Crossroads 92 - Shanti Circle - Borivali West

Crossroads 92 - Shanti Circle - Borivali West

Yes, it is near the Shanti Ashram. The 92 refers to the postal code and crossroads refers to the, well, crossroads. It is on the triangle on the edge of the circle -- a really prime location for a restaurant.

It has a really nice ambiance, a tad formal in a way. The cutlery is modern and pleasurable. The waiters look smart and knowledgeable.

Note: I think the Chef wants to be different. So each of the dish is actually a variation from the traditional or expected version. Some may like it, others may not like it so much.

Tomato Basil Soup

At first glance it looked like a rasam with basil leaves strewn all over. The consistency was that of a rasam. But my wife quite liked it. I found it OK but was trying to figure out the little bit of bitterness in it. (Checked with the Chef and he confirmed that they do not include the skins. I have a feeling it is perhaps the seeds which got included by mistake!) I would call this more like a shorba rather than a propah soup. Quantity was good and the taste quite good.

Ceasar's Salad

Both of us liked it. The dressing was very tasty and creamy. Interestingly, there were slivers of cheese all over. I thought tomato ketchup was an integral part, but it was not there. Strangely enough croutons which are what distinguishes a Caesar's Salad was absent. (I believe the Main Chef was absent -- the excellent Steward said he can get us some additional pitta bread if we wanted!) The lettuce leaves were fresh, cold and crunchy. The size was well cut so you got a very nice mouth feel. The dressing really coated all the leaves, which is something which I liked.

Hummus with Pitta Bread

I do not think anyone makes a hummus look so good -- a golden yellow, extremely creamy with a little bit of oil shining through! The taste was good too, though I would have preferred a little more of garlic. (Not chef's fault -- only 1 garlic is recommended!) I believe lime and tahini sauce is also added -- could not really get the taste of either.

The pitta bread was good too. Very crisply baked triangles.

Tomato Bruschetta

These 6 pieces of thinly sliced french bread (baguette) with topping of tomatoes and cheese were really good. They were value for money too at around Rs.150. Like in modern and fancy restaurants there were some chef signatures (drawings) using Balsamic Vinegar. My god this vinegar was really tasty and I was licking the tiny drops with my fingers. I must get this brand of Aceto Balsamico from Hypercity soon. (We saw this brand at Cafe 015 too, it was placed on the table,  but did not use it!)

Glazed Citrus Chicken

My wife quite liked this Chinese version of Glazed Citrus Chicken. The quantity was so good that my wife could not finish it and we had to pack the remaining portion. To be honest it looked so good that I was tempted to become a non-veg!

Mango Bavarois

I was looking forward to this dessert as I had read about it in the menu on the Zomato site. Also, it was described as a soufflé. Bavarois in French refers to Bavarian Cream. It came in the huge wine glass which we see desserts being served nowadays. There was just a small strand of mango on it as decoration. Not sure whether the "soufflé" had the mango taste but the colour was yellow. It was not sweet at all, so good for diabetics. I was disappointed. It was too thick and not creamy and airy. It was more like a custard that you may get at Irani restaurants. (BTW, this is not an "insult" to either the Irani restaurant or to this one. Just sharing my experience.) 

Pricing

I think the pricing was quite cool for such a posh restaurant albeit at Borivali! All this came within Rs.900. Most of the dishes are priced between Rs.80 and Rs.200. Even though taxes are inclusive, 10% service charges are extra. It is like the tip being already included.

Links

Crossroads 92 site
Facebook Page

Zomato page about Crossroads 92 (includes Menu)

Sadly, my favourite site burrp! does not have it yet!

You can follow me on Twitter @KamathGurudutt . Do give me your feedback on  my blog and on the restaurant.

Cafe 015

Cafe 015 -- an Italian street Cafe on the 8th floor

Parth, Linking Road, Malad West

I am not sure whether I trust Little Italy any more. Because now you get Mexican and Lebanese food there. So when I wanted to treat some friends, I chose Cafe 015.

Arabiatta Pasta

Excellent, fairly sour, tomato sauce covering the fusilli pasta. The quantity is good for one.

Gnocchi in Alfredo sauce

As the waiter had served all of it to the rest of the party, I and a friend did not get any. We then just had a spoonful from our partners. It was quite tasty, my wife in fact liked it.

Siciliana Pizza

This was an absolutely thin-crust pasta. My daughter said it was like paper. The best part was that it was loaded with veggies -- mushroom, spinach, corn  -- and of course mozzarella cheese. 

One of the greatest compliments I could pay to the chefs is that I did not use a drop of any sauce or any other ingredient. Of course, I tried out the Oregano as it was in a small sachet.

As we were a party of 5, 3 dishes were not sufficient. We had desserts too. Most of the desserts were outstanding.

Chocolate mousse -- outstanding

Creme brulée  -- good (though did not have the burnt part)

Chocolate Pannacota -- average

As we were waiting for our guests, we decided to order  -- hold your breath -- Pani Puri! The serving of the PP was interesting and the water was extremely tasty -- correct amount of sourness and sweetness or perfectly khatta-meetha!

Sorry, most of the pictures are hazy. As restaurants are not too well lit, I could not click better pictures. But you get the idea.

The dishes were not very expensive -- considering that we were having them on the 8th floor in Malad West! The bill came to Rs.2200 -- despite order 3 desserts!

It is a huge place with functional tables and plastic chairs. Service was good.

BTW, the menu is offered to you on a tablet. You scroll through using your fingers. We had a smart Bengaluru girl with us -- she was wondering whether we could order directly from the tablet. The smart techy wizard (one with the iPhone) just simply smiled!

It was an evening well spent with good food and good friends and good conversation.

Granvillegreens - Veg Restaurant -- Mumbai Mexican!

Location: Next to Kora Kendra, Borivili West
Overall rating: 2.5/5 stars
Food rating: 2.5/5 stars
Service rating: 2.5/5 stars
Ambience: 2.5/5 stars
Prices: Not expensive. Meal for 2 under Rs.500.
Recommendation: Worth a try. On the healthier side.

Googled to check which restaurant I could go to and found an unheard of one -- Granville Green. It is part of the Hotel Granville. It is a huge open air place with umbrellas (I believe they have an A/C version in the basement). It is not a new place. Seating being 4 cane chairs around a big table. The huge shadi ka fans blowing on you from both sides

I liked the way their Menu has been structured simply. For each cuisine, there are just a few dishes. The cuisines they have are: Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and Continental. Remember the menu items are not extensive.

We went in for Mexican.

(Good -- is used in this article to refer to food that is above average. Sort of 2.75/5. Not really recommending it, but saying that you will not be disappointed if you try it.)

Cream of Red Bean Soup -- Decent
I love bean soups. This was a fairly decent thickish red bean soup. A few crushed red beans could be found at the bottom.

Mexican Salad -- Good
The quantity was very good for its low price of Rs.75. Red and yellow peppers,lettuce leaves, rajma (red beans), fried taco bits (like fried papad ka chura), with oil and lemon juice dressing. Quite tasty.

Mexican Bhel -- Good (from nutrition point of view, taste was OK)
Red beans, fried taco bits, corn. Absolutely heavy -- so calling it a bhel is rather a misnomer. Price: Rs.105. I think it is a good side dish to fill you up and pretty nutritious.

Tacos -- Good
3 corn(+maida) tacos filled with -- yes, you guessed it, red beans paste -- and finely shredded cheese. Served, interestingly, on a bed of shredded cabbage. Rs.140

Enchiladas -- Good
2 enchiladas with, yes, you guessed it, red beans filling. There was a topping of cheese that had melted and with tomato sauce. Rs.240.

Nutrition notes: Mexican cuisine seems to be a healthy cuisine which is full of tortillas (corn or wheat flour) and rajma and veggies. One must go a little easy on the cheese to make it even healthier. Like any cuisine, this one also has been messed up by the Americans (Tex-Mex) and everything is fried and more cheese is added -- so such dishes need to be avoided.

Overall experience: It was a reasonably good experience for a reasonable price. (Rs.545). Service was OK. What I liked about the meal is that is was on the healthier and nutritious side. Taste-wise it was OK. Not a bad place to have a meal once in a while. There are so many other cuisines and dishes to try. Notable about this place is that we get these, er, exotic dishes at a reasonable price in Borivali!

Currying favour at 360°, Vikhroli with South Indian FPSM

Fixed price set menu of Rs.99! (Check earlier reviews for details of the location, ambience, details, etc.)

Overall rating: 3/5 stars Good!
Value for money: Rs. 200 for Rs.99!
Nice experience of a south Indian lunch at a very affordable price in a good setting.

Lentil Soup -- Good
This was a very good dal soup. Quite thickish. Made of tuar dal mainly.

Banana Tadka Salad -- Good
This is what I mean by creative. Ever imagine making a salad with ripe bananas? Well, slice the bananas into roundels and pour a tadka over it. You can make the tadka with a bit of oil, thinnish tamrind paste, salt, chat masala and lots of curry leaves. Recipe is my invention. I liked it.

Lemon Rice -- Good
Mostly I have had lemon rice with regular fluffy fat grains of rice and not dainty basamati. The rice was nice and fluffy. Could have done with a bit more lemon and more masala.

Sambhar -- Good
This was a fairly decent sambhar with drumsticks and squash/pumpkin. Sort of felt that it could have done with more tomatoes and more tamrind.

Vegetable Porial -- Excellent
This porial was somewhat like a veg kurma and a veg jalfrezie. It really did not have a very south Indian touch. But it was very tasty with its tang and sweetness. Beans, carrots, and other vegetables but in slivers. Bit oily for my comfort.

Payasam -- Good
This was a rather thinnish payasam with moong (?) dal, milk and sugar.

Overall -- Good
Really nice set meal. For Rs.99, it is a steal.

Italian FPSM at 360°, Vikhroli

Fixed Price Set Menu at 360° for Rs.99!

(Please read earlier reviews for more details of the place and experience.)

BTW, OK/Average is a rating of 2.5/5.00, which is not a bad achievement.

Minestrone Soup -OK/Average

Surprisingly, it was thin. Minestrone in Italian means big soup! Big soup = thick soup. But here it was water thin! Had some 50 per cent veggies -- that is what I like about the soups here. More of cabbage. Tomato flavoured soup. Had bits of parsley, I thought. Quite a decent soup with a nice tang (specially for the low low price). Strange that they don't serve the soup HOT! It is merely warm and almost ruins the taste of a good soup.

Cucumber and Dill Yoghurt Salad -- OK/Average
Cubes of cucumber in dahi with dill. Surprisingly, I could not taste the dill. Served cold, it was a bit of a nuisance having it with hot fettucine!

Fettucine ala Sorento -- Average/Good
This was an excellent fettucine pasta in pesto sauce. It was actually Good -- but surprisingly, the salt was very uneven. Some portions were salty and some almost devoid of salt. Vegetables were also a bit less and overcooked. Could not really taste the pesto. Served hot. Sorento btw is a very famous Italian area/style of cooking. They also had a Fettucine alla Verdure (Fettucine Pasta with Vegetables) for the non-veg part. Fettucine as you know is the tape pasta.

Fruit Salad with Vanilla icecream -- Good
This time, it was a bit cold. The fruit cubes were of different sizes. 3 Fruits = Melon, Papaya, and Pineapple. I love this fruit salad.

Overall
From my past reviews, you can make out that I am very fond of this place, specially the CHEAP promotional price! Each of the item is worth nearly Rs.99 and yet we get all (including a soft drink!) for just Rs.99! Today, was a very average experience. Is it diminishing marginal utility? The more ladoos we have the last one does not taste as good as the first one?

Mexican FPSM at 360°, HomeTown, Vikhroli

FPSM = Fixed Price Set Meal (Rs88 for Veg, Rs.98 for nonVeg plus taxes) FPSM is my terminology.

Here is the 4 course meal, served as soup, starter-cum-main course-with-accompaniments, fruit salad with icecream. One free soft drink is also offered!

Pepper Pot Soup
One of the finest soups I have had in recent times. Felt like it was a 5-star hotel soup. Pepper was very, very bearable. The consistency was divine -- slightly thinner than a thin coconut milk consistency. It was mainly made up of carrots and tomatoes. Very little tomatoes, I suppose, as the tang was not there. There were plenty of thin granuales of garlic (size of a smallish sugar crystals). If the temperature was 5-10 degrees hotter, it would have been perfect/great/divine! But given the rainy day today, it was OK. Still I would give it 4/5 stars.

1- Bad 2-Poor 2.5-Average 3-Good 4-Perfect 5-Divine

Pineapple Salsa
The chef has a way with food. He really combines the food and tastes and textures so well, that the food really seduce you. I am not sure whether this can be called a salsa. I have heard of only Tomato Salsa. Well, these were very tiny cubes of pineapple (say 1/8th the size of a sugar cube), with even tinier pieces of ginger, garlic, corriander and green chillies (w/o the bite/theekapan). I really enjoyed this one -- though the serving was tiny. Was served in the smallest flat chutney dish. Not complaining, just describing! 4/5 stars

Burrito with tomato salsa and cheese, accompanied with gaucomole, sour cream, with side portions of Mexican rice and refried beans (er, rajma). The burrito had a decent spinach filling and the burrito was topped well with stringy cheese. Apparently, it was splashed with tomato salsa, but I could just see a very thin sauce on the side. The wrap was OK, but a tad undercooked. If I were the chef, I would definitely try to improve the wrap (looked like one of the readymade ones). 2.75/5 stars

Gaucamole was indeed novel -- it was surprisingly thickish and roughish (freshly made and not the smooth, bottled one!) with chunks of, I believe, er, avocado! Loved its nice fresh green colour, with hints of yellow. Taste was different but good. 3/5 stars

Sour cream is an international favourite. I think it is a lip smacking taste. This one was really sour, very much like dahi, but with a cream consistency. 2 tablespoons. Passable. 2.5/5 stars

Mexican rice was nothing but thin long grained rice with brown colour! Disappointing. Cannot believe that such a creative chef could mess up on this one. But, er, take my criticism with a pinch of salt because in reality there may be no such thing as Mexican rice. Any Mexican or someone who has been to Mexico should be able to clarify this one for us. 1.5/5 stars (This rating may be very mean, but do remember that it is very subjective. Also, the problem is with the name/description. If you call it brown (colour) rice -- the rating is 2.5/5 stars!)

Refried beans/rajma A fistful. Just right for me. This was again average. 2.5/5 stars. It was not very flavour-full. Maybe the burrito and the other stuff, which were really good in many ways, overshadowed it.

Plated Serving: All these were served on a single large 10 inch oval plate. So most of the stuff stuck to each other and made it difficult to really, really enjoy the meal. But, I understand, for such a low promotional price and during the rush lunch hour, this is the best that they could do.

Fruit Salad: This is one of the best fruit salads I have had. I skipped the ice cream. There were 3 fruits: Melon, Papaya, Pineapple. Not sure whether there was black grape also. All fruits were cubed perfectly, a little smaller than a sugar cube. Served, perfectly, at room temperature. Each fruit had a distinct taste -- which means they were added in the bowl individually and not kept mixed (which would rub the taste on one another!) The fruits were of the right consistency and taste -- firm and with the right amount of tartness and sweetness. 4/5 stars

I LOVED the Mexican meal. It was just perfect for me in terms of size, taste, and price. But to have a great meal created by a good creative chef is indeed a blessing. To pay just Rs.100 for the entire experience is a double blessing. Each of the courses, themselves are worth Rs.100 each. Rs.399 would actually be a good price to pay for such a meal (portions being adjusted here and there). But thanks to the promotional offer, I had it for just Rs.99 (88 plus taxes)!

Please note: available only for lunch (NOT for dinner). Lunch time could get crowded as today, and service could be a bit tardy.

360° restaurant in Home Town, Vikhroli

Table d'hote Menu at 360° restaurant in Home Town, Vikhroli (LBS Marg, 1 Km from flyover)

Gurudath Baliga, a friend, put a status on Facebook that the soups and pasta at this place was good. Thanks -- Gurudath! So I went and the place had a lot of surprises.

Had 4 course meal in this special set menu for a fixed price. Read to the very end for several surprises.

Soup:Lemon coriander soup
Small serving. Full of finely diced carrots and cabage, full of corrainder leaves, flavoured with lemon -- in a sort of white soup. I liked the soup. 3/5 stars

Salad:Khimchi
I liked the decent serving of khimchi. In addition to the cabbage, they had slices of cuccumber in it. Quite good. 3/5 stars

Vegetable: Vegetable Singapore
A small bowl (200 ml) of this vegetable. This was full of cauliflower, babycorn, red capsicum, etc. Sour and sweet, the taste was really good. The veggies were perfectly crunchy and very well cut. 3.5/5 (I am a little mean here -- should actually give it a 4/5.)

Noodles (or Rice): Hakka noodles
Got a huge mountain of very tasty noodles (say a 500 ml bowl overturned). The noodles were perfectly cooked with tons of spring onion green leaves finely chopped. I loved the caramalized onions in it. I could eat this the whole day. Believe me the onions were cooked to perfection. It had lots of thin slivers of green capsicum too. (Gave in to gluttony today -- and finished the whole bowl as the server was a bit reluctant at first to give me only half!)One of the best hakka noodles I have had in recent times. 3.5/5 (This time I am not mean!)

Dessert/Drink: Icecream/softdrink (I am not sure whether you get both or you choose one. But I did not have either of them.

Ambience: Excellent A grade. Nice decor and comfortable seating. Feel of a posh restaurant

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
Guess how much I paid for this royal treat? Rs.499? Rs.399? Rs.299? Rs.199? Rs.99!

You will not believe me! But the price is Rs.88 plus taxes. Which makes it Rs.99! I had one of the most memorable meals of 2010 (No5 I think) for just 100 rupees!

I could not believe it when I began eating and repeatedly asked several waiters about the price. I thought the price is Rs.88 per course -- and it would have still (well, almost) been worth it!

Here come another surprise! Tomorrow, it will be Mexican. Every day the set menu changes.

Third surprise: the same set menu is available for dinner also at the same price!

BTW, this is a full fledged open throughout the day restaurant. As the name suggests it is multi-cuisine and has everything from Indian to Chinese to Pizzas and Pastas and Chats. The rates for all these are quite decent (and not exorbitant) for a class restaurant albeit in an odd location.

Unbelievable, isn't it? Well, this is a promotional offer! So rush before they stop the offer.

Their phone number as in their card: 6177 5253
They are on the First Floor of the Home Town (home decor mall), located in 247 Park.