Reviews by mukhi
Sep 10, 2007
Express Towers, First Floor, Ramnath Goenka Marg, Nariman Point, Mumbai
Awful
Wrong wrong!!
The owners of this place have invested in staff and decor. Four guys to park cars, ten chefs behind a glass screen, twenty waiters, and some vaguely eastern-looking women who come bouncing up to your table whenever your plate gets empty and serve you from the bowl. A stylish, if rather characterless, ambience.
Unfortunately, as with so many "fine dining" restaurants in Mumbai, they didn't bother much about the food.
Half the menu is Thai food so we assumed they knew how to make it. My friend and I first had Tom Yum soup. For half a cup of this watery liquid with a few grams of boiled chicken thrown in at the last moment, we paid Rs 200 each. Next was the green curry, which I would rate as passable - though vastly inferior to the fragrant delight you get so cheaply in Thailand.
As for the last dish, steamed fish in lime juice and chili - it was a tragic failure. It's billed as "filet of sole" on the menu, but even as we ordered it the waiter confessed this was a lie and it was actually kingfish. We told him "any fish, so long as it's fresh" and he swore they got fresh fish every day. Well maybe they do, but what we got had been marinated in lime juice and frozen for at least a week. The fish had a mushy consistency like thick porridge. When I pointed this out the waiter repeated that they get fresh fish daily (not at all the same as saying that our fish was fresh!). When the oriental ladies tried to re-serve the fish and I politely told them it was not good, they ran away into a corner to hide. No one made the slightest attempt to talk to us about our experience though we were clearly dissatisfied. (I'm nostalgic for the wonderfully fresh steamed fish in lime juice and chilly that I had last year in Phuket - for the princely sum of 150 rupees!!).
The damage for this very light meal for two (including one glass of passable Australian wine at Rs 400) was Rs 2250. At that price we could pig out at Trishna, Excellensea, Ling's or Indigo Deli! And from my experience of those places, the food is usually fresh.
Vong Wong (as long as it lasts, which won't be very long) should change its name to Wrong Wrong.