The Ant Blog

Weekends can be exciting for many reasons. For us, one happy thought (apart from sleeping till late) is to plan our lazy brunches with friends somewhere, or cooking up a delicious meal at home. The entire weekend sets rolling with all of this. So on one such rainy weekend, we thought of giving the online site  GourmetItUp   a try for the first time. They had a lovely set meal option at Oh:Cha Restaurant and bar. This place had opened a  few months ago, and we were planning to visit it ever since we had got some raving reviews. Located inside Mathurdas Mills compound, this place is almost hidden from sight. But as you walk in, the place turns around. The decor is understated, with beautiful hanging lamps all over the ceiling. Having reached there I realized that the place is run by an old friend. Tanai Shirali has been in the industry for several years now and I was happy to meet him after ages. I am a sucker for Thai food, and the GourmetItUp set menu was interest...

About a couple of years ago, one of my dear friends had taken me to eat at a stall during the Durga Puja festival. It was probably the first stall by Bong Bong and we were among the first to sample their baked Rasgullas as customers. I was then informed that their restaurant was opening up in Bandra. Given the kind of variety in Bengali fare already available in the city, I didnt think of driving up to Bandra to give their food a try. However, until a few weeks back when I saw their new outlet in Powai. I went straight  up to this place to try a few of their dishes. It was a take away outlet, so I rummaged through their menu card and ordered a few unfamiliar looking dishes, especially the Rolls had a few strange names. I also carried along the menu card, simply because I liked the individuality of it.                                             Bong Bong outlet in P...

It is in recent times that my husband has developed quite a palate for Japanese food. I have a great fondness for the cuisine too. So we often scout for new  Jap  hang-outs. We visited Kofuku a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night. When we entered, the place was roaring with laughter and chatter of young crowd. Since we planned it at the end moment, we did not get a regular table and instead got a place over the sushi bar. I like facing the kitchen directly since I get to see the goings-on in there, so I was happy. We quickly ordered our Sake and a plate of non-vegetarian Maki Boston Roll to go with that.      Sake at Kofuku                                             Boston Roll (non vegetarian Maki) at Kofuku The Maki was well made. Next we ordered a plate of Okonomi Yaki, which is a form of non-vegetarian pancake. We ordered our...

We have been to this place before for lunch, but knowing that Chili’s is a  great place for drinks we headed to the nearest Chili’s outlet last Friday. The place was full and we had to wait for close to twenty minutes to get in, which is acceptable on a weekend night. I was very thirsty after the wait, so we ordered a special drink which I had never tried before. A Beerita, which is supposedly a concoction of their Margarita and Beer. They came in big sized glasses, and I was pretty sure I would not be able to finish that drink. It was a clever mixture I must say, the flavor of the beer was more overpowering. Anyway the place was noisy and fun, so a heady mixture was exactly what we needed.    The enormous Beeritas at Chili’s A funny chimp poster at Chili’s The Beeritas require a big belly! I unfortunately didn’t finish the drink as I wanted to keep room to try another one! So we ordered a Slider and Crisper with a trio dip dish and an Applet...

We headed to a nearby Chinese eatery over a weekday, because we were too tired with the day and just needed to unwind somewhere. We headed to this age old restaurant, which I have seen perpetually standing at one corner of the Powai plaza area in Mumbai. We braved in to find out what it had to offer. The menu card has the regular Chinese fare that most Indian-Chinese places have to offer. I wanted to have a light dinner, so we ordered a Crab meat soup. To our surprise, the soup was very palatable, and flavorful. In fact, the soup gave me confidence to order for the rest of the food here. Crab meat Soup at China House Next we ordered the Crispy Spinach and Chicken, which was also quite good. They are priced very competitively to the quantity they serve here. Crispy Spinach n Chicken   I wanted a light dinner and I had it. However, my husband wanted to experiment further with main course. So he also ordered the China House King prawns. Unfortunately, we w...

Our visit to this place was as impromptu as it could get. The Bengali New year has just gone by, and the weekend was around the corner. So last week, we clubbed it all as a reason to try out the  Bong  food in this new eatery. Located in Hiranandani Gardens, this outlet is tucked inside a shopping arcade, so can be easily missed unless you are a regular in Powai. For us, it was an easy task. The menu had familiar items which brought back our hunger and fervor to eat a bit more :) We ordered the  Bhetki Rongpuri (Barramundi Fish cutlets)   to begin with. We had asked for their  Aam Panna  , but they did not seem to have that or  any of their featured special drinks, apart from the regular soda drinks. So I ordered for a Sweet lime.                                      Bhetki Rongpuri at Cafe Boda Next we ordered the  Chicken Kobiraji C...