From drinking your weight in cocktails to ordering in comfort rolls, the city just got some new additions that are worth exploring this weekend
Loci and Toot
A European-Mediterranean inspired café and wine bar in Bandra, Loci and Toot is where your teetotaller friends can enjoy too, courtesy the dry bar, with zero spirit alcohol options made with zero-proof spirits like seedlip, and using only fresh and natural sweetening ingredients. For me, the food here is what takes the cake. The Green Apple & Amaranth Salad, complete with mesclun lettuce and seeds, comes with a side of jowar salsa, which is so tangy and tasty. The bird eye marinated chicken with bocconcini on a crispy flatbread is definitely worth a try, while the vegans can opt for the vegan overload flatbread. The star on this menu is the Mushroom And Burrata Fazzoletti — square shaped pasta stuffed with burrata and mascarpone cheese with a thyme butter sauce and veggies — it bursts into your mouth, the umami flavour is just right. A lemon tart to end the meal, and you’ll be coming back for more. I know I will.
Ping’s Café Orient
After wowing Asian food lovers in Goa and Delhi, Ping’s has made its debut right next to Kamala Mills, and is serving up some delish Asian fare. Never had I ever thought that Philly cheese in a dim sum could taste so fresh and comforting. And that’s just one dim sum of the many other sinfully indulgent ones — my second favourite being the butter garlic prawn dim sum with its pepper kick and juicy prawns. Follow this up with their baos, each one better than the other, but I pick the soft shell crab. As a sushi-hesitant person, I can proudly say that I found a contemporary version of the salmon sushi without bastardising it. A hearty Asian meal is always at the top of my list, and Ping’s is it.
Bambai Meal Rolls
The founders of Goila Butter Chicken, Saransh Goila and Vivek Sahani, have launched meals in a roll with Bambai Meal Rolls, which has a range of healthy as well as indulgent roll options that will be wholesome as meals. You can choose from all kinds of spicy, non spicy filling, pick the kind of dough (wheat, maida), and have a customised, saucy roll ready. The Chettinad Chicken roll really worked for me, and the rolls travel well too, neatly packed in boxes. Perfect for the at-home Sunday night Netflix binge.
Sunday Mill Brunch at 145
Thank God we’re back to brunching outside again. 145 is taking over brunch with a specially-curated menu by their New Zealand chef consultant who has designed dishes, sweet and savoury, coupled with drinks that include a specially curated Gordon’s gin menu. There will also be a crepe station serving offbeat combinations like blueberry-coconut and artichoke-spinach, a chocolate cascade, and a moving trolley bar. From stopping by at the chocolate fountain and dunking your waffles in chocolate, to enjoying your healthy Acai bowl, all options aboard, so let’s stuff our faces, and get boozed up *thinks of a post brunch nap*.
Someplace Else
Kolkata’s renowned Someplace Else has come to Mumbai at Jio World Drive. With its trippy design and music at its core, Someplace Else is where all kinds of art — music and architecture — comes together in a beautiful manner. Playfully curated food, drinks, and live band experiences makes it a fun hangout spot, especially now that we crave live music, swaying to a good song with our loved ones with drinks in hand, a bit more. If a bite or two with a table full of specially curated cocktails is the experience you’re looking for, with rock n roll, blues and metal, rap to local live performances, Someplace Else is where you should be.