Mahjong, Khar – Expensive Chinese Buffet

Its been almost a year since I have been for buffet dinner somewhere. The last I went was at Its Mirchi at Juhu sometime last year. What interested me most was that Mahjong is a chinese buffet place and since I haven’t had much chinese before I thought of trying out. Though the cost was supposedly 379 + taxes it nearly went to INR 500 per person! The rule of any good buffet is to pace yourself instead eating like a maniac for the first few minutes/dishes/rounds and then hardly eating much later on. Well, all of us pretty much broke that rule, quite decisively. While we gorged upon dish after dish of starters, the waiter’s were quite happy to serve us thinking that we might just fill ourselves in the first hour or so and leave. BUT that wasn’t the case. We had starters, main course and multiple rounds of desserts as well.

For starters, they had Veg Steamed Wanton, Potato in Chilly Plum, Corn Cream, Paneer in Shanghai, Goyza, Stir Fried Chicken Wings, Keying Chicken and Fish in Green Chilly.  The dishes were tasty but not exactly satisfying. The pick for me was the Corn Cream in veg and Fish in Green Chilly (even though I am chicken person, the fish tasted better). The Paneer was ok ok while I stayed away from the Stir Fried Chicken Wings cause of its deep fried nature! I think they used the same sause with Keying Chicken and Paneer in Shanghai making the paneer dish the chicken equivalent for veggies!

We ate and we ate multiple rounds of starters and almost everyone was full with starters. Interestingly, there was a long wait between starters and main course which helped the appetite immensly.

For the main course, there was Three Treasure Veg, Mix Veg in Cilantro Sauce, Dragon Prawns and Chicken in Oyster Chilly. And we got Veg fried rice and hakka noodles as well. The rice and noodle was bland as expected but was quite a good mixture with the dragon prawns. Chicken was nice too but the prawns won this round quite comfortably.

Next up was the dessert which including Mango Pudding, Banana Mousse, Caramel Custurd and Strawberry Ice-cream. This has to be the most disappointing dessert I have ever had. Though we ordered multiple rounds none of us were really excited about the desserts. The strawberry ice cream was ordered the most; not atall fresh, but better than the others. The Custurd was bland, wouldn’t eat for free if I was offered this custurd. The banana mousse was good as well but didn’t taste fresh either. Banana ice-cream at natural’s tastes better!! And lastly, the Mango Pudding but I though was nothing but frozen ‘Mazaa’ or any other mango drink!! Extremely disappointing desserts!

Overall, if I had to rate this place, then it would be a 3/5. OK food, Good Service, nice ambiance as well. One of my friend’s complaint about no back rest (For the seats we were given) and I agree wit him. Back rest would have made it so much so comfortable.

The place was frequented by families but not a lot of people were really interested in a chinese buffet on a saturday night it seemed! Anyways, I don’t think I will be going here again anytime soon since I am damn sure there are much better places around Mumbai, at comparable buffet prices!

Dynasty, Santacruz – Chinese Food

One of my few lunch meetings with office colleagues and the place decided upon was Dynasty. A very old and popular place, Dynasty serves, primarily, chinese food. I am not too sure why this is happening but off late I have had quite a lot of chinese food items!

After we reached Dynasty, we quickly got down to ordering starters whilst still waiting for another member of our group to arrive; hunger pangs pretty much rule over any other emotion we have! First up was Ice Tea which, I think, was quite good. We also ordered for a Sweet Corn Crab Soup and Paneer Baby Corn Chef’s style. The crab soup was nice, the first time I have had crab soup. It was sweet as expected and nice too.  I had crab for the first time on my birthday and that experience (which I thank my friend, Kankshi Mehta, for handholding me in the art of eating crab) has emboldened me to try crab all by myself! How terrific is that!! Well crab soup was nice but the Paneer starter was a killer! very very well made. I really dont know what the chef put in the gravy (Wish i knew) but it was quite a well prepared dish.

For the main course, we ordered for Da-Chen Chicken, Veg Malaysian Noodels Three Tresure Veg. and Burnt Ginger/Garlic Rice. The rice was nice. Infact I have been telling my mom to make garlic rice every since I ate at Dynasty! And combined with Da-chen chicken, it was quite a good main course. The veg stuff wasn’t exactly to my liking though but my veggie friends liked it so I guess overall the main course was good value.

Price wise, I think, Dynasty is a tad too expensive. Between the four of us, we shelled out INR 960.

Here is a breakdown:

Da-chen Chicken – INR 160

Ice Tea – INR 50

Sweet Corn Crab Soup – INR 110

Paneer Baby Corn Chef’s Special – INR 155

Veg Malaysia Noodles – INR 125

Burnt Ginger/Garlic Rice – INR 125

And oh before I forget, every table at Dynasty has three sauces kept (like in any other chinese restaurant). There is this one sauce mixed with corriander leaves which is kinda sweet in taste and really adds a flavour to anything you add it to. Do try out this sauce.

Little Bite – R Mall

Little Bite is a small juice place inside R Mall. They serve some good fresh juices. Though I thought the prices were on the higher side but offcourse a location inside a mall demands high price. We had Sweet lime juice which cost us INR 40 each! A good refresher from the usual cola drinks you get pretty much everywhere.

Poptates, Mulund – Nice Environment

Poptates was a long due meet for me and a friend of mine and what better way to celebrate the long overdue meet than with some drinks and fish cigars!! Located at R-Mall, Poptates shares space with other eateries owned by the same guy. It is quite a big place, decent ambiance, hospitable waiters and good food. Since I had two females with me drinking as well, we are asked to provide age proof which the girls obliged, much to the relief of the managers (and to me!). Afterall, me drinking alone wouldn’t really be a nice thing to do!

Anyhoo, we ordered for 2 smirnoff and one margarita followed by Peshawari Chicken Pizza, Garlic Bread with spicy cheese and fish cigars. While the first round got the women high (while according to them they were pretty normal and that I was buzzing instead!),  we went ahead with another round to prove our ‘stamina’. Anyways, coming back to the food, the peshawari, spicy like it sounds was ordered by my friend who cannot take spicy food. I think it was the drinks talking when she ordered the spicy pizza! The pizza was good though and so was the spicy cheese garlic bread.

Then came the fish, my southie friend cannot live without fish and she has to have fish when she goes outside. And what better than fish cigars which was nothing by sheesh kabab! The cigars were good! we even acted like we were smoking cigars!!!! I think fish cigars is definately one of those things you have to order if you are in Poptates.

Another thing I noticed about the place was, that there were couples, friends, families – people came to have a few drinks, some just came to eat and have a good time, children were there as well! That ascertains that Poptates has created an image of a restaurant that caters to anyone and everyone. They even have special birthday celebrations upon request.

A very good place to hang out and have a few drinks. Not the cheapest of places though as we three spent INR 1355 collectively on food + drinks.

Rains on the anvil in Mumbai…

People have reported rains across the city of Mumbai. Rains are one of those times when you reallly feel like stuffing up on some fried food – hot fried food!

I like Kanda Bhajia or maybe just bata bhajia would do too. Sit with a beer somewhere nice, preferbaly on the beach and enjoy the gloomy weather! Once the rains do start maybe I will do all these things. I remember walking on the beach last year with my windcheater on and the rains just pouring down like crazy. Was quite windy as well. One awesome day that was. Had pav bhaji before i left for home that day!

Hoping to do some crazy things this rainy season as well!

Hangout Bakery

This is a small little and famous bakery at Lokhandwala. Well known for its cakes, pasteries and gift items. Have had a few items from here late night for dessert and they tasted quite good. Not exactly the fresh stuff but not atall bad. Definately a must go place if you wanna grab a nice dessert and watch the incessant traffic go by!!! Anyhoo, I have tried a few chocolate pasteries and found them quite good. The only grouch I have with them is that they dont keep small slices of cheese cakes but those big birthday cheese cakes.

Kalpana Stores – Chappel Road

This is a small store on Chappel Road, Bandra which sells quite a lot of small take aways including burgers, rolls, rotis, fugias, chicken lolipops, puffs, sandwiches and more. Been to this place many many times. Generally have the puffs and the chicken burgers. My friend likes the rotis there. But of late, the quality of the rotis and the puffs have really gone down. Besides, the reduced chicken quantity, the roti is sometimes too spicy while the puff, even when warm doesn’t feel like it was cooked just moments ago!

The burgers though are nice and so are the spring rolls. Even the pan roll when its warmed up is good to eat. Overall this is not such a bad place, considering u can have a stomach full in less than INR 50 (USD 1). The quality of the food is not bad but its not the same it used to be before.

Stomach – Waterfield Road, Bandra – Fake Biryani!

Was looking for Biryani and my friend suggest Stomach. Having been there before, neither of us were sure about the quality but then none of us have had biryani here before so were eager to try out – knowing very well that it won’t be the best thing we have had! Anyways we, got down to ordering, ordered a chicken soup and chicken biryani. Soup came in fast and for a change it looked like soup and not just some stale veggies and a shreds of chicken mixed with hot water (ya, that is what I have had at stomach before). Anyways once the soup was over the Biryani was bought in. Immediately it struck us, that the biryani looke d more chicken schzwan rice.

Anyhoo, we got down to the business of eating ‘fake biryani’ which neither looked or tasted like biryani. Most definately the worst biryani ever! But for a rice and chicken combination it was alright. Though I did feel the chicken wasn’t cooked properly! But heck I still ate almost the whole dish! Offcourse, was left with a highly unsatisfied feeling. Ate a lot but didnt eat anything!!! Was completely disappointed with the food and the price we paid for it! My hunt for biryani still continues. Don’t think I will be making it to stomach again anytime soon!

Food Inn – Lokhandwala, Andheri West

I read in the papers sometime back that the Tandoori Chicken was the best at Food Inn. So I decided to try it out for myself and took my friend along as my sole witness to my tasting ritual. Even before we sat down we placed the order and by the time we found the table the order had arrived. What timing!! The chicken, though a bit burnt in parts was quite yummy. Tender and well cooked the chicken was devoured quickly. Still hungry, (or atleast hallucinating hunger) we ordered for another dish. Chicken Kabuli bonless and 2 naans. The chicken curry was very very good! Even though we were full, we still ate on to our hearts content until we couldn’t eat more!

The Kabuli was good, as it was suggested by the waiter himself. The tandoori was good too but I must say I have had better. If my memory serves me right, I have never had better tandoori chicken than at Bistro Grill, Juhu. Infact this place got my hooked onto tandoori chicken for life! The Tandoori at Food Inn, was quite salty as well, not exactly to our taste, I must say.

The total meal cost us 200 bucks per person and I think it could have been down to just around a 100 bucks if we didn’t choose to stuff ourselves up so much! Besides the food, we also had lassi which was cold and thick (awesome!) and my friend ordered a sweet lime juice which was, well, frigging sweet!!!

Will definitely go to this place again for some curry delights and lassi to go with it!

On a side note, I thought the food here was better than at Food Inn in Juhu which is just about ok for the price you pay.

Falafel’s – Veg Hummus House: Inorbit, Vashi

Falafel’s, at Hill Road, Bandra, was one those places which looked good from the outside and had this inviting ambiance. I never got to try out the place but thanks to my diet loving friends the opportunity to try out this veg place finally beckoned me. So we ordered a combo meal, to pretty much try out a few things all at once. The meal included, hummus, topping falafel, veg salad and lemonade juice.

The meal pretty much looked likea dietician’s dream – low fat, raw vegetables and some lemonable to reduce the fat (not sure if that does work though ). Oh forgot to add the pita bread which was much thicker than I have had in some other places. But it was soft and quite nice to eat without the hummus too. It was just so much fun eating the pita bread with hummus, having some salads and then finally taking a sip of lemonade! Atleast me and my UK-based friend, who eats hummus for breakfast (globalisation – Indian chic, living in the UK, having middle eastern food for breakfast) completely enjoyed the meal while the other friend was finicky about the hummus but liked the salad and the pita bread.

Overall, it was a nice meal and especially the hummus. Oh! how i love this middle eastern delicacy! Me thinks, I will make this my breakfast once I give my mom a few recipes and she perfects the art of making hummus. Or alternatively, just marry a middle eastern woman who can cook well.

Kareem’s – Carter Road, Bandra

Kareem’s is one of those places frequented by a lot of people presumably for the ‘good food’ they serve. I do not question the quality of the food served. The first time I had been here we were put off by the price and not the quality. Sad to say, this time it was no different. Paid nearly 545 bucks for 7 rolls (Veg and non-veg) and not a single soul felt like we actually something! Though the rolls weren’t so bad, they were small and expensive. Though I must say I did like the Reshmi Chicken Roll. Infact my friend who had ordered a Kalimirchi Chicken Roll choose to ate my (along with hers, the needy greedy woman that she is!).

Honestly speaking, if I wanna have a roll, I rather head to Carter Blue or to the place diagonally opposite Carter Blue (I think its lucky rolls?). Its cheaper. And especially Carter Blue, more filling. One Shawarma for INR 70 at Carter Blue is filling, tastier and better than One Chicken Roll for INR 85 at Kareem’s.