Spaghetti Kitchen (High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel)

Tolerable in parts

Spaghetti Kitchen is probably the least popular of the 4 big Blue Food restaurants given the number of empty seats even during peak hours, and it is not too difficult to ascertain why. Food here is simply inconsistent in quality, ranging from good classy stuff to the borderline unpalatable. Cheese garlic bread works for a good starter (being the one continental thing one cannot go wrong on), along with the delectable Cappuccino of Four Mushroom Soup (served rather evocatively in a coffee cup with a very soft crouton topped with minced mushroom pieces which makes the entire thing even tastier). Thereafter, one may try the starters: the Parmesan Cream Cheese Baby Potatoes - oven-roasted potatoes cooked with parmesan, cream and fresh herbs - certainly sound very appetising (in a rather synaesthetic way), but do not seem worth the money once you have tasted the fare. Among the pizzas, the thin-crust Pizza Primavera, with a good selection of olive, artichoke and asparagus toppings, is worth a try. Not so much so is the Pizza Giardiniera, where bell peppers, artichoke and jalapeno do not combine well at all.This inconsistency stretches on to its flagship pastas as well. The Asparagus and Spring Vegetable Risotto, made of premium Carnaroli rice and served with a green sauce, convinces you of the merits of this restaurant. Meanwhile, the Lasagna verde alla Bolognese di pollo, a spinach-flavoured lasagna with a whiff of chicken (and recommended by the chef), is extremely shoddy in its execution and presentation; and the taste too is far below Spaghetti Kitchen standards. One rather unique feature at the Kitchen is the steward collecting a payment card from the customer (for available discounts etc.) at the end of the meal and then swiping it at a terminal before even presenting the bill to the cardholder - a practice that is usually not followed anywhere in India. And mind you, those aforementioned discounts will be important - you need to comfort yourself on getting a fair deal at last!

Ambience                ★★★
Service                    ★★★
Presentation            ★★★
Taste                           ★★★


http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/spaghetti-kitchen_high-street-phoenix_mumbai_restaurants/15558554__CA__menu

Lotus Cafe, Hotel J.W. Marriott (Juhu)

Exodus Cafe...Of money, that is

Whoever believes that all reputable 5-star hotels have top-class restaurants with excellent ambience and mouth-watering delicacies is yet to visit the flagship restaurant of J.W. Marriott. At Lotus Cafe, the only thing matching 5-star levels is the charge for the brunch buffet - you can eat all you like to make the most of the obscene amount you pay, but the quality of food does not live up to the quantity consumed as a result. The salads, especially the chicken and seafood ones with a dash of Thousand Island, Mustard and Cocktail dressing, ensure your meal starts with a lot of promise, as does the rich and smooth Cream of Chicken Soup; but thereafter, things only go downhill. Among the other starters, the Alu tikia is soft but not particularly appetising, while the braised chicken breast in completely bland. The Tangri kabab, a tandoori preparation of a chicken leg, is quite palatable, but whoever went to a 5-star hotel in Mumbai to eat Tandoori chicken? And so you come to the live seafood counter, where the tiger prawns, groupers and salmons look quite delightful; and you order a sizable helping of each. Unfortunately, once they are prepared and brought to your table (i.e. a good 30 minutes later, by which time you may sample the Beef Wellington - made of pork - and get nauseated anyway), the taste has been done away with - the prawn, though served in quite a regal fashion, is inordinately bland (roadside Chinese eateries handle prawn better); the grouper is chewy though somewhat tasty; and the much-heralded salmon has a faintly putrid aftertaste. The live spaghetti counter disappoints just as much, as the penne in cream sauce turns out to be the same as that you would get at any other continental place in Mumbai, and the promised pink sauce turns out to be nothing better than the tomato-based red sauce that is widely available everywhere as well (with the notable exception that it is utterly unpalatable here). A disgruntled customer may choose to walk out now, or pay a visit to the desserts counter with his / her dignity still intact. Some solace may be found here in the chocolate pastry and the rather variegated collection of Baskin Robbins ice-creams that are on offer. For all the bad food that is served here at exorbitant rates, Lotus Cafe may be recommended for a decent offering of mocktails. While the Virgin Mary (with unnecessarily pungent tomato juice) is best avoided, the Virgin Pina Colada, Virgin Mojito, Dune Runner (mango and cranberry juice) and Salient (mango, cranberry and lime juice) are absolutely delightful and cheer you up even as you struggle to ingest the abysmal food spread. In fact, in case Marriott allows it, a splendid way of spending the lazy afternoon would be to curl up beside the pool adjacent to Lotus Cafe with a glass of Pina colada. If for nothing else, one is spared the overcrowded interiors and Epicurean disasters within.

Ambience                ★★★
Service                    ★★★
Presentation            ★★
Taste                      ★★


http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/lotus-cafe_juhu_mumbai_restaurants/197125712__UR__reviews

Status (Matunga West)

Was this a restaurant then?

You may pass the white 2-storey building a number of times as you walk from L.J. Road to Cadell Road and admire the way 'Status' is embossed on the top right corner. However, unless you are attentive enough to notice the words 'Refined Gourmet' below the title, it is very easy to mistake Status for an automobile or hosiery showroom. That said, if you do happen to go inside for a meal, you do get a favourable first impression from the interior decors, especially the interestingly sculptured showpieces that adorn the niches in the walls. In a full 4-course meal, you may find the beginning a trifle disappointing if you are the soup sort - the vegetable sweet corn soup is rather ordinary. However, you are left spellbound by the starters in both their vegetarian and non-vegetarian variants. Among vegetarian starters, the Paneer hariyali tikka is a good pick with extremely soft cottage cheese spiced up to perfection and duly complemented by fried onions. But even that is overshadowed by Tandoori mushroom, an unusual preparation of marinated giant mushrooms baked to softness over a clay oven and served red-hot. The non-vegetarian starters are no less, as both the Murgh Malai Kabab and Murgh Achari Kabab please the taste buds with some finely cooked chicken in freshly ground cashewnut paste and brown masala respectively. For the main course, with a slightly overpriced and strictly OK tandoori roti, you may want to consider just the Dal makhani, whose aroma of butter mingled with freshly cooked pulses is often enough to satisfy you after the variety of the starters. However, if it is the non-vegetarian fare that interest you more, go no further than the popular Murgh makhani, a dish of shredded and barbecued chicken cooked in a delicious butter and cream sauce - the perfect accompaniment to the bread and easily consumable thanks to being boneless. While the desserts are certainly not the specialty of Status, the Sizzling brownie, with sizzling hot chocolate sauce seductively poured over a freshly cooked brownie, is an excellent finale to a meal. Not so is the Caramel custard, which appears slightly under-prepared and leaves a putrid aftertaste. At Status, therefore, you choose carefully - certainly more carefully than the designer of the restaurant has chosen the look of the place.

Ambience                ★★★★
Service                    ★★★★ 
Presentation            ★★★
Taste                      ★★★★


http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/status_mahim-w_mumbai_bars-pubs-restaurants/166788643__UR__reviews

Cream Centre (High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel)

The Cream of the North

The name 'Cream Centre' for an Indian and Mexican joint (which in itself is a somewhat unusual combination) in the literal sense sounds fairly discrepant. But, perhaps in a metaphorical sense, it is taste that unites them all. Cream Centre, given its blink-and-you-miss-it location on the first floor of a mall, does a good job on that front and ensures that it still continues to be full. In addition, with some marvellous display work on its menu cards (something a lot of other vegetarian restaurants like Veg Always continue to exploit), the restaurant ensures that even a non-vegetarian is kept interested from the very beginning. You end up wanting to have a go at everything, and what better way to do it than to have Mexican starters followed by an Indian main course? The cheese balls with corn are a delight, as are the nachos in some thick, creamy cheese that you just crave to get a mouthful of. Once those are done away with, it is time for the traditional North Indian chhola bhatura, which comprises a giant bread of flour served with a gram brown curry. While the dish looks easily consumable in the beginning (often inveigling people to ask for another helping of bread), it is a bit of a task to finish the entire thing, especially if your chhola also contains minced paneer. However, the ordeal turns out to be rather pleasurable as the huge bhatura and the perfectly cooked chhola remind you of North Delhi and its epicurean delights. A sweet fresh lime soda is a good companion to your entire meal. The only weak link in an otherwise splendid restaurant is the rather intense persistence of the stewards, sometimes 2 or 3 of them taking turns, to offer you papads, desserts and everything else that you do not want after a fulfilling chhola bhatura. A dash of the ostentatious hospitality of the North, perhaps?

Ambience                ★★★
Service                    ★★★
Presentation            ★★★
Taste                      ★★★★


http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/cream-centre_lower-parel_mumbai_restaurants/19924344910

Maharaja (Sakinaka, Andheri East)

Good food not served too well

The name may be a little misleading, but Maharaja does serve excellent Chinese food (besides its Indian specialties, of course). The Crispy Chicken, while a little on the spicier side and not as Crispy as the name suggests, is extremely palatable with its garnishing of onions and carrots; it is just the right accompaniment to your aperitif. For the main course, an excellent option is the Fish 65 in Szechwan gravy - a creative and delicious combination of the deep-fried 65 preparation common to South India and the Chinese gravy. This is best enjoyed with rice, of which the Mixed Fried Rice containing ample chicken and mutton slices, eggs and prawn in a fine cocktail, is a highly recommended variety. The meal is appropriately concluded by some piping hot gulab jamuns in a sweet syrup. Unfortunately, the highly satisfying culinary delight is marred by some rather ordinary service. While the stewards ensure that they serve you everything on your plate, they often sound confused with your order and are tongue-tied most of the time. As a result, there can be unpleasant situations with respect to the total bill and the payment mode thereof. And so it is that at Maharaja, they give you food fit for a king, but they are clearly far from serving you like one.

Ambience                ★★★★
Service                    ★★★
Presentation            ★★★
Taste                      ★★★★


http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/maharaja-restaurant-bar_andheri-kurla-road_mumbai_bars-pubs-restaurants/1534279356__UR__reviews

Lemon Grass (Vashi)

Confused Cuisine

For starters, if there is one culinary specialty that puts Lemon Grass way ahead of competition in the city, it has to be the Thai fare. The green curry in both its Vegetable and Chicken avatars are exactly what Thai curry should be like - sweet from the coconut milk; exuding flavour from just the curry though not at the cost of the meat or the vegetables; and light on the system. You can have a hearty meal with just the curry and steamed rice, and will not be left poorer for it. Oh, and do not forget the Thai style Vegetable Spring Roll drizzled with Sweet Chilly Sauce - absolutely delicious, with the sauce just perfect in its sweet foretaste and tangy after-effect. The trouble starts when you want to venture a little into other territories as well, as Lemon Grass appears a little confused in terms of reconciling Chinese / Far-Eastern and Indian taste buds. For instance, the Chinese Greens in Burnt Chilly Sauce, although quite palatable, is far from authentic; and has too much sauce and far less greens, making it virtually a curry that you have to consume with rice in a manner more common to Indian cuisine. If, however, you try the Steamed Pomfret, Cantonese style with Chinese Greens, you will find the fish a trifle undercooked by Indian standards but eminently suited to the Chinese palate. It is possible, of course, that vegetarian dishes are deliberately prepared with some Indian touch, given the large number of pure vegetarians in the city. The Burnt Garlic and Spinach Rice though is an excellent option to try with any of the aforementioned Sino-Indian (or for that matter even Thai) dishes; and the size of one portion is inordinately large, to the extent that three adults would struggle to finish it. Lemon Grass does well to maintain an optimal combination of good service and efficient upselling - the stewards put you at your ease with elaborate on-plate service of each course, but do ensure eventually that you order at least one item recommended by them. Having clearly positioned itself as a haunt for South-East Asian cuisine, Lemon Grass has got its act right in the first place with excellent Thai food, but probably needs to work some more on the other Asian cuisines to compete with the Global Fusions and Asia Sevens of the city.  

Ambience                ★★★
Service                    ★★★★
Presentation            ★★★★
Taste                      ★★★


http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/lemon-grass_vashi_navi-mumbai_restaurants/17122920138__UR__reviews

Garnish (Matunga East)

A trifle overrated

'The Taste of the Circle' (King's Circle, the area it is located in, that is) is what Garnish would like you to believe it is. A modest claim, doubtless, but with the presence of just Cafe Madras in its vicinity, nowhere close to the truth. En verite, the teeming numbers here raise the expectations, which are immediately lowered once you try to make yourself comfortable on the perilously-low-roofed mezzanine floor where even the air conditioning does not suffice if all the tables are fully occupied. The tandoori rotis are crispy and expertly baked to ensure that not one bit is burnt, but you do not enjoy them too much with the chef-recommended mixed vegetable dish Vegetable Diwani Handi, which is 80% beans and 20% everything else. A better option, ironically, is the bland but light and marginally tasty Methi Malai Mutter, which essentially contains peas cooked in a milk-based gravy seasoned with fenugreek. One thing that goes in Garnish's favour is the highly affordable pricing, which (in addition to its proximity to Arora Cinema) makes this place a favourite especially among college-goers. However, be it in ambience or the quality of its fare, Garnish still has a long way to go before it can attract the best even in the Circle.

Ambience                ★★★
Service                    ★★★
Presentation            ★★★
Taste                      ★★★

http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/garnish_matunga_mumbai_restaurants/188115821__UR__reviews