Category: Food

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero once said, “Where there’s tea there’s hope.”

William Ewart Gladstone once said, “If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are excited it will calm you.”

I agree with these quotes and I’m sure most of you who’ve ever had tea will agree that’s what Tea does. It has the calming effect to suit your mood, to refresh, and to make sure you’re satisfied till the very end.

So with this enthusiasm, I did visit this place named “Chai Pe Charcha.”

The name itself is self-explanatory.

They have a total of 3 outlets namely;

Chai Pe Charcha – Prabhadevi

Chai Pe Charcha – Lower Parel

Chai Pe Charcha – Fort (Newly opened)

I visited the newly launched place in Fort.

Every place has it’s own distinct style.

They’ve used a lot of colors in the entire outlet and you’re destined to feel like a child when you’re here as the tables have games set up such as Ludo and Chess.

Moving on, their menu has a lot of variety. There’s a lot of variety in;

Tea of course!

Breakfast options like Sabudana Wada, Upma, Kanda Poha, and Bun Maska.

Paranthas (You ought to try many)

Combos (Like a mini-meal)

 

When we entered this place, these were the two pictures present on either side of the gate.

The above picture depicts what Chai Pe Charcha has in store to offer for their customers. On the other side of the gate is their menu which is too much to fathom and impossible to complete even in 10 outings!

I tried 3 types of Tea namely;

Sukoon Ki Chai (Cinnamon and Fennel) which indeed was soothing.

Hajmola Tea – Just to get rid of the curiosity. The taste was exactly how I expected it to be. Chatpata!

Barfi Dum Chai – Cold Tea! (Yes, that’s also new and was a perfect way to end this outing.

 

The above image is of a Cutting chai. There’s also a Full glass which is bigger than this!

Of course, having Tea was of prime importance but it’s incomplete without few snacks, right?

Here are a few signature dishes you ought-ta try for sure when you visit them.

Gulkand Bun Maska is a must. It’s perfect and will go well with whichever Tea you’d like to have.

Firangi Khakra – Nachos Style is for those who like cheese, capsicum, and also khakra! I liked this combo and the name is catchy.

Of course, there has to be chocolate. The Nutella pizza is decent and you cannot hate it simply because it’s Nutella!

 

I tried the Paneer, Cheese, Pyaaz, and finally the Namak and Laal Mirch Paranthas. They all are filling, heavy, tasty, and will leave you with a smile and surely a Burp later!

The posts in the lower portion of the image are for everyone who has visited this place. They write something about the place. I did too.

This outlet of Chai Pe Charcha is supposedly the biggest. It can seat a lot more people than both the other outlets.

Chai Pe Charcha is most fondly known as a takeaway place for the corporate folks and people who stay nearby.

Visit this place and I promise you’ll not be disappointed.

Chai pe Charcha can be found in Andheri, Marol, Prabhadevi, Dadar & Malad. So if you wish to find Chai pe charcha near me, check out Zomato!

Follow my food journey on Zomato and Instagram

Here are my past posts for the A to Z Challenge

Chettinad Food Festival 2020

Lake View Hotel, Renaissance (Powai, Mumbai)

Until a few weeks back, I had absolutely no clue about the Chettinad cuisine. By the sound of it all, I could imagine was this being a South Indian cuisine. That was correct. So on a one fine Friday evening, I got invited for a food festival organized at the Lake view hotel within the Renaissance along with many other food bloggers.

We all got to sit outside with a splendid view and yes that was totally a 10/10 move when it came to the view but the mosquitoes around made sure I ran inside and finish my meal. Anyway, in generality, the Chettinad food has a lot of masalas, spices, etc and is considered one of the spiciest cuisines in India.

You can read more about it HERE.

I’ll be posting a few pictures now with the names of the dishes (which btw took me a lot of time figuring it out also). The review shall follow after the pictures. This just gives you the outlook of a typical South Indian house kitchen, don’t ya think?

Authenticity at it’s best like the chettinad masala company.

You will be amazed with the itc chettinad chicken masala. It’s one of a kind.

Below will be pictures that shall denote the variety which the hotel chose to offer with the Chettinad cuisine. This move might have been taken with the view of getting the foreigners staying there to try something that they know.

By far, the dishes were well served but the variety of non-Chettinad cuisine was worrying. This is because if you keep a food festival, you keep maximum dishes of the cuisine you’re showcasing. The ratio can be 80-20. Here it looked almost 60-40! The food dishes included Chettinad chicken biryani masala & their famous curry i.e. the chicken Chettinad.

The Grilled Fish in creamy pesto sauce was a delight to have. Melted in the mouth, literally.

The Roasted chicken was cooked well with the spices and made for an excellent side dish.

To the left, you would find the Palkatti Chettinad which literally had spices alongside cottage cheese. This one didn’t go that well for me. I like paneer and have had better too.

The Mattangai Moru Kolambu was a curd based gravy involving the red pumpkin cooked with yogurt and coconut paste. I liked it.

These two were the highlight of the evening for me apart from the Chef’s specials.

To the left was the Venkai Kozhi Kootu was chicken cooked in the most traditional South Indian way with the masala and the onions giving it a spicy flavor.

To the right was the Mutton Chettinad, where there were a lot of coconuts to accompany the lamb and this dish was amazing. You can see how quickly it got over. I could barely make a decision to eat or to click here.

Here’s presenting the Meen Pal Kolambu, which includes boneless fish pieces cooked in coconut milk. See, coconuts are everywhere in any dish. Well cooked and the taste did make me go for another serving.

This was quite an interesting dish. The Vendakai Puriyal had a mixture of ladyfinger with coconut and curry leaves. Quite an interesting concept had to try it.

The above 3 pictures were for the dessert lovers like me and here’s where they failed. There was hardly any dessert that was remotely near to the south Indian cuisine. That hurt.

The Kuthu Paratha, one of the chef’s specials where the Malabari Paratha made with refined flour is broken into pieces and added with the coconut-based vegetable stew and mixed with onion, tomato, and capsicum on a Tawa.

I thought while the chef was weaving his magic, that I made a wrong choice and was feeling bad already that this would be wasted by me. But boy after tasting it, I couldn’t agree more; Don’t ever judge a book by its cover.

The next special dish for the day was the Kozhi Malligai, which was an absolute delight. This was a preparation of boneless chicken deep fried and tossed in a thick paste of green chilly, ginger, and garlic, with coriander and coconut and then wrapped in a banana leaf. Just imagine all of that and yes, it tastes good.

Overall I liked the food, the spiciness, and the staff too. There could have been more dishes relating to the cuisine rather than thinking of the crowd and adding the general dishes from other cuisines. But that’s my opinion.

The Lake View restaurant is amazing in terms of the view, the ambiance, and will be higher on the pricing point of view. Food quality is at it’s best. The staff is sincere and cater to your needs. Proximity from Andheri station is far. Almost an hour away including the time spent in traffic. For the ones coming via Ghatkopar, this place will not take long enough to find.

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