
Positives - Good food, friendly welcome, efficient service, interesting ambience
Negatives - Starters portions very small for the price, extremely long wait for food to arrive, over-promising & under-delivering, average guacamole (definitely not made on the table)
Overall damages were 1350 including VAT and tip for a meal for 4 with 2 fresh lime sodas, which considering the portions and the tiny shop space I thought to be quite high.
So while the food was good, they have a huge scope for improvement on the service.
P.S.
Their menu says if you walk in as a group of 4 or more after 8 pm, there'll be discounts, gifts, freebies....we were 4 and we walked in at 9.30 pm, and we didn't see any of the above come our way! [Even though we went on a WEEKDAY - on a Wednesday to be precise...donno if Wednesday qualifies as a WEEKEND in Mexico! ]