Coffee Shop @ ITC Hotel, Parel

A couple of days earlier we visited the ITC Hotel at Parel (Mumbai) for dinner. The plan was to dine at the Indian resturant - Kebabs & Curries, where I had eaten once earlier and had found the food delicious. To our surprise (and then not) there was a 45 minute waiting . As we were super hungry we decided to go to their multi-cuisine Coffee Shop instead for dinner.

The coffee shop offers dinner buffet or one can order a-la-carte. The dinner buffet is for Rs 1350+taxes -  pretty decently priced for a 5 star hotel. But the fare on offer did not look really appetising, especially for vegetarians (which me and my husand are!). So we decided to order from the menu. The menu has a selection of Indian and continental (mostly Italian) dishes. There are not many options, mostly the same stuff that you have in buffet. The prices are pretty reasonable - Rs 500 for a dal which I would say is much less as compared to other 5 star hotels. Later we understood why !

We started with tomato soup - it was nice, not great but not bad either. We had heard about the famous dal bukhara of ITC Delhi so we ordered a dal makhni, accompanied with a paneer dish, rotis & kulchaas. The main course was a shocker ! The paneer was hard, the gravy had pungent taste which almost made it inedible. The dal was extremely spicy, which would have been fine, but it tasted sour. The kulchaas were good, but the rotis  ! - very hard with a sensation of bitterness!

The service also took us back by surprise - me and my friend finished our soup , and the waiter started serving us the main course. My husband, while he was still having the soup , the waiter served his plate as well and left it next to him !

The only consolation was that my friend had the ITC discount card which got us a 33% discount on the bill .The food at this restaurant is surely not worth it !

Restaurant - Sammy Sosa

A recently opened Mexican restuarant in Oshiwara Andheri West that I visited last week and totally loved it! Its on the Link road - if you are coming from Infiniti Mall then it will be on you right, about a 100 meters before the turn to Mega Mall.

Sammy Sosa is kinda small, maybe just 8-10 tables, so you need to reach there early to get a table, else at peak times the wait can be as high as an hour and a half! They don't take reservations. Excellent food - am a vegetarian, so haven't sampled the non-veg stuff, but my friends who did liked it too. Would recommend all vegetarians to try the burritos for sure! The place offers a wide range of beers - the best have seen till now at an Indian restuarant.

I liked the semi-casual atmosphere, its not completely casual like a coffee house, but not formal/dressy like a fine dine/lounge. The music is not too loud so one can talk and be heard! They have a few tables in the open and when the weather is pleasant its nice. The only problem with outside area is the mosquitoes! The restuarant does provide the mosquito repellant - it worked for some of us, but for some others, they continued to feel troubled by the pesky creatures.  Pricing wise I would say it medium range - not too expensive.