Restaurant review (School Project)

Here’s an assignment which was given to class VI school kids in Mumbai. This type of reviews are commonly found on food blogs.

“Read a few food bogs and visit 3 restaurants and try 3 different types of cuisines. Write your critiques as well as review the place and food as a food blogger.”

Here’s a simplified version of the assignment (Restaurant review).

I like going out with my parents to restaurants once in a while, and such occasions are usually reserved for the weekends. During the summer holidays, I visited quite a few restaurants and here I list a few of them.

Pizza Hut, Powai

Pizza Hut is the place where we go more often, especially to celebrate friend’s birthday. Pizza is one of my favourite foods. I usually prefer to go with my friends, because my dad is not especially fond of pizza; he prefers a more traditional meal. My parents think the place is very noisy as well.

Sigree, Powai

This is the favourite restaurant of my parents, and I have visited this restaurant many times. You get nice buffet meals, with several food items to be relished. I especially like the various kinds of desserts that are offered, and you can buy as much as you like.

Mainland China, Powai

I love eating Chinese, especially noodles and this place makes some amazing Chinese food. Chinese is one cuisine that we all don’t cook at home, so a restaurant is the best place to have Chinese. My parents also like Mainland China because the place has a nice ambience, and it looks hygienic.

Here’s a high (advanced) version of the assignment (Restaurant review).

RUKA (Japanese)

What’s going on? How come this Japanese restaurant has come to Juhu via Bahrain? Ruka is the first Indian outpost of a Japanese restaurant chain from Bahrain and coincidentally Japanese food-loving gourmet couple, the Mehrotras, have just returned from a highly successful showing in ‘Art Bahrain’. Jaideep Mehrotra, one of our inventive contemporary artistes creates powerful artworks, which are internationally prized, too. I am happy to report that Jaideep uses his creativity to make fabulous cocktails, cook inventive dishes and experiment with unique flavours. His lovely wife, Seema handles the Mehrotra home, taxes, investments as well as the creative mood swings of her family.

We nibble our way into the night and the Mehrotra’s love of wines, chocolates, coffee and Japanese food shines through. Our review follows.

Décor
Relaxed, dimly lit, this 5,000, sq ft restaurant is located on the ground floor of Juhu’s Ramee Guestline Hotel. An open kitchen, a sushi bar and walls laden with tanks containing seafood complete the decor.

Food
A large, rambling menu, which has plenty for vegetarians and molecular cocktails are the highlights here. Start off with the nibbling of Steamed Edamame (which could’ve done with more of the sea salt). The Spicy Tuna Roll is spiked with the perfect amount of spice, freshest of avocado and salmon in the Sushi Roll. While the Sashimi and Sushi are fresh and well-made, they are not exceptional. Crisp, airy and light Tempura, (superb Enoki), moist, flavoursome Pot Rice, plenty of vegetarian options and Chocolate and Hazelnut Fondant (with the perfect balance of sweetness) are some of the highlights.

Finally, Ruka teases an ideal exquisite tenderness and kiss of sweetness from the Miso Black Cod, which made this dish the star of the night for us.

Minus point

The draft from the air conditioner to the fact that there was no Unagi were the downsides. As also mushy filling of the thick skinned veg Cheong Fun, the oversized plump Sushi and the lacklustre Truffle Edamame.
My point

An open-all-day, Japanese restaurant and lounge with a casual vibe, and molecular cocktails are Ruka’s plus points. While the Japanese food offerings are plentiful, experienced in aggregate, too many dishes are too blunt. The overall flavour spectrum could do with fine-tuning. A pleasant enough experience, but not one we would go back for, in a hurry!

Ruka
Ground Floor, 462, AB Nair Road, Juhu
Call: 022-6715 9225
Meal for two: Rs 5,000
Open 12 pm to 3 am
Rating and Food: 3
Service: 3.5
Décor: 3

Pizza Metro Pizza (Italian)

August 27, 2015, 7:00 AM IST Rashmi Uday Singh in Tasting Times | Lifestyle, Restaurants, Reviews | TOI
Bandra and now, the latest Pizza Metro Pizza has set up at SOBO’s Kemps Corner. Industrialist Jay Mehta and wife Juhi Chawla’s PMP distills the spirit of a pizzeria. It is packed, noisy and brimming over with happy families

Décor
A colourful, cacophonic restaurant which not only replaces the iconic ‘Kwality’s Chinese Room’, but also sprawls over into a warren of rooms. Walk in to be delighted by the Italian pizzaioli, tossing the pies in the air in the beautiful rustic, tiled, brick-walled open kitchen. Walk past the Vespa-scooter in the small al fresco section to the private dining room, if you are looking for a quiet space to talk in.

Food
Please note: it’s the Neapolitan-style of pizza here, which means it is soft and foldable. Its not thin and crispy. And if this is your pizza preference, then you’re in a pizza paradise. You can order four different toppings in the metre long pizza — ours was a combo of margherita, portobello and capricciosa. My guests not only enjoyed the authentic ingredients, the base has a pleasing intensity and flavour of its own but point out that it has to eaten hot or becomes chewy and tasteless. At two earlier dinners, I particularly enjoyed the musky portobello pizza, with truffle oil and grana padana and also the Diavola Love Chilli with salame sparkled with chilli and basil. Mozzarella, parma ham, rocket and basil ‘Rucola e Parma’ recommended. Its the lustily garlicky panne pizza (garlic pizza-bread) which is a hot favourite, as is the dense chocolate brownie and the tiramisu.

Minus points
The wide menu, has pizza of course, but also includes antipasti, pasta, fish and meat. Which means, it permits the construction of a terrific meal but doesn’t ensure one. Undersalted pasta. In place of pomfret, we were served rawas during one dinner. The chargrilled chicken should have been rescued from the grill a few minutes sooner! Overfried crispy palle riso and stodgy antipasti, be it aubergines parmigiano or meatballs. Fresh buffalo mozzarella saved the day. It can get really noisy and make conversation impossible.

My points
I’m convinced that the world is divided into three kinds of people — those who hate pizzas, those who like thin and crispy pizzas and those who like the Neopolitan soft and foldable pizza. The first two please stay away from Pizza Metro Pizza. Neopolitan pizza lovers this way please! Big-flavoured ingredients, interplay of tart and sweet notes on a pliable crust makes for a pizza with a beautiful integration of crisp and soft textures.
In the rest of the menu not too many dishes rise far above pleasant and some don’t reach that bar, however this open all-day pizzeria and bar has a buzzing easy vibe and for Neopolitan pizza lovers… it is a pizza paradise!
Rating
Food: 3.5
Service: 3.5
Décor: 3.5

Table

Managed by an experienced chef, The Table offers Continental delicacies prepared using authentic ingredients, fresh meat and fish, and locally produced vegetables. Voted Best European/Global Cuisine twice by Times Good Food Awards, this dining facility ranks in Miele Guide to Asia’s 500 Best Restaurants. The menu comprises multifarious snacks, main course dishes and sides. Order from an assorted range of cocktails, wines and spirits—servers will be happy to suggest you. Zucchini spaghetti, Korean BBQ beef, table burger and truffle pasta are highly recommended! You should not let go of lip-smacking dessert served here. At The Table, they offer a unique cooking style with global accents and nuances. The ingredient driven cuisine focuses on simplicity and purity of flavor, a philosophy inherited from Chef Alex Sanchez’s native San Francisco. The Table serves global cuisine which ranges from American, Japanese, Italian, French, Chinese and Thai. The Table’s menu changes almost every day. The Signature Boneless Chicken Wings, The Table Burger and Zucchini Spaghetti are the most requested items at The Table.

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