New Yorker, Chowpatty, Mumbai

You are heading out to eat, extremely hungry, with stomach making all possible grinding sounds and the last thing you want is that the food lets you down? For me, in such situations I head straight to New Yorkers  and it has never let me down since my bachpan ke din.

So before I start, I will try not being biased about what I write, but honestly that going to be a little hard

What do they serve.?, Italian, Mexican & Indian, however I don’t visit the Indian food department here, simply cause if you wanted to have Indian food,then please head to the next door Creame Center or Shiv Sagar. You basically come to New Yorkers to have Nachos (one of the best in the city, almost close after Oven Fresh in my list), American Corn Cheese Balls, Tachos and the sizzlers.

Now I am taking off my rose-tinted glasses and to look at the down-side, the food has the flavors and touch of the Indian Cuisines. May be that’s why it appeals to the Indian taste buds so much, so it continues to be popular from time immemorial. The Pizza and pastas departments also are strictly alright. What’s another downside is the menu is all vegetarian.

However, what I love New Yorker most is for its Sizzling brownie. Leaving New Yorkers without having one is a perpetual sin to commit, atleast in my world.

It’s a very special place as tons of related memories. Most of our post exam lunches had to compulsorily happen here. One thing I love to do here,is to race my hubby over the silly riddles that the food mat has and I don't really need to state how wins hands down!!!!

Will I go back? This question is not too applicable, as haven’t stopped going there since my school days so that’s more than a decade.

Will I recommend? Yes for sure.

Spring Blossoms : Ghatkopar, Mumbai

As a foodie, it’s your birthright to binge on roadside food. Yes, I stand by this even post Delli Belly!! Now imagine a road-side joint, plonked along a junction, serving you not just the usual pav-bhaji, sandwiches & juices but also pastas, sizzlers and much more. So that’s Blossoms for you in a nut-shell. But hold-on; variety is not this joint’s USP, it’s the creative & appetizing food offerings which are!! Someone has actually experimented with the food, innovated and improvised on various ingredients and put them together. Trust me most of them are scrumptious & with hardly any disappointments.

Blossoms started off as a humble juice center while gradually building on its menu. Even today, it retains its juice center flavor, by having an interesting spread of juices, falooda and milkshake menu with some funny and filmy names. They have mixed and matched fruits, like once I remember having tried some strange combination of kiwi with some fruits and it was lip-smacking. I personally loved the Strawberry cream and mango cream. For the juices, it’s always best to ask the waiter for recommendations, as they will suggest something that’s in season or new.

Our order usually comprises of the Corn Cheese Bhel, Indiana Jones sandwich, Red Rounds, Nachos, Pav Bhaji i.e. either Hariyali pav-bhai or mari pav-bhaji or both, and sizzlers.

Amongst these my favorite is Corn Cheese Bhel, which is American corn mixed with crispy sticks (of what I don’t know but very tasty) with mayonnaise, tomatoes, capsicum and tons of grated cheese, simply divine. Next,Indiana Jones sandwich, which contains thinly sliced lettuce, carrots mashed with corn and mayo with a dash of ginger-garlic. Well, the only negative of this sandwich is sometime the garlic quantity is little more than a dash, hence the sandwich taste stays with you long after you have possibly digested it.

For a slightly more spicy taste bud, there are ‘Red Rounds’ which are crispy corn cheese balls served with Manchurian garlic gravy with loads of cheese garnishing it. They have improvised on the pav bhaji segment as well, with their famous mari pav-bhaji, which is pav-bhaji with black pepper twist to it and their oh so famous ‘Hariyali pav-bhai’ which is green vegetables based pav bhaji,I haven’t tried as yet but is my hubby’s favorite

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Their sizzler line is the also delicious, but that menu is like most sizzler joints, with total justice on the taste department. Also heard about something called as Pune Sandwhich which is a speciality,but haven’t tried it as yet.

The service is good, as I find the waiters friendly, most importantly very well informed on the menu and proactive in terms of recommendations. The place also takes care of the presentation area with juices, shakes & other dishes served in fancy cutlery and by the look of it, seems like some level of quality control is in place. These aspects drive this place beyond a normal road-side joint.
Just a warning, please don’t expect to spend here like a road-side joint, as the items are expensive when compared to a typical juice center and you will land up spending as much as you would if you were to visit a restaurant. But overall, for some experimental but tasty food, it’s a must visit and yes, its all veg.

Red Olives - Powai, Mumbai

Where is it: Powai, Hiranandani, Mumbai

After a hectic & long week at work and a particular harrowing day, my hubby and I headed for a cozy dinner,simply catch up with each other. So on a friend’s recommendation, we arrived at Red Olives.My objective to have a good evening with him was successfully met,but I was a little disoriented with the food.Firstly, I couldn't identify what was the exactly was this restaurant’s specialty. Is it Indian or Thai or Chinese or Konkani or Kerala cuisine, as it all seemed to be there.Irrespective of the cuisine type, the menu at a glance, seemed to have more interesting offerings for the non-veggie taste buds.Also this particular day, most of our ordering went all wrong.

For starters, we went ahead with a Chinesse recommendation from the staff,whose name I unfortunately don’t recall.Well,it was actually alright in taste but I found it extremely spicy,so stopped after chomping down 1 or 2 pieces of it.However, I observed that Mihir merrily gobbled down almost all of the starters that were ordered, which was handsome in quantity,while I patiently waited for the main course.For the main course, we decided not to experiment too much and decided to go ahead with the tranditional Thai curry and steam rice.I just cant point my finger on what went wrong, but I ate it purely as I was hungry and not because I was relishing it.The steam rice by the time arrived on our table was little cold, making it dry and also something in the curry was amiss. But again my observation was my hubby ate everything on his plate but he too felt the food was strictly alright.

However, before concluding, a few good things worth mentioning like the decor, cozy and warm with tables fairly spaced out, very likeable.Next, I enjoyed my my white rum cocktail, with a really tasty version of cheeslings that was served to accompany the drink.

Will I go back? Mostly No. With so many options in Powai, something very drastic will need to happen or some strong, reliable recommendation on another cuisine, to drag me there again.

Will I recommend? Yes, but only to the non-vegetarians as that menu looked very interesting & if someone is keen to try some other cuisine that they are serving and then tell me about it.

Munchkins Thai Ban Bandra

We spent the last Sunday evening at this cozy little restaurant right behind Cafe Basilico at Bandra.We were a group of 5 veggies,who were hungry and also wanted to spend a leisurely evening.Since my friends were already in, so we didn’t need to wait, but I noticed that this place seemed to have the least waiting. The place is actually nice,decor cozy & the food even if not super, but surely very good. So my guess is takers for Thai food gets narrowed down when you sit between one of the best Italian joints in town and another very good Chinese restaurant down the same street.

However for a Sunday evening I welcomed the fact that the place was not over crowded,when usually each table’s conversations,culminates into too much noise with a dash of rhythm added by the cutlery clicks. Anyways, so here is what we ordered; for soups with began with a spicy Tom Yum Soup, a strong recommendation only for people who love spicy food. It has a beautifully blended flavor of Thai chillies with vegetables garnishing it.The other soup ordered was the good old sweet corn soup, which was just like the good old soup,nothing exquisite nor disappointing.

Our plates saw Vegetables with Salt and Pepper and Nam Prik Praw Je for starters,where the latter being a recommendation from the staff. The Vegetables with salt and pepper was a complete let down, where it only contained vegetables that deep fried and served. Personally, I am slightly averse to deep fried food (except french fries) but friends who usually relish fried stuff also didn't enjoy it too much. However Nam Prik Praw Je was delightfully yum, it was vegetables stir fired in a mild spicy sauce.Simple and yet very tasty worth giving it a try.

So a little about the tastes of the group that I was with, a couple of us including me weren't too fond of very spicy food, mild spicy worked for us, some thrived on really spicy food and some didn’t enjoy excess of coconut .Why I mentioned this is because our ordering for the main course was super, as it catered to all the above likes and dislikes. We ordered, Phad Thai Noodles,Gaeng Kiew Warn (spicy green curry), Gaeng Phed (mildly spicy red curry) and 2 portions of steam rice.All our ordering bang on right, delicious and enjoyable. Phad Thai Noodles, was mildly spicy with a dash of sweetness spread across, it didn’t have coconut flavor, but a lovely peanut garnishing, that added refreshing crunchy feel to it.The green and the red curries where the typical Thai curries and nicely done. The Green one was strong and spicy while the red mild and nicely flavored. So as a complete picture each of us got to have what we liked and a little bit of everything.

All this came with a bill of Rs.1700 that included 15% Citi Bank food discount.So we didn't have any deserts as that we had plans reserved for that.But a quick mention that their desert menu was strictly alright with only few choices.

Will I go back? Well yes, on a lazy weekday when I am tired and hungry and don't want to experiment on the food and yet have something nice to eat, I will pick Thai Ban.

Will I recommend? Its not a must try, yet a nice place that will do the opposite person no harm in trying, so yes.

Oven Fresh

Where is it: Shivaji Park, Dadar, Mumbai

Eateratti began with Oven Fresh and here is a revisit to it.  I was introduced to this place back in late 90s when I was in school. And since then have been a regular here. Back then, they would sell these yum cheese rolls full of coleslaw fillings which I so loved. So I undoubtedly choose this to be the first Eateratti I wanted to right about.

Recently, on a good Sunday, after we opted out of a food joint with a 2 hr waiting time, we landed at our good ole Oven Fresh. Once there, we ate like we were starving for weeks and here is a snippet of what we loved and disliked.

So here were hits of the evening, & worth trying 

Fresh Herb Fondue

Topping the list that evening was the Cheese Fondue. Very creamy, with tangy marinated veggies. The only thing I wished was for little more of the cheese, as the quantity was little less.

Hummus with Pita Bread

The next item that was very interesting was, Pita Bread.

It was so yum so yum that we called for a repeat twice. (See I told you we ate like never before)

Garlic Bread with Cheese and herbs along with spaghetti in Creme Sauce 

Few things at oven fresh that have to be good, simply have to be good, there aint a scope for mistake. Garlic bread and spaghetti fall in that cadre that wont disappoint you.

Along with that their dessert department is very strong and that evening their Hazelnut smoothie and pastry-brownie was sinful and divine.Will also tried the Coco smoothie which was heavenly

Not so good but not at all bad was the simple cheese with paneer pizza that we had ordered. I liked it as it was all cheese however its popularity on the table to sincere foodies wasn’t too high.

Time for the flop shows of the day.

Baked Tacos

Tacos topped the list. By the glimpse of it, the dish was tackily put together and taste department also flawed.

Lasagne

The next dish to make a shocking entry into this disappointment section  was lasagne. I wonder what went wrong with this once upon a time, well baked, superbly garnished dish ? 

This all veg food joint that sits at Shivaji Park has now revamped it look. Gone are those bright graffiti walls, that are now replaced with tasteful restaurant interiors & the old plastic menu  cards are dumped for a good well bound one with a slight increase in the price!

The food in terms of taste though tasty is not authentic but is laced with an Indian taste. Which is why I guess my mom too enjoyed that food once when I dragged her there. So in short the taste is customized to appeal to the Indian taste buds and hence the popularity.

So my verdict is that anything that has cheese or chocolate in its making in Oven fresh wont disappoint you at all. So leave the calorie check behind and give your taste buds a soulful evening