Eating Well but not Fine

This was published on 27 Oct 2007 in the Mumbai Mirror and on my site www.manfrommatunga.com.

Eating out for people living in Matunga follows very predictable patterns. For a quick, no-nonsense meal, any of the Udipi or South Indian joints works well. For a wider, but quick choice, the Classicy or Garnishy joints are always around. For tex-mex and a slightly more upmarket experience, there’s New Yorker’s. For Punjabi food and for some booze to go with it, Rasna Panjab fills the void. Ice-creams are either at Dimple or Naturals or near the Archies shop.

Matunga Gymkhana is great for large groups and amazing value for money. Pritam and Peninsula are considered slightly more upmarket versions of Rasna Panjab, though honestly I don’t see the difference. 

For an even more upmarket experience, especially for power business dinners or when entertaining guests from out of town or when the ambience is particularly important, the ITC Grand now fills a big void. But the ITC, a good 20 minutes drive away, is not really in Matunga. 

This basically means, that in the Greater Matunga area, if you want a fine-dining experience, with food, wine and good ambience, there really is nothing. We have to either go into town or to the suburbs; it takes a good hour in the evenings, in either direction.

Which is precisely what it took us at 7.30PM, to get to Pure, the new fine dining place at the Taj Land’s End. Earlier in the day, I had called Mehul, my restaurant know-all friend, who despite being in Basel at the time, whole-heartedly recommended this place. So I called for reservations; when I asked for the type of cuisine, I was told “continental”. 

“Continental” does no justice to the food. Everything, from the multi-faceted carrot dish to the avocado splash and the polenta cake, to the peeled edamame (the only place I know where they actually peel the edamame), was great. And to top it all, every dish was ordered with the help of Joshua, the chef, who is from San Francisco and took the time out to chat with us. He found out that we were vegetarian, took the trouble to understand our likes and dislikes, honestly told us that though the fettuccine is his most popular dish, we could pass it (and seriously, you can have fettuccine anywhere) and explained to us the difference between real chocolate and faux chocolate (essentially the difference between British and American Kit-Kat). His presence and the food made the whole experience amazingly memorable. They did forget the birthday cake, but after the New York style cheesecake with blueberry sauce, we didn’t have place for it anyway.

With the influx of nouveau riche Gujjus, Marus and Kutchhis, Matunga should be able to support a couple of fine-dining places. If not on the lines of Pure or Indigo, could we at least have something on the lines of a Copper Chimney or China Garden? Mr. A D Singh, etc. are you guys listening?