It rarely happens that the name of a brand precedes the food on offer. Bombay Blue has been into the culinary scene of Mumbai since more than a decade now. There's a partial menu revamp in order to match pace with the many budding eateries, the fare is now more inclined towards the tex-mex side of world cuisine.

We were invited to its Market City outlet that ran packed on a Saturday afternoon lunch hour. The service was prompt and within minutes of us grabbing the high stools our table was packed with a fresh Kiwi & Crushed Pepper mocktail, a mountain of Nachos with an avalanche of cream cheese, a Chicken Tikka Salad and portion of Masala Makai Bhel. The 'Maha Nachos' was plated such to enclose a center of mexican beans and surrounded by shards of Nachos and drizzled with cheese sauce. While the visual gimmicks take a good score, the practicality is zero as one ends up consuming the Nachos and only to later discover the beans in the center. Tikka Salad and Masala Makai Bhel both were average affair and should work better as a side snack with the 99 bucks beer on offer.

We sampled almost all the summer mocktails on offer. Each of the mocktail flavour came with a generous addition of its respective grated fruit flesh. The Orange & Green Apple variations won unanimously over the remaining lot.

While we sipped on our refreshments, half a dozen more plates arrived at the table. Namely, a portion of Peri Peri Chicken, Onion Rings & Cheese Balls, assorted Sliders, Chicken Tacos, Peri Peri Chicken Pizza & Moroccan Grilled Chicken. While the food generally looked vibrant with its colorful ingredients, the flavours were largely suppressed and kept begging for more seasoning. Chicken was overcooked across the board and thus rendered dry in the case of Chermoula marinated Moroccan Chicken. Onion Rings, Cheese Balls & Sliders were yet again average accompaniments while the Tacos fared a notch better.

The rather humdrum main course routine was uplifted with a decadent triangle of 'Irish Cream Chocolate Cheesecake'. A full ten-on-ten cake for its dark crumbly crust and flawless cake center

Bombay Blue has seen may tides of restaurants arrive and depart in these many years. The coming of age of its menu should have been more inspiring and impactful than what was showcased to us. With that said, it may just strive ahead considering its loyalist still enjoy the food without any fuss while ones with a better palate will have surely moved on to the newer city favourites.

Two-One-Two's all day cafe & bar recently opened its door to the lesser fortunate side of the eastern suburbs at Phoenix Marketcity, Kurla. Located at the upper floor, 212 occupies the spot next to the Irish Pub and also extends at the backside into a descent al-fresco area too. The thought of having a Sunday brunch in al-fresco was near perfect, but was dropped as soon as we saw the construction work within a few metres and also the afternoon heat was making things all the more uninviting.

So, We settled on one of the corner high seating table with an 180 degree view of the restaurant. The Lime Green dress code of the staff and the classy wooden interior builds quite a contrasting imagery on first reception. On a good note, the well staffed service is easy to spot without having to stress your eyes.

*Classic wooden interiors and shades of lime green moving around at 212 All day Cafe & Bar*

Menu is well segregated and compact without much of a fuss. The same cannot be said about the Drinks menu, which is a lot more columned. Our brunch started off with a portion of beer battered onions rings along with one deadly indulgence, one of the martini and a glass of 'Rising Sun' to sober us up. Portion was large, rings were fresh and filled with absolute crunch from the thick beer batter coating. To cover the void, we had also ordered a flat bread pizza 'Bolognaise' which sits as a chef's recommendation on their zomato page, but was a bit of a dud on portion size. The crude rectangular shaped pizza seems to be fad these days and the same is followed here. It is high on taste, texture and ingredients though better justice on the portion size is needed considering the price of the dish (495/-).

Next up on our order was the Sunday special - Beef steak, but soon conveyed to us was out of stock. Weird that in first hour of service and not many tables filled, one runs out of the day's speciality dish hero ingredient ! Quite unacceptable in my notebook. Replacing the mains was a Three Egg White Omelette and a portion of Chicken Skewers. The fluffy omelette was served hot in a skillet with potato wedges, grilled tomato and a spoonful drip of Mushroom cream sauce. Neatly executed and it is high on combination of textures from the foamy egg whites with wedges and the cream sauce. Chicken Skewers is an absolute must-order dish. The bird meat is ever so succulent and the tomato chutney plays the perfect accompaniment for it along with a handful of mix greens.

Lastly, Dessert was part disappointment and part orgasmic. My Crème brûlée ramekin was double the size of any other restaurant, but the custard inside was firm - Almost mousse like in texture than the runny one it should have been. Cheval's Crème brûlée in the past many months has been an epitome and I’m still to find someone to take that crown from them. The Lava Cake and it's oozing centre was copybook stuff. Piercing through the sponge and reaching for that molten chocolate is so sensual that there isn't any replacement for it.

212 defnitely has an audience in this mall and the potential to thrive provided their teething issues (mentioned above) are resolved sooner. One important fact to be noted here is the level of salt in each serving, which was always on the lower side and that surely gets them the brownie points. The fare for three people inclusive of taxes ran to slightly above 3k. That's on par with SMD or Tertulia or any other European cafe across the city.

So, Until the next one - Salud !

Bombay Blue - New Menu Review

212 -All Day Cafe & Bar