We count ourselves lucky when we get the chance to try one of the new eateries in the suburbs. And at our rate of trips to Bandra we manage to find a new one every time. This weekend it was Pali Village Cafe.As soon as I tweeted about my dinner plans, they followed me back on twitter.[Pali Village Cafe on Twitter] Interesting ... but the conversation didn't go forward.
Firstly, a big thank you to them for seating us in good time even though we reached there much earlier than our scheduled booking. I think the dry day helped.
For all the popularity this place enjoys I was stunned to see a very rugged, unfinished interior decor of the place. Most of the walls are not even white-washed, forget painted. The wine racks are the ones you see in godowns. Furniture was nothing fancy either. Actually the chair was a stunner.
But I think this is the new taste people seem to enjoy. Anyway, the ambiance was beautifully dim lit and some very interesting crowd walked in and out. A visual delight ;-)
We started with "The Greek Salad" and Pita bread with red pepper humus - yummy and the salad is a must try. The bread basket is nice with some very soft bread slice, sticks and mini buns. I like the butter re-fills which kept coming without the asking. For the mains, vegetarian offerings are limited so while the wife selected the Mushroom and pepper risotto I tried the Grilled Chicken. The risotto needed some spice and I think some chili flakes took care of it nicely. The chicken breast was a good selection, soft and fleshy. Just that the sauce was a bit tangy. A black currant ice-tea was a good choice since we could not try the Sangrias [dry day].
Being a Saturday evening, I want to excuse the rather pushy waiters who were dying to clear off the dishes from our table and get us to the next step as soon as we were done. Would have been nice if they gave us some time to enjoy the experience a bit more relaxed.
The menu is designed for an all day cafe - pizza, sandwich and lots of mocktails/smoothies. But the pastas come during lunch and dinner time only.
Location is a blink and miss, so drive slow once you reach the Pali Naka and look for a cream colour uniformed valet drivers. And that's it.
Conclusion: Not wow if you are a vegetarian so go there with meat eaters, enjoy the ambiance and the wide variety of wine collection.