Saturday, 23 July 2011

Review: Amboli Bar and Kitchen


Amboli Bar and Kitchen has been around for about a year now and and I've been getting rave reviews from all and sundry. Though I wanted to visit and taste the fare myself, given my near jet-setting life style (oooh, I like the sound of "jet-setting") finally managed to go there today. The picture you see I pinched from here, as the one I captured has my friend and sister in it and I have a no-pictures-of-self-and-family policy on my blog.

You see we were returning after visiting the tailor, I'm getting my saree stitched, yes you heard my correctly, I'm getting myself a ready made saree, so that all I got to do is zip-up and I look all demure and coy at my baby sister's wedding. Usually I'm a nervous wreck after getting the saree to behave and this ready made saree invention is a god send. But I digress, I will save the monologue on ready made sarees for another day and will give you a full report of my fine-dining experience at Amboli.

We were feeling particularly ravenous and decided to opt for the Brunch that offers unlimited food for Rs.399 plus taxes. The Brunch consists of Choice of Mocktail/ Cocktail/ Beer, Soup, Starters (6-7 varieties of starters), Main Course and Desserts and is quite a steal at the price.

We skipped the soup and went straight for the starters which was served at our table. Today they had Paneer Chilly, Pepper Chicken,  Bombil Bhaji (this was excellent the bombil was coated in a spicy batter and fried crip and it just melted in your mouth), another Chicken starter (It was divine, I must have gone into food lovers coma, for I just cannot remember the name of that dish), Tandoori Corn (excellent) and Aloo Tikkies.

The main course is kept at the buffet area and you go there to take your pick. I skipped the Veg. dishes and made a bee line for the Crab Masala, Tawa Prawns, Delhiwala Butter Chicken and another Chicken Dish. All are quite good, but I liked the Crab Masala best.

The breads are served at your table, you have a choice between Rotis/ Naan/ Amboli (this is a thick dosa like pancake). We asked for Amboli and Naan both of which were excellent.

The sweet course today was  Kulfi/ Rasgulla/ Gulab Jamuns.

Amboli, is designed as a fine dining space and the decor matches. The staff is friendly and courteous. The food is excellent and the portions good. I really feel the food for the price is a real steal and I for one will be going back, again and again and again...

Address: Unit 2 & 3, Mayfair Meridien, Filmalaya Compound, Amboli, Andheri, (W), Mumbai.

Fun Facts:
1) The buzz is that John Abraham has bought a flat at the Mayfair Meridien, this is what I've heard, I do not vouch for the authenticity of this claim, nor have I ever seen him in the vicinity. So for fans of Johnny Baba, here is chance to be close to your heart throb, even if it is a restaurant in a building where he may/ may not be living :-p.
2) Filmalya Studio is just behind this restaurant so every time the kitchen door opens there is a chance that you will hear some junior artist hamming away for all he/she is worth, I'm kidding, of course, though Filmalaya Studio is situated behind this restaurant.

Sunday, 10 July 2011

Delhi Belly : Movie Review


Picture: Source
Cast: Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Poorna Jagannathan, Shenaz Treasury

Finally the Indian censor board has come of age and has allowed a film to be presented the way it was meant to be without any cuts or beeps whatsoever. If you are looking for a family film, you are barking up the wrong tree. To be honest I am not a big fan of new age films, the kind that try too hard to present the characters as the New Age Indian Youth in the stereotypical brash, arrogant, foul-mouthed and devil may care avatars. I am willing to go on record to say that I loved this film, it is zany, wacky and at times over-the-top, but even then the characters in the film are real, you may recognise them from your college or office and that is where this film scores.

The film hooks you from the word go... Sonia (Shenaz Tresury who seems to have lost the "wala" in her surname somewhere along the way, numerology makes people do strange things) picks up a packet as a favour to her friend and asks her boyfriend Tashi (Imran Khan) to deliver it. Tashi lives with his two room mates Nitin (Kunal Roy Kapoor) and Arup (Vir Das, a stellar performance, the Jaa Chudial number is outstanding) in a decrepit building that seems to be a likely candidate for who-wants-to-be-razed-next, if there ever was a program like that. Tashi  in turn delegates the task to his colleague and friend  Nitin who has a weakness for street foods and is afflicted by the infamous Delhi Belly when he eats some chicken off a roadside stall on his way to making the delivery and this in turn sets in motion the whole chain of events.

The mayhem includes, a cheating landlord, attempts at blackmail, a trigger happy jealous ex-husband, run-ins with the Delhi Mafia (Vijay Raaz and company), burqas and a really bad case of Delhi Belly.

Watch this film for the situational comedy and the way in which the entire cast rises to the occasion with stellar performances and impeccable comic timing. The film captures Delhi as just another metro with its haphazard buildings, the narrow lanes which seems to be bursting at the seams, the "two hours in the morning" water supply which is the bane of every middle class metroite where as Sonia says "adjust the buckets in the morning" is a way of life, but oddly the characters seem to be more Mumbaites than Delhites. Apart from this, it is a mad and wacky way to spend a little over an hour and half.

New Art Wall...


We have been meaning to covert this wall into a kind of Art Nook for a while and yesterday finally we succeeded...