No White for me, please

White

Burrp page: http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/white-the-italian-restaurant_goregaon-w_mumbai_restaurants/192719217
Mumbaikar page: http://www.mumbaikar.com/en/blog/post/alpana-mandal/from-italy-to-globe-trotting-white-goregaon-w-for-the-sunday-brunch.html

Place: Ozone Club, Goregaon (W)

Food:  - 6/10

Buffet variety:  - 4/10

Service:  - 5/10

Ambiance:  - 8/10

VFM:  - 4/10

Let me clarify right at the beginning...White is no longer an Italian restaurant, although googling it will lead you to that conclusion. Apparently, two years back, the restaurant changed from Italian to multi-cuisine, thanks to customer requirements (damn you,  people of Goregaon!).  So if you’re looking for an Italian brunch, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Food

Brunch starters are served on the table, consisting of three veg and three non-veg items. The Green Peas Tikki tasted pretty much like a hara bhara kabab and I was expecting it to be much softer. The 5 Spice Cottage Cheese was soft, but I couldn’t really taste 5 spices in them. The tomato flavour was the strongest and somehow reminded me of some of those ready to cook pizza pasta sauces. If that sauce on the paneer was better, this would have been a really awesome item. The Mini Spring Roll was average, but I don’t really like spring rolls so I shouldn’t really comment. In non-veg starters, my favourite was the Chicken Chatpata which tasted exactly like chicken koliwada. Done very well, the batter was crispy and the chicken tender. The Fish Manchurian Dry was also very tasty and extremely fresh. The most hilarious starter was the Jerked Chicken, not because of the taste – it was the most exotic of the starters with a good blend of herbs – but because of the name itself. The original dish is called Jerk Chicken which is a preparation from Jamaica. “Jerked” chicken gave the dish a whole new meaning and my friend and I laughed for a good minute about the name! (For those of you who still don’t get it, you need help from a dictionary)

Starters

In the main course, nothing really blew me off. Most of the dishes were good, but not great. My favourite was the Spaghetti Napolitana and it got me thinking of how nice the Italian food could be here. Unfortunately, that was the only Italian item on the brunch menu. Oh and among the little choices of salads available, the Chicken Hawaiian Salad stood up like a shining star.

The other main course dish that came closest to the spaghetti  was the Vegetarian Thai Green Curry. However, while it tasted very good, it was a little too watery for my liking. I would have preferred it with a thicker consistency.

Everything else was average. The Singapore Noodles did not live up to my expectations. My favourite thing in a Singapore fried rice or noodles is the fried red chilli which, in this case, was not as crispy as it should have been. The Paprikash Chicken and Fish Soya Green Chilli Spring Onions were above average “Indian-Chinese” dishes. Again, nothing awesome.

In desserts, there was a very good lemon cream roll which would have been extremely tasty had it not been for some syrup on top of the roll which I had to scrape out with my spoon. The chocolate gateaux was brilliant and so thankfully brunch ended with some saving grace (along with the spaghetti, of course).

 Meanwhile, my friend was getting impatient. In a desperate attempt to eat something Italian, he ordered for a pepperoni pizza. What we got was disastrous. The pepperoni didn’t really look like pepperoni and had a stale flavour in every bite. Also, the pizza base was thin, yet too chewy. When we asked whether they had really served us pepperoni, they tried to convince us that it was, but I know what pepperoni looks like and what we got.

This is what pepperoni pizza should look like:

This is what we got:

Needless to say, we couldn’t have more than two bites of the pizza and I’m honestly concerned if the meat was stale/ uncooked and whether I’ll get a stomach infection.

And before I forget, I must mention this. The restaurant is still trying to keep some Italian touch to itself, but ends up being pretty confused. The table is laid with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and chilli sauce, which is a full-on Italian thing to do. But the breads on offer at the brunch were below par for any good restaurant. There were some buns which looked too pathetic for me to even try and some croissants that seemed decent enough to taste. I think the croissants would have been good once upon a time (no idea when they prepared it) but were not appealing when cold and dry (which is when we ate them).

Buffet variety

Let me list down what was part of the buffet first. Then some comments.

Drinks

·         Frozen Black Currant mocktail OR

·         Peach and Apple Punch OR

·         Rose wine

Veg starters

·         Mini spring roll

·         Green peas tikki

·         5 spice cottage cheese

Non-veg starters

·         Chicken chatpata

·         Jerked chicken (LOL)

·         Fish Manchurian dry

Main course veg

·         Spaghetti Napolitana

·         Subz-e-bahar

·         Veg Thai Green Curry

·         Singapore noodles

Main course non-veg

·         Kheema Mutter

·         Fish Soya Green Chilli Spring Onions

·         Paprikash Chicken

·         Steam rice

·         Assorted rotis

Salad

·         Chana chaat

·         Tossed salad

·         Chicken Hawaiian salad

Dessert

·         English cake

·         Strawberry Cheese Cake

·         Chocolate Eclair

·         Cherry Walnut Muffin

·         Cake Mousse Gateaux

·         Chocolate Pudding

·         Lemon Cream Roll

The first thing that should hit you (it hit me!) was that there is no soup in this menu. Also, you shall note that it’s a real small spread. For Rs. 450 per head, we hoggers deserve much more!

Also, nobody told me about the assorted rotis (I saw it when the staff wrote down the brunch menu for me). In fact, I specially asked if there was anything other than what was on display as part of brunch and I was told that there wasn’t. I was hoping to get some garlic bread, really, hehe.

Service

So I reached the restaurant at 1300 hrs, which was when my reservation was. There seemed to be a counter at the entrance which is where the maître d’ should have been present to escort me to my table. Nobody. So I walked inside. I had to wait for some more time to catch somebody’s attention so that I could be told where my table was reserved. It shouldn’t have taken so long, especially when there were only 4 other tables occupied with the restaurant half empty.

Don’t have such an area if you’re not gonna have a maître d’!

I did have a good chat with the Manager, Michael Rajaratnam, and Chef Partho. They are extremely sweet people and were the ones who told me how the restaurant was meant to be Italian, but the strategy needed to be revamped to incorporate local customers’ tastes. Chef Partho has been with the restaurant since its inception (which was somewhere in 2007 I think). The both of them are really friendly, but for the benefit of most other customers (who do not hail from Goregaon), some serious changes need to be made in service processes.

Ambiance

This is one thing about the place that is great is the ambiance. The decor is white, like the name suggests. Everything looks pure and clean. I was expecting a few cracks on the walls here and there, but couldn’t see any. Whoever has done up the place, has done a really good job. (I’m sorry this isn’t the best picture, but the only photo of the restaurant had my friend in it who had to be cut out on request).

Value for money

For Rs. 450 per head, I would have expected better quality of food and better service. A lot of things can be improved here.

Location

It isn’t in the best of locations for somebody coming from outside Goregaon. It takes a lot of asking for directions and you need to know the landmarks. Siddharth Nagar. Prabodan ground. Vivek school. Ozone Club. Swimming pool wala club (yes, that’s what most people know Ozone Club as).

And in conclusion...

I would give this place a miss. I am not taking back any bad memories from here, but I don’t have any good ones either. I’ll just have to keep looking for the perfect Italian restaurant in this part of town J