Nandos, Peri Peri Chicken, Very Very Nice!

Nandos is a global chain of restaurants that started in South Africa in 1987. They launched their India’s chain sometime ago in Inorbit, Malad. To preserve continuity, Nandos has maintained the same format it follows in its international restaurants.

So the settings are cozy and comfortable. The tables and chairs covered with brown colour leather kinda reminds one of the roots of Nandos. Each table has three big bottles of Sauces with each one spicier than the other.

While there, we ordered for a Chicken Steak along with Ice Tea and Portuguese Lemonade. The best part is that both drinks are unlimited servings. So the glutton that I am, and the fact that I love Ice Tea, I drank 3 glasses of Ice Tea for just INR 70! The Portuguese Lemonade was different. It was Lemonade all right but a bit tangy which made it different.

The Chicken Steak though was disappointing. The chicken was a bit too dry and chewy for my liking. However, the sauces, worked their magic to make this a delectable dish. The sauces were really nice, especially the Wild Herb. The Hot Peri Peri was the hottest of the lot while the Garlic one tasted like, well Garlic! There is an option for either French Fries or Potato Wedges and we went for the Wedges. Not disappointing at all!

Overall, the meal was a bit expensive as the Chicken Steak only serves one person but two of us had it, thanks to the cheap snack at Desi Cafe, hours before we landed up at Nandos. The steak was priced at Rs.275.

A lot of people ordered for the steak and it seems to be the thing to order here. Some also ordered the Paneer Cubes, which are pretty huge. However,  the couple sitting next to us wasn’t too happy about the paneer, terming it too chewy and rubber-like, unlike the usual softness that is associated with the Paneer. We put down the experience to late night dining as it was close to closing time but then again, if the quality isn’t up to the mark then it spoils the experience.

Overall, Nandos is an excellent place with unlimited Ice Tea (I just had to include Ice Tea here!). Pricing is on the higher side but the experience is a good one. Meal for two should ideal cost Rs.700.

Desi Cafe, ekdum desi style service!

Desi Cafe, as the name suggests, is a cafe-ishtyle-street-food-in-an-air-conditioned-settings place! Phew! It is located in Hypercity, a place where hyper mommies and kiddies come to shop (ok ok PJ I know). Anyways, the place has a coffee-place like settings and serves a few Indian delicacies which one would find on the roadside. These include Samosa, Chaat items, sandwich and the good old cutting chai! Oh and they have coffee too, nescafe coffee to complete the ‘cafe’.

It is a self-service place so you go here, place the order then wait. Once the order arrives, the name of dish will be called out loudly, so loud that if you, by mistake, go for a stroll inside Hypercity after placing an order, you could still here that your food has arrived!

I ordered for Samosa Chaat while my friends ordered for Dahi Puri. The Samosa Chaat was spicy as expected and didn’t really go well with really hot Nescafe coffee! Wish my friends had shared some of the dahi with me. Sigh!

My dish wasn’t as interesting as the Dahi Puri which came in an Ice Cream bowl. Yes you read that right. Ice Cream Bowl ke andar Dahi Puri! Ekdum Jhakaas innovation this is. And honestly, it was a lot easier to eat it as well as opposed to the usual serving on a flat plate.

The pricing is moderate as well. The Samosa Chaat only cost INR 40 and filled up my pot belly enough to avoid dinner!

Besides Desi Cafe, there is another coffee joint at the entrance of Hypercity. Next to Desi Cafe is a fast-food prawns joints. Yes! They serve Prawns here for takeaway which is a kick ass innovation in my opinion.

PS: Apologies for the lack of pictures!

Image, Goregaon

Shifting my focus from Bandra to Goa and other suburbs of Mumbai is the trend for this month! Keeping up with this trend, decided to check out Image on SV Road. Image came highly recommended by a friend and for my gastronomy trials took her along as well.

Image is a family restaurant and can get packed with families and their kids. There are a couple of swings as well for the children so that the action inside can be followed up with some more on the swings in the small garden outside the restaurant. A brightly lit place is Image, with cushioned seats at the edges of the restaurant.

We arrived early here and easily got a place to sit. The three of us, Trance Dude, Rock Chic and Crazy Mommy were pretty hungry and couldn’t wait for the food to arrive.  We ordered for chicken chilly, chicken abhadi for starters along with mocktails to go with it. The starters were good with the Chicken Abhadi being the standout for me. Tasted more like Reshmi Chicken though wasn’t exactly like Reshmi Chicken.

For the main course we had the Dhaba Chicken and a variety of bread including Tawa Paratha , Pudina Paratha and Garlic Naan. The Tawa Paratha was pretty rich with its layer of butter and ghee. Trance Dude liked the Garlic Naan as well and of late, has developed a liking for Garlic Naan. The Roti-Sabzi combination was followed by Chicken Dum Biryani and Boondi ka Raita to go with with it. I liked the Biryani here. Made in the traditional way of cooking biryani in an earthen pot, it was also served from the very same pot. The flavours were amazing and the biryani was just the thing to top off the dinner. Extremely delicious it was right up there with the best biryani’s we have had in a long while! Trance Dude, Rock Chic and Crazy Mommy were pretty happy with it but that wasn’t the end of it. The sizzling brownie was our dessert and we enjoyed it thoroughly!

The food was good though for the most part Trance Dude can confidently say ‘he has had better’. The food was delicious but not affordable for someone for whom eating out is a regular affair. The total bill came to INR 1320 while the Biryani cost INR 185 (a must have at Image).

Good place (though noisy cause of the kids but then again cannot complain for Trance Dude was once like them!) and good food make image a fantastic choice for a family meal, if you can afford it.

Rasoi – Good Food, Great Service!

This past week was a good one as far as finding new eateries is concerned. Rasoi is no different. Until last week, I didn’t know it existed. And on top, Daniel tells me it is a good restaurant. So I had to check out for myself. At first sight, Rasoi comes across as an expensive place. But then again, it is also a bar besides being a restaurant and a makeshift banquet hall.

But since we had travelled all the way to Malad just to try Rasoi, we weren’t going back now. So parked the bike and moved towards the restaurant as we were greeted by 2 gentlemen who led us inside a huge hall with four rows of tables and chairs. Upon request we were guided to table in the corner as opposed to sitting right in front of the exit! This was a good gesture I though as the other table was apparently reserved for someone else.

Once seated, we were greeted by a North Eastern gentleman was kind enough to suggest us some dishes. Infact his friendly nature made us feel comfortable and at home at Rasoi. His first suggestion was the extra spicy Tangdi Kebab followed by the not so spicy Chicken Kadai. Ironic how the dish that is supposed to be spicy was nearly sweet while the Kebab was a spicy affair. In fact, we utilised their promotional offer of one-on-one free beer from the stable of Little Devil. The mild beer perfectly complimented the Kebabs but lost their usefulness once the starters were over.

The main course, Chicken Handi, was good to taste, albeit a bit sweet. The quantity was quite good as we were of the consensus that three can eat from this dish as opposed to the two of us then! Following the Handi were the Gulab Jamuns and the Malai Kulfi. My friend and me are in love with this combo which is akin to having a sizzling hot brownie – the only difference being this is an Indian version of the same! Mix a bit of sugar syrup with the Kulfi, and have the hot Gulab Jamun – the combo is just heavenly!

Whilst we were already contemplating another round of desserts the bill was served. The to

tal meal cost us INR 668 which for just the two of us is expensive! Minus the beer at INR 125, the price was still on the higher side for us (others may differ off course!). The food was good, the service even better but the not so affordable prices at this stage of our lives makes us wonder when next will we go to Rasoi!

Dum Laga Ke – Not as good as before!

A search for an apparently cheap eatery in Malad West led me to Dum Laga Ke which is an offshoot of the famous Borivali Biryani Centre. Though a friend suggested Rasoi (Which is close to Dum Laga Ke), we choose to go to Dum as it is a tried and tested place by my friends. I have been here only once, which was over a year ago, and honestly speaking, it was amazing back then! So for me, it was to know whether Dum was still maintaining the same standards!

Our order consisted of the Prawns and Chicken Tikka Biryani and also Brain Garlic Fry for starters. While there are no complaints about the Brain Garlic Fry we were a tad bit disappointed with Biryanis.

The quantity of rice was good but sadly that of the prawns wasn’t. We were hunting for the prawns in the sea of rice! Though my friend who ordered for the Chicken Tikka Biryani didn’t have any such problems he did complain about the Chicken Tikka not tasting like Chicken Tikka. Correct though he was, I think it was deliberately done so as a pungent Chicken Tikka negates the flavour of the Biryani so you either taste the tikka or the rice and not the Biryani. As a whole, it tasted like Biryani and not chicken pulav which was a good thing in my opinion.

What was missing from both the Biryanis was the distint aroma associated with the dish. My guess is that since the Biryani here is in such high demand they must be preparing the dish in huge quantities. That’s a shame really for food made like it’s an assembly line product never comes out as good as the one made with love and care!

In comparison though, the Biryani at ‘Just Biryani‘ at the same price is better!

The best meal of the night was the Brain! Cooked to perfection. Though expensive at INR 170 it was worth the money. Many write tales about how a certain dish at a certain place gets them hooked on for life. Well Dum Lage Ke did just that with their Garlic Brain preparation.

Lastly for drinks I ordered for Zaffran which is a Kesar flavoured drink. Last time I came, there were Kesar strands floating in the drink which gave it the peculiar taste. This time, it was just a sugary-flavoured drink! Recession affecting them?

Overall, the meal was satisfying. Though a bit disappointed with the Prawns Biryani but the Brain Garlic Fry more than made up for it!

Address: Shop No 2 & 3, Ganga Niwas, Next to Toyota Showroom, Link Road, Malad West, Mumbai

Rating: Ambiance – 3.5/5. Setting of the place is nice though intriguingly the seats here are a little too low and for tall people it could cause a major discomfort!

Food – 3/5

Price – 3/5. Definitely on the expensive side but they don’t cringe on the quantity. Not yet atleast.

(All the pictures are courtesy my friend Neville Chesan who was kind enough to click the pictures for me!)