Sadak Chaap At Mumbai

Sadak Chaap literally means street-marquee, or an urchin who grows on streets (sometimes it was also used as an abuse term for the person who has nothing to do). Nevertheless it’s an interesting name for a restaurant that serves vegetarian street food.

Till date, it has five outlets spread across Mumbai, and you can enjoy their meals at Khar, Chembur, Malad, Powai and Versova and now it is spreading its tentacles still wider to reach other cities of India finding its new outlet at Ahmedabad.

Sister to Sindhful restaurant at Khar (an authentic Sindhi Food that also includes non-veg), Sadak Chaap started as a pure-veg take_a_away service at Khar, but sit-down outlets at Powai, Chembur, Malad and Versova  gained its popularity because of the crispness of fried food that tastes best when eaten  instantly and also the pleasure of enjoying Gola Sherbet the traditional way at its’ Powai outlet. It has options for Vegan too.

The food that is served at Sadak Chaap is unique, it replicates the taste of the non-vegetarian meat with similar marinates on meat substitutes to give those authentic flavors and there is a huge variety of  vegetarian dishes introduced  periodically on their menu.

On my recent visit to its Versova outlet, I enjoyed an hearty meal. This outlet has interesting ambience, walls adorned with interesting posters and the collage of the kitchen articles used in early 50's. It has self Service counter but you still get help at the tables.

I started with a spiced buttermilk  of mint, chillies and ginger and that set my mood.

This was followed by Chaap of different flavors

Pepper Aghani Chaap

Afghani Chaap

Barra Chaap

Honey Potatoes

KFC Fries

Stuffed Mushrooms

Tandoori Paneer

Pineapple Chaap

This is the perfect venue for vegetarians to feast on. Gone are the days when people at parties enjoyed just Paneer or Potatoes as starters.

Kulcha Chole

Tava Rice Puloa

The food of Sadak Chaap is often enjoyed at grand parties with great variety of exotic finger food that include Mushrooms, tofu, Mock-meat, Paneer and many other veggies disguised into non-veg delight but actually are pure veg.

desserts

Party orders are taken at their Khar outlets, take-away options are available all over Mumbai through Swiggy or Zomato but if you wish to meet your friends at kitty parties, their outlets at Versova or Powai are the best options.

Follow them on their insta handle @sadakchaapmumbai

Follow my U-tube for live interview of visitors at Sadakchaap here

Restaurant Review: Hopscotch Bar & Brasserie

It was my sister’s 40^th wedding anniversary and my nephew was all excited about this new place ‘Hopscotch-Bar and Brasserie’ that has been launched in the month of May on S.V.Road, Bandra. His enthusiasm had aroused my curiosity and I was equally eager to visit it.

The entrance to this restaurant is interesting, as the name suggest Hopscotch, the floor game takes you back to your childhood memories when you would spend hours in building compound, hopping on one foot, picking up a coin or a tile. You enter the restaurant and you are tempted to hop, only the game rules change here, you may be blindfolded with a drink on your head, gyrate over the numbered squares, taking a dance step over the latest raps till you hop on number four-five or seven-eight where you land on two feet and twist. The idea is to have pure fun.

The mood is already set with the foot tapping music as you look for a place to sit. On the wall, LEGO blocks stare back at you, while another wall  exhibits Tic Tac Toe with wooden Xs and Os planted on it.

For selfie lovers, there are emoji cushions all over the place, that bring a smile and comfort.

Two room (inner and outer rooms) are separated by a bar. While my family enjoyed a private party in the inner room, the other side of the bar was bustling with vibrant  youngsters. Late evenings, lot of drama happens at the bar with drinks jugglers and liquor shots drained down the throat in seconds (I missed that but the family had enjoyed it)

The menu was carefully chosen by my nephew before the party. Endless cocktails and mock-tails, four vegetarian and four non-vegetarian finger foods and one veg and one non-veg for the mains.

Of the selected Malaysian Paneer, Mushroom Tacos, Dilwali Nacho dal Makhani and Pesto slider, the Dilwali Nacho dal makhani was very innovate and tastes better than its traditional Mexican cousin of baked beans, the lone disadvantage being that nachos tend to get soggy under the weight of dal, so should be consumed as soon as they arrive. (not a good idea to serve at a party where people come to eat only during their breaks in dancing, when the music pauses.)

On non-vegetarian front, Chipotle Prawns was the winner, the melt-in-the mouth delight, I simply loved it, although Galouti kabab lamb, Serani Fish and Korean Chicken are equally good too.

The Thai vegetarian curry in the mains tasted very good and I would love to visit this place just to have this meal the second time.

The brainchild of first-time restauranteurs Roshan Sachdeva, wife Neha and her brother Gaurav Khetwani, with Suved Lohia as its managing partner, the prospects of this place looks good. With many Bars and Brasseries mushrooming all over Mumbai, the restaurant has tough competition and if it maintains its same standard of providing good music and good service, its popularity is sure to rise to higher decibels.

The Beer Café Now At Kamala Mills

Gone are the days when people bought a particular brand of beer and enjoyed with their friends at business meetings or at private parties, sometimes they would have in their car or in front of a liquor store. 

The whole idea has changed, and the taste buds too. It is no more a dingy bar or a closed room but now its a vibrant café. The idea is to have infused beer paired with selected finger food. To compliment the brand’s choicest beers is the carefully curated food menu with pairing across brews and food group. People are learning the taste of hard drinks from very early age and why not? If its is different from normal beer and has an exotic taste.

Everyday there are new beer joints cropping up around the city. ‘The Beer Café’ has launched its 10^th outlet in Mumbai at Kamala Mills, Mumbai prime commercial hub.

This outlet has been given vintage feel that brings forward the essence of an era that was once characteristic to the city. The café boasts of patterns and textures that are splashed with yellows and rust.

The tables are fairly separated from each other with long tables across the room for bigger groups and some dotted into cozy islands allowing privacy for smaller groups. Two LCDs on the wall completes the interiors for cricket loving fans. The vibrant music is in higher decibels leaving little space for conversations.

Offering as many as 24 beers on tap and over 50 brands from 19 countries, the largest collection of beer brands under one roof, the café is a true heaven for beer lovers.

I am not much of a beer lover, I had ordered Pepsi for self, but still I did take a sip or two from small beer glasses on the table and was quite fascinated by its taste.

Specially the black, creamy, velvety-smooth  ‘Shepherd’s Double Stout Draught’ that had burnt flavors of roasted cocoa and coffee notes. The other that I tasted was sweet and sour beer with little bitterness called “Hoegaarden Draught”. This had a strong touch of coriander with a hint of orange. I was tipsy after two sips, but looking around I found that people seemed to enjoy all the flavors.

The food was excellent. I loved the garden fresh pizza, chicken bruschetta, stadium style nachos and the flaky chicken chips. There was even veg and non-veg briyani on the menu.

The Beer café is doing for popular beverage what Starbuck is doing for coffee and soon we will have many more such Beer café all across India.

“There was no alco-beverage chain in India. Every now and then, a new fad comes in form of discotheques, nightclubs and lounge bars. But cafes remain consistent with their offerings. Socializing is now an inescapable phenomenon and these cafes serve as a perfect neighborhood meeting place for urban consumers. We saw a white space there and filled it with merging the two: beer and café. Thus, began The Beer Cafe’sjourney in April 2012, with the launch of our first outlet in Gurgaon.” Says RahulSingh, the CEO of The beer Café

And the game has just begun. 

Restaurant Review –Bohemian Brew, Bistro and Tea Room

Bohemian Brew, (where all kinds of tea are brewed) is a perfect hangout for people who love food, continental or global cuisine, that pairs perfectly with tea. It is modern age bistro and tea room that serves global selection of handpicked, single origin exotic tea.

First thing that attracts you to this newly launched restaurant at Khar is the ambience.

The restaurant is divided into four sections. The outdoor place behind the long bamboo partition has perfect seating for Sheesha and snacks and that leads to a smaller party room where a smaller group can be accommodated enjoying the Sheesha experience.

The indoors have artistic dining tables, beautiful lampshades, with state of art and curios decorating the walls. Two  steps up is the open kitchen and ten steps down leads to a cozy room with low furniture, bean bags, board games and book shelf. (a room where kids can play/read while the family enjoys the dinner upstairs). There are many plug points near the low furniture where one can chill out alone too, with food, tea, laptop and spend many hours without disturbance.

The drama started in the tea kettle as soon as we were seated. Jasmine tea arrived with a beautiful display of scented flowers, a bulb consisting of a bundle of dried tea leaves and flowers, that began to expand and unfurl in process leaving a sweetly floral infusion.

With mood set to enjoy the dinner, the first course of salads arrived.

Sweet and spicy watermelon slice topped with creamy mascarpone and feta cheese. There was a delightful thai flavors of vodka and watermelon juice infused with fennel and crunchy pine nuts

A special tea leaf salad that had Burmese fermented tea leaves salad with fried garlic peanuts, roasted chana dhal, sesame seeds, cherry tomatoes and lettuce.

This was followed by appetisers, one veg and other non-veg.

Spicy cheesy Kaboos had sautéed vegetables with cheese stuffed between two flatbreads and lightly grilled and this was served with a spicy Peri Peri sauce and rocket leaves. The peri peri sauce was excellent.

I ordered Chermoula Prawns- marination of coriander, parsley green chillies, garlic, and lemon and cooked to the perfection. This was served along with homemade sauce which was garlic hinted and side salad.

While we enjoyed the meals, my eyes roved all around the room. The interiors are tastefully done with every detail in its place. Every table is painted with intricately designed doodles. The tables separated by wooden designer mesh partition giving the privacy of dining experience to every diner. Beautiful decorative lamp shades all over the walls and ceiling, gives you the feeling as if you have entered an arabic zone.

It was nice talking to Rahul Desai, Nevil Kotak and Nitesh Raheja, the three partners, who are the co-owners of this beautiful restaurant. Being experienced chefs, their talent reflects into the food. Rahul Desai offered me a second cup of tea. He brought few bottles of tea leaves to choose from. I took in the deep breath to inhale their fragrance. I settled for deep red Hibiscus tea, although I had loved the vanilla flavored tea too, but then I cannot have all.

There is great variety of tea to choose from that range from normal black and green tea of different flavors, to Oolong tea like fugian, milk, gingseng or white like darjeeling, silver needle, assam hand-rolled or infusion like chamorine, peppermint, hibiscus, vanilla. There are other variety like rose, milk, blueberry. They also have traditional Indian teas like adrak-pudina chai, masala chai, cardomom chai. Adrak-pudina-lemon grass chai.

So we continue with the main course. Didn’t want to have Pizza or Rissotto, or sandwiches or burgers, wanted to order something light. I ordered grilled chicken with three peppercorn velonte served on the bed of mash potatoes and mixed grilled vegetables. I loved it

My friend ordered Cottage cheese, steak served with a side ratatatouille provencale and garnished with basil pasto and pine nuts. She didn’t like it much, she felt it was too cheesy and too heavy for her taste.

However, it was a good experience of dining at this restaurant. We promised to visit again with friends and sit for longer hours to enjoy more variety of dishes. The restaurant is fairly priced with about Rs700 per head, which is good enough if the management allows you to sit as long as you wish while sipping tea over board games and inhaling different flavored hookah like a chimney. Choice is yours......

I was there on an invite this time, but I would love to visit again

Address;

Shop 1, Mahesh Apartment, TPS III Road 5, Off SV Road, Khar, Mumbai