Classic Chinese - Best schezwan sauce in Andheri

Classic Chinese
Burrp page: http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/classic-chinese_andheri-w_mumbai_restaurants/151112158

Place: Near St. Blaise Church, Amboli, Andheri (W)

Food:  - 8/10

Menu variety:  - 7/10

Service:  - 3/10

Ambiance:  - 2/10

VFM:  - 8/10

So me and my friend were at Torrp It Up, having a healthy meal. Except, at the end of it, we wanted something with some oil! I was really in the moods for some chicken lollipops. And if you're in Andheri west, the only place you should go to for lollipops is Classic Chinese.

Food

Great lollipops and the best schezwan sauce ever. Classic's schezwan is not a viscous liquid like you'd expect most sauces to be. Instead, it's all the ingredients diced and put together with oil as the sticking agent. Umm, think of how original salsa sauce is made...it's not really a saucy texture, right? This is the schezwan equivalent! The first time I'd seen the schezwan here (in 2005), I thought it was a bad recipe, but when I tasted it, I remember thinking this is the kinda sauce that must have first originated in homes in Schezwan, China. It's true to taste. Yum. The feeling of authentic Chinese food ends there though. The rest of the food is completely Indian Chinese :)

The gravy items and rice here are like a true road-side restaurant. I've never had anything here that has been bad tasting or not fresh. Especially like their Singapore rice, which is slightly yellow in color and comes with a garnish of fried chilly. For gravies, just ask the waiter for options, after giving him the following parameters:

• gravy color - red / brown / green / white / yellow
• spiciness - spicy / medium spicy / not spicy

And he'll rattle off some 3-4 dishes than you can choose from, based on some minor variations like one dish might have mushrooms, another may have peppers...you get the drift.

Oh and try the fried wantons here too. My friend swears by them.

Menu variety

For a road-side restaurant, they have quite an extensive menu. Some 4-5 pages of a whole lot of stuff. I love that you can order for your chicken dishes in diced / ball format. While the ball means that the chicken is coated, semi-fried and then cooked in the gravy, the diced means that you get pure unadulterated chicken in your gravy. At extra cost, of course!

Service

What service? Lol. I think the waiters at least smile at us because they've known us since 2005 (not much attrition here...wow), but they're usually curt and very matter-of-fact about everything. This time I went, the waiter told some guy at a table "toh pehle bolne ka tha na?" ("so you should've told me before, no?")!

Ambiance

Road-side. By the road, just next to the footpath. It has an inside and outside section, inside being a legal structure I guess and outside being an illegal usage of the footpath with a plastic shed covering it. The outside section has 4 plastic tables and 16 plastic chairs with a street view (how European, no?). The inside section has 2 wooden tables with 4 benches that will seat 12 people in total. Inside section is right next to the kitchen so is a bad idea in summers, but a great place to sit for the 15 winter days that Bombay has.

Value for money

For the brilliant food and perfect schezwan sauce that they have, this place is a must visit. Of course, if you're all classy and pretentious, you'd not wanna be seen around this place. In which case, you must get a take-away from here at least once. It is totally worth it.

Location

It's quite close to Andheri station, and next to St. Blaise Church. If you live in Andheri west and cross Amboli every day, you can stop by on your way home. Or maybe visit after Sunday mass?

And in conclusion...

If eating at road-side restaurants is cool with you (this does not count the hyped Bade Miya or Khurshid's bhurji (scrambled eggs) and pav bhaji. These places are now cool to hang out at and have lost the road side appeal for me. Khurshid makes good bhurji though, I must admit), then you would visit this place again and again once you give it a try. The best lollipops are here, buddies! Go and hog!

Leaving you with an image that'll make you wanna have some lollipops :D