Being a real food critic

What started out as a mission, is turning out to be something worth much more. I love to eat and I love to write and I decided to club the two with this blog. Somewhere down the line, my friend Siddhesh ended up mentioning this to a relative of his who worked for www.mumbaikar.com and he contacted me to write food reviews for his site. And that led to me having a relationship with that site. While I love burrp with it's ease of use and width of coverage. this site was not only a great opportunity, but the next competitor! So there I was, changing parties.

I'm going to cross the first milestone in being a food critic tomorrow when I review a restaurant as an official blogger of www.mumbaikar.com ! While I have been blogging for them for a couple of months now, it was a copy paste of my blog posts here to gain an audience for me. But tomorrow, I'm going to do a brunch review of White at Goregaon (W) as a Mumbaikar blogger and I can't tell you how excited I am about this. I have special reservations and everything!



Have you guys seen the movie Ratatouille? I relate so much to that movie (and I also started liking rats after that movie hehe) and somehow always wanted to be a little bit like Anton Ego (apart from also wanting to be a lot like the rat!). There is something Ego says that has influenced me in many ways, much to the irritation of my mom.



"I don't like food, I love it..." Aahhh...he stole the words from my mouth!

To more food and merriment!

Cheers :)

Father figure @ Green House, Vile Parle

Green House

Burrp page: http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/green-house_vile-parle-e_mumbai_bars-pubs-restaurants/134146475

Place: Nehru road, Vile Parle (E)

Food:  - 5/10

Menu variety:  Didn't see the menu

Service:  - 3/10

Ambiance:  - 3/10

VFM:  - 5/10

Food
Let's just say that the food satiated hunger. We started with a veg kakori kabab and the steward's recommended mutton boti starter. The kakori kabab did NOT melt in my mouth like it's supposed to. While the mutton was soft, I could not appreciate the dry coconut base that it was cooked in. My colleague did find it extremely tasty, though.

For the main course, we had an egg biryani, another recommended chicken dish instead of the butter chicken that my colleague wanted to have and butter garlic naan. I liked the egg biryani a lot (although my friend, Kashif, would have complained that it was not true biryani but a tawa preparation). The chicken gravy tasted exactly like butter chicken but probably had some cashew paste in it too. I don't know why the steward insisted it was different. The garlic naans were amazing, and unbelievable as it may sound, there have been some restaurants that have managed to screw their garlic naans. This restaurant, however, made it perfectly.

Butter chicken-ish thingie

Good garlic naan

Menu variety
I was tired at the end of a long day at work and so we didn't really see the menu! It was a quick order of drinks and asking the waiter to get us whatever he wanted.

Service
I'm sure the steward had all good intentions, but he behaved like a father. No, correction, a mother! When we called for drinks, I asked for a large peg and my colleague asked for a small. Immediately, the steward went, "She's ordering for a large!" and looked at my colleague as if he was not man enough. How is it any of his business and what gives your steward to be so uncouthly judgmental about you?!

When we called for butter chicken, he looked at us unapprovingly and said, "Butter chicken? Why butter chicken? Have something else. I will suggest." And although I agree with him, you can't say it like that! Couldn't he have just asked if he could recommend something similar?

For the egg biryani again, he thought it would be funny to ask if my colleague wanted a chicken egg or an English egg. I swear if I was not in a good mood, I would have probably been very curt with this guy.

Ambiance

Right outside the restaurant is a whole lot of smell! I don't know where it comes from, but ugh! Inside, the place is average, with no decor. The normal residential area family restaurant with yellow lights, tables with white table cloths and the whole cream and maroon combination that reminds me of the family restaurants I used to visit when I was younger. The bar counter looks nice though.

The bar

Value for money
Two large pegs of whiskey, two large pegs of rum, one small peg of vodka, two starters and two main courses brought us back by about Rs. 2000. With nothing extraordinary about the place, it's average VFM.

Location
Very close to Vile Parle station in the east.

And in conclusion...
It's not a bad place to visit if you live close by. But there's absolutely no good reason to travel to this restaurant for their food (or service or ambiance).

Lal dabba

Red Box

Burrp page: http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/red-box-cafe_andheri-w_mumbai_bars-pubs-restaurants/134272475

Place: Between Fame Adlabs and Infinity Mall, Andheri (W)

Food:  - 5/10

Menu variety:  - 6/10

Service:  - 4/10

Ambiance:  - 5/10

VFM:  - 4/10

Food
I have probably never had a great experience at Red Box. And yet we go there because sometimes it's the only place with tables available. Somehow, I've never got the succulent feel to any meat here. The vegetarian food is good, though and I think it's the first time I've ever said that!

Menu variety
They have a decent variety of starters, salads, main course, pastas, pizzas and sizzlers. Having a good menu doesn't necessarily mean good food, though!

Service
It seems like the waiters in the indoor section of the restaurant are always too busy for you. I don't feel as welcome as I'm used to in other pricey places. Also, with the loud music, every thing has to be shouted at least twice to the waiter. These guys working here are gonna have serious hearing damage later in life.
Last time I went, I ordered a chicken sizzler. Not only did it taste below average, check out what the plate looked like. And the staff thought nothing strange of it!

What a sizzler plate!

By the way, you see the mashed potatoes on my plate? I repeated 3 times while giving the order that I wanted it in a separate plate and not on the sizzling plate. They have no idea, these guys.

Ambiance
The music is TOO loud! There's no dance floor. Why does the music have to be so loud? You can't have conversations and you can't place an order conveniently. The outdoor section is better in that way. At least you can catch up with people without worrying about getting deaf.

Value for money
It's an expensive place (for a plate that looks like that!), the food is average and the ambience will make you deaf. What value for money?

Location
Conveniently located though, on the Link Road, between two major cinema halls and in the midst of many other restaurants.

And in conclusion...
If you're in the vicinity, you'd rather go to TGIF.

UPDATE 28-Aug-2010
A long day at work ensured that I got free only at 23:15 hrs last night. Not wanting to end up with a damp Friday night, I called a friend and reached TGIF at 23:50 hrs, by which time the mall was not allowing anybody inside. So it was off to Red Box for my quota of drinks.

We sat outside yesterday and I don't know if it the staff is trained differently for this section of just too many people have complained about their bad service, but there was a huge improvement from the last time I visited this joint.

• The waiters were extremely nice to us
• My friend was asked if he wanted his beer with foam or without. When he said without, he was served the beer with absolutely no foam. Zero! Really!
• When I ordered my dinner, I didn't realize I chose from the sizzlers section (the Pink Pepper Chicken was good, but I don't know why all chicken dishes at Red Box have a distinct flavor that I don't like and I just can't pinpoint). So when the dish arrived, I stated, "Oh I didn't know this was a sizzler." To which, the captain asked the steward to move the sizzler plate to another side of the table so that I could wait out for the smoke to die! I told him that was not necessary. But really, at Red Box? Is the captain at the outdoor section better at his job? Maybe!

Some things never change, though. Take a look at how worn their menu was. If you charge us 200 bucks for a small peg of whiskey, I want to see a menu that looks better than that of an Udipi please!