The New One- Harry's @ Andheri Fun Republic

Friday night after work I was making a trip- to Andheri. Yes I know I sound horribly spoilt but Mumbai distances haven’t gotten into my veins as yet. In any case, this time I was going to the famous Harry’s not at Juhu but in Andheri. Yes they’ve opened a cool place in Andheri at Fun Republic as well! And boy was I in for a surprise! The place was buzzing with laughter, chatter and great music. This itself put me at ease and made me get into my merry mood which I had kind of lost traveling in the crowded local for about an hour. It was a blogger’s meet and the table was beaming with excellent vibe and energy. It was a great evening in terms of getting to know, and conversing with, people who share the same passion for food as I do.

To begin with, I asked the server to get me a fruity drink- I am a sucker for fresh fruit cocktails. I was very happily served a Sex on the Pattaya Beach- a watermelon based drink with rum. This was pure joy in my mouth. I loved the serving in a jar concept and the taste of the cocktail was fabulous. Not too sweet so that one would doubt whether there was any rum at all and not too potent- just perfect. Enough to get me to start being chatty with my table mates while I enjoyed this cool refreshing cocktail.

Sex on the Pattaya Beach!

Chimichurri Grilled Chicken

I started nibbling on the Chimichurri Grilled Chicken which I think was fantastic- well spiced with a great mint zest. The mint sauce was generously spread out on all the chicken pieces ensuring that each bite was extremely flavourful and true to the name of the dish. The BBQ Chicken that I tried next was a bit too spicy an affair which in turn subdued the barbeque sauce flavors that one would expect from a dish like this. Better to have something like this a little mild on the spice and generous with the barbeque flavor by maybe doing a good chunk of barbeque sauce on the side. However, what I must must mention is that the quality of chicken pieces in both the dishes was great. Succulent and well-cooked good sized pieces. 

Another chicken dish that I dug into was the Spicy Chicken- sweet and spicy Chinese flavours, chicken pieces cut into strips with veggies. An average dish is what I’d say this was. Nothing that I would be dying to order again but it was not a disappointment.

Spicy Chicken

A platter of the Veggie Sliders was served next at our table and this was cute little tiny buns with potato and veggie patties tucked inside. Soft and warm with a masala angle these sliders were quite a mouthful. You’ll like this with your drinks!

Sliders!

I tried a little bit of the Green Thai Curry as well and while the creaminess, texture, thickness, colour and presentation was spot on, what disappointed me was the excess of salt in the dish. That just killed the mojo of the dish- if you know what I mean. Go easy on the salt and you have got yourself a delicious Green Thai Curry that you'll love.

Green Thai Curry with Steamed Rice

However, the two dishes that took my breath away were the Nachos and the Vietnamese Spring Rolls. Yes we get Nachos at a lot of places in Mumbai and these are in fact one of the regular bar nibbles that one would go for but what was so basic to these Nachos was the crunch element which stayed on. So no, the Nachos did not become limp and soggy after the first 5-10 minutes of being served which is not to say that the salsa, guacamole and cream cheese element was missing. Totally there and very proportionate. This plate of Nachos was a winner my friends!

Nachos

As far as the Vietnamese Spring Rolls go, well these are any day what someone who is not fond of the deep fried element of a regular spring roll would go for. Packed tightly in these beautiful rice paper rolls, the veggies were crunchy and had a nutty element to them. Served with the light soy sauce on the side this dish is delish and healthy. Chomp on this and you’ll be happy and satisfied.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

The servers were extremely polite and knowledgeable about what they were serving. The service, however, to begin with was not very prompt as my first drink literally took a good 25 minutes to arrive and I had to keep checking with servers who at one point of time were quite zapped about what was happening. Nevertheless, the smile with which they served the dishes eased my disappointment and the rest of the evening went quite smoothly. What I really loved was the music that was playing- at one point they even played Dancing Queen and I am a huge Abba fan. So for me the night was rocking.

Will I go there again? If in the area then definitely yes, but I wouldn’t travel all the way from Mahalaxmi for this.

Where is it? 1st Floor, Fun Republic, Veera Desai Road, Shah Industrial Estate, Andheri Lokhandwala, Andheri West, Mumbai Contact: 022 30151125

Look who's here? --Eagle Boys Pizza!

When you think of quick pizza in terms of international food chains, some of the popular ones in India pop up in your head. Not for long though now. Eagle Boys Pizza, an Australian pizza chain, has entered the Indian market and is surely going to woo you. You just need to give its classics a try.

So a friend and I had the opportunity to visit one of the newer franchises of Eagle Boys Pizza that has opened up in Mumbai’s Fort area at Sterling Cineplex. Who doesn’t love pizza, right? Well, with that in mind both of us were quite excited to try this new place and I am extremely glad that we did! It has opened doors to a newer, quick, non-fine dine, yet great pizza place for me at least.

The store is inside the Sterling Cineplex area so it has a food court kind of set up. For those of you who are wondering “where?”, it has opened up at the place where Nawab’s, a place serving Lucknowi food, used to be.

I had the pleasure of talking to the owner and he told us how when he had tried the Eagle Boys Pizza for the first time he was so fascinated by the concept that he just felt it as his responsibility to introduce this awesomeness to the palates of us Mumbaikars.  The concept of freshness, that is the USP of Eagle Boys, is actually a very basic necessity for all of us looking to eat well. Whereas a lot of places would, because of logistic reasons try to make their work easier and avoid the harder way, this place has not shied away from doing one major thing to bring to its customers the delight of freshness and it can be tasted in the crust of their pizzas. Instead of just sourcing their pizza base from some central place, each and every pizza base is prepared at the kitchen of the store. This has definitely amped up the taste and texture of the pizza that your teeth dig into at this place.

I shall give you my description of their food in the order that it was served to us.

We first started with the Spicy Garlic Scrolls (Rs. 89) featured under the “Sides” in the menu. The owner told us that unlike a lot of places that use cheese sauce in such rolls, Eagle Boys strictly uses freshly grated mozzarella and indeed this could be felt in that first bite that I took where the cheese stretch was never ending- just like it should be. However, on the taste front while the garlic and spice was full power doing justice to the name of the dish, the salt was a little lacking or at least was getting subdued by the crust- which I felt could have been done a little crispy so as to get that crackly feeling when biting into it.

For our round of mocktails we were served a glass of the Exotic Flavoured Mocktail and the Green Apple Mojito both of which are priced at Rs. 69 each. While the Green Apple Mojito was extremely refreshing, the Exotic Flavoured Mocktail is not something that I enjoyed so much so that it tasted a little cough syrupish to me. Maybe its just me but I know that's not something I'll be ordering at this place again.

We went ahead with the Tomato Penne Pasta (Rs. 99) and the first bite had that charred caramelized onion which just took our hearts away. The pasta was just the right amount of saucy and the flavour was great for a quick bite kind of pasta with crisp veggies.

Finally the pizzas arrived- BBQ Chicken and Spicy Chicken (Rs. 219 each for a 7" pizza). First things first- the crust of the pizza is what definitely makes this a good eat. Not flaky, not dry, not too doughy, just the right amount of thickness which complimented the toppings and the cheese very well. In no bite would you feel that "oh- that's just bread! Where are my toppings?" because that's how well spaced the toppings were. 

I am more of a spice lover so for me the Spicy Chicken definitely did it. My friend on the other hand is a BBQ person so well that's what he favourited. This just goes on to say that the flavours were bang on and yummy and depending on what kind of a foodie you are, you're surely going to find your pick here.

But this was not all. What we had for dessert, even though by now as you can imagine we were full up to our necks, blew our mind. So Eagle Boys does a Sweetzza (Rs. 99) which is basically chocolate pizza and is a great dessert in terms of taste. This was sort of a chunky version of the chocolate pizzas that many of you must have tried and this was really good. The texture of the spread on top with the soft pizza crust is what will keep you coming back for more!

As far as the service goes, the staff was extremely courteous and helpful. Ask them anything and they’ll be glad to help you out or tell you more about the place or the food.

Will I go there again? Most definitely, whenever I am next in the area. (Sweetzza yummy!)

Where is it? Sterling Cinema, Marzaban Road Cinema Lane, Fort, Mumbai Contact: 022 33956057/ 67493939/ 67494040/ 65060001 (Note: This review is restricted to the Fort outlet of Eagle Boys Pizza only.)