The Teapot Café!

Food 2.5 Good
Ambience 2.5 Good
Service 2.4 Average - Good

Location: Homi Modi Street, Opp Andhra Bank, next to Indian Coffee House, Fort

This is a smallish, quaint little cafe in Mumbai's business district, which I know as Fort or Flora Fountain! It has a few functional tables and chairs, a nice sofa and two side sofas, a pastry counter at the entrance. Each table has a game on it -- Crunch (Brainvita), cards, card games (hey, don't expect me to go to each table and check it out), etc. Does not really remind you of the Friends cafe, except for the today's special written with coloured chalk on a black board. And, er, Delna Palia, the owner and our very own Rachel Green. Er, in the case of Delna, she knows her food or beans (both the green ones and the coffee ones)! She has a very welcoming smile. The food was pretty decent, so I was wondering whether she is our very own Monica, that is the food chef par excellence (not referring to the control freak!).

Google Detour: Central Perk. Hey, come back -- or better still go there later!

Basically, I am saying -- it is a relaxed place! The Assamese/Nepali looking girl helpfully puts an Elle/Bazaar or some such hip ladies magazine on your table the moment you step in! Out of 5 tables, 4 were occupied by single ladies -- who came, ate, browsed, and left!

On a Monday at 1 pm I was thinking that we would have difficulty getting a place! But apparently, Rashmi Uday Singh's article had not done too much for the business. We did find a place and very soon it was full!

Basil Coconut Soup (Rs.50) This was loaded with vegetables. I have never seen so many vegetables in a largish soup bowl! Delna -- please teach this city how to make a decent soup with loads of vegetables. Most of the vegetables were largish chunks, with nice whole long strings of green beans (1.25 inch plus!). Plenty of sweet corn and a lot of other vegetables. Naturally, the base was a watery coconut gravvy with sprigs of basil popping now and then! Mercifully, we had ordered only one between the two of us! It was a really hearty soup and fairly well made. Full marks!

Hawaiian Salad Rs.60 -- this was a decent salad with vegetables on a bed of lettuce leaves. I was expecting pineapple bits, but there were none (which was good!). I thought going by Vir Sanghvi's logic that Hawaiin was a code word for Pineapple. I remember having a fantastic salad in Guam (which is a sister island of Hawaii!) in a similarly cute café with a similarly cute owner-chef!

We had a Veg Stroganoff Rs.100, this was satutéed vegetables with white sauce in a ring of broken rice (tukda rice). Came to know from Wikipedia that: Beef Stroganoff is a Russian dish of sautéed pieces of beef served in a sauce with sour cream. I normally hate white sauce, but this one was OK. I liked the vegetables, the sauce and the rice tukda. Each rice separate and bone dry and crunchy! I think there were strings of carrot! How cute and interesting! Bits of large garlic -- don't know why they did not have the sharpness!

Next, Dhansak with brown rice (Rs90). The rice again was very well done -- and the chef really knows how to do things in the kitchen. Had lovely, crispy friend onion on top! Really nice! The Dhansak dal was rather too thickish for my comfort. I prefer it a tad watery -- it should flow smoothy, rather than plonk in big blobs! But ofcourse, less flowing than the dal tadka. Consistency of a maa ki daal would be just fine!

Chocolate cake Rs40. I am calling it a cake as I don't know what it was -- it had a very bebinca/halwa kind of structure. Quite OK, with shaved rolls of chocolate (hope you understand what I mean)on top!

Chocolate Tart Rs35 The tart was a bit hard biscuity and the chocolate filling was OK.

Total Bill (for 2 persons): Rs.375.

BTW, The Teapot Café is a Café, Takeaway, Conference Room, and Lunch Service. It has a very homely atmosphere! The food is good and I think reasonably priced.

Like the French, I wish I had coffee after the meals (more so without the desserts).

Will I visit it again! Definitely! Ummmm, the delicious friend onion slivers!