Restaurant Review: Jasmine Moon

Living in South Mumbai sometimes has a downside to it. There are limited restaurants and if you start liking something there is a good possibility that it will shut down soon. And so, every time you want to dine out the search begins for a place the taste buds would have not touched before.

Last Saturday night a few friends decided to experiment a new place called Jasmine Moon located bang in the middle of Colaba Market. The surroundings tend to put you off especially if you land up there during dinner time. Anyways being familiar with the place we all crawled into this tiny triangular shaped chinese restaurant with the center table given to our group.

The asparagus soup was a disaster and trust me I have tasted much better soup in some clubs of Mumbai - Radio Club (next door neighbour) being the best example. The Crispy Mixed Vegetables was strictly ok. Main course comprised of Burnt Garlic Rice (I think the best dish of the night), Tofu in black sauce (nice soft tofu but the sauce was tasteless - no salt, spice). The Singapore styled noodles seemed they were sun-dried before serving and only a good helping of soya sauce with chili sauce helped us eat the damn thing. To spice up things we ordered the Vegetables in Schezwan sauce (extra spicy). I don't know what the chef was thinking but he just sprinkled the dish with a lot of raw red chili pieces and sent it out. Not that the dish would have tasted any better but the chili made even more difficult to push it down the throat with the chili hurting you. In general the food was bland, tasteless and boring if I may call it. The fresh lime soda I ordered to help me wash down the dinner tasted like limbu pani made earlier in the day.

Conclusion: The place lacks a location advantage and does nothing to appeal the diner. If the chef does not do something seriously soon to improve his dishes he is going to be unemployed soon. Unfortunately this place does not even make it my "nice home delivery Chinese place".

Restaurant Review: Mangi Ferra (Juhu, Mumbai)

Having Saturday off from work has it's advantage. One such Saturday Nitika and I decided that we must try and dine at a suburban joint since there weren't many in South Mumbai which we had not experienced already. A few searches at burrp made us decide that it would be Mangi Ferra that night.

Mangi Ferra is an Italian resto-bar settled in one of the by lanes in Juhu. The dimly lit place kind of makes it difficult to read their menu which uses a very fancy font. Although they have a wide range of wine to select from they serve only the house wines by the glass which can be disappointing if you don't have enough drinkers at the table.

We started the meal with the wok tossed mushrooms in cajun spices. A good change over the typical mushroom in olive oil. When ordering the main course I was excited to see the Ratatouille on their menu. I had never had this and to be honest after watching the little mouse movie I wanted to surely taste this one. We ordered the vegetarian dish and it was served with some tasty corn polenta. If you've never had this, go ahead and try it the next time. The pizza capricciosa was a regular thin and crispy - nothing special but nice.

It's a rather popular joint and weeknight reservations are recommended. A pricey place where a meal for two will cost you Rs.500 per head and that's no alcohol included.

Choco Fudge Fantasy at New Zealand Natural

If you are a chocolate freak, you're going to love this one. It's Choco Fudge Fantasy available at New Zealand Natural Ice-Cream in Atria Mall, Worli.



What's got into it?
Chocolate Dutch, Chocolate Mud Caramel, Chocolate Fudge, Chocolate Caramel, lots of whipped cream, chocolate crunchies showered on the top with nice chocolate sauce and a chocolate stick to lick on.

It could have been made a little more colder by larger scoops of ice-cream but then aren't we getting greedy there. They have a Double Scoop Sundae (Rs.130/-) and Triple Scoop Sundae (Rs.170/-) on offer. Go get it, that's what I am going to say for this one.

Eggless Strawberry Muffins

Nitika made the weekend rather interesting. She baked some delicious Strawberry Muffins. Nice, very nice.



Recipe courtesy: Madhavi at My Veggie World.

Review: Falafel's Veg Humus House

There is a new place in town - Falafel's Veg Humus House. Located opp. Regal Cinema in Colaba, this one is a small place with limited seating capacity and kind of cramped up so ideally not recommended for a group of more than 5-6. As the name suggests it's a Veg place so don't expect the kheema and chicken falafel's you may have been used to in other fancy places.

What did we eat:

• Original Falafel - Recommended. Huge, tasty and satisfying.
• Hummus with Hot Mushroom - very tastefully done, not so spicy as the name suggests but well oiled makes it a not-so dry experience.
• Potato & Mushroom Sambusac - Avoidable. had a stale taste and smell, don't know if it was supposed to be like that!

Also recommended is the Tabule but it was out of stock when I went there. And if you are looking for a change from the colas, get the lemonade - nothing great but different. Unfortunately didn't get a chance to taste the desserts.

Conclusion: A nice place serving some decent lebanese food, moderately priced and makes for a good evening bite or a quick dinner plan. Limited veg items may tend to get boring if you happen to go often.

Free home delivery from Lamington Road - 2301 8000, Gowlia Tank - 2386 8000, Colaba - 2283 6000.