Wine @ Ivy!

Cafe Ivy Bar and Bistro
Burrp page: http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/cafe-ivy-bar-bistro_versova_mumbai_restaurants-bars-pubs/121829188

or
http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/ivy-wine-cafe-bistro_andheri-w_mumbai_restaurants/1204447089

Place: Versova, Andheri (W)

Food:  - 5/10

Menu variety:  - 7/10

Service:  - 5/10

Ambiance:  - 4/10

VFM:  - 9/10

After a good hour and a half of foxtrot and cha-cha, we headed out to the nearby Ivy Bar because, as usual, we hadn't checked it out before. And what better to drink after a ballroom dancing session, but good old fashioned wine!

Food
The food here is average. We ordered a Caesar salad which didn't have the small bread crumbs that I love and the happy sprinkling of parmesan (at least give some parmesan on the side so we can add to taste). Also asked for some french fries which were overdone. The french fries connoisseur in my group wasn't very pleased!

For main course, we called for some grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and veg gravy. Now we couldn't understand what this veg gravy meant, so we asked the waiter. He had no clue at all and kept saying "green veggies, yes, green veggies". It was so irritating coz if it was a real gravy item, we wanted to switch it with sauteed veggies or grilled veggies. When we couldn't put our point across to the waiter, we just asked him to get whatever the menu said without any customizations. And what we got was sauteed veggies. I dunno why they used the word gravy! Also called for some chicken in mexican rice and salsa. This tasted quite nice and the salsa was nicely prepared.

Menu Variety
This place caters to wine drinkers and so it's understood if their food menu is not great. The wine menu is extensive, but could do with some explanations of how the wine tastes. The food menu, on the other hand, could avoid saying "veg gravy" when what they end up giving is just green veggies on the side. Ivy also has an Indian and Chinese menu, which I think they must've had to do to pull in more crowds. But Chinese at least has no place in a wine bistro. One major item missing is a cheese menu. A wine bistro has to, has to, has to serve a whole variety of cheese! So the whole positioning tactic of this place is very confusing to me.

Service
Our waiter did not know his wines at all nor the menu preparations. He wasn't sure of anything at all. Also, after we ordered for our wine, we were told that we'd have to wait 20 mins as all the wine glasses broke due to some accident (the place was almost empty! aren't there spares?). At any other day, we would have left the place and these guys would have lost customers. For some reason (I think we were hungry), we stayed on. The waiter then came back in 5 mins and said that the glasses were ready so we'd get our wines soon! Bad planning and bad customer service.

Ambiance
I like the ambiance here. It's not a pretentious wine place. Quite a cafe feel to it. Got an indoor and outdoor section, both very minimal and well done. There's a map of India on the ceiling (I wonder why on the ceiling) which I think shows where all the vineyards are. I can just guess coz the map doesn't say what it's showing! The crowd was nice and laid back.

Value for Money
Total paisa vasool! One glass of wine will cost you between Rs. 95 to Rs. 250, which is MUCH cheaper than what most restaurants charge you. Bottles start with Rs. 200 (if I remember correctly). I'm glad there's finally a place that serves cheap wine!

Location
Right on JP road. Very easy access. You can sip some wine while you wait for your appointment at Hakim Alim's next door. :D

And in conclusion...
I would come here again and again for the cheap wine. And maybe I find out some dish that they're really good at making, to go along with that wine!