Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Opinion / Blogs/  HUNGER GAMES: Sampling exercise
BackBack

HUNGER GAMES: Sampling exercise

Tackle long restaurant menus by opting for prix fixe meals

Dragon Roll at JossPremium
Dragon Roll at Joss

Ever since I heard that Joss, the pan-Asian restaurant by Farrokh Khambata that shut down two years ago, had reopened and replaced Two One Two All Day in Santa Cruz, I had been putting off a visit to it for two main reasons. The first is that I had quite an unpleasant experience at Two One Two All Day—the menu was exorbitantly priced, the casual diner fare was so-so and the place was near-empty when I visited. I figured no matter the establishment that takes up this space next, it was bound to suffer a same fate as the café—the location, on the Linking Road extension, was too quiet and out of the way for most diners in and around the Bandra-Khar-Santa Cruz stretch. The other more important reason I didn’t rush to Joss, though I quite enjoyed it when it operated in Kala Ghoda, was that the public relations representative had sent me a three-page long document with over 50 “highlights" from the menu.

View Full Image
Mekong Whiskey Flambeed Prawns at Joss

But over the weekend, a friend invited me to a four-course tasting menu at Joss through Gourmet It Up and I signed up immediately because I didn’t see any of the boring dishes I’ve been avoiding and the menu was made up of some pretty interesting dishes I’ve never tried at any Asian restaurant in the city. In the past, I’ve used the website to attend an excellent 11-course meal at Aoi, a standalone Japanese restaurant in Bandra.

View Full Image
Smoked chicken at Joss

My friend and I decided that, just like the meals we attend during Restaurant Week, we both would order different appetisers, mains and desserts from the Gourmet It Up set meal to maximise our coverage of the Joss menu. The first course allowed us to make a choice between sushi, dim sum and soup, so we ordered the Sun Set Boulevard rolls, beautifully prepared and super crunchy tempura prawns wrapped up with asparagus and crab in sticky rice and a Burnt Chili and Tamarind Soup with broccoli, baby corn and cilantro that tasted a lot like a corn flour-loaded “manchow" soup. Next up were appetisers and we opted for Stir-Fried Chicken with Dried Chili, Fermented Beans and Sesame Oil and Yum Kung Prawns Pipette Jus, butter-poached prawns that were actually skewered in the straws of mini pipettes filled with a tangy cocktail sauce. We figured flourishes like these make Joss a “modern" Asian restaurant, but truth be told, it was quite fun to pull the shrimp off the pipette straw and squeeze the little bulb filled with the sauce at the same time for a literal “burst" of flavour.

View Full Image
Joss has replaced Two One Two All Day in Santacruz

We paid a total of 2,801 (listed as 1,184 per person on the Gourmet It Up website) for all the food we sampled and we figured that’s how much we would’ve paid even if we didn’t sign up for the Gourmet It Up experience. But we’re pretty sure we wouldn’t have dared to order any of the dishes we ended up trying and that’s why we’ll be signing up for more pre-set meals through websites like Gourmet It Up.

If like us, you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by long restaurant menus, you may also want to attend the European Union’s “Restaurant Week" in Mumbai. Starting this Saturday, you can opt for three-course lunch and dinner menus (priced at 1,500 per person) at restaurants like Olive Bar and Kitchen in Khar, Vetro at The Oberoi, Nariman Point, Prego at the The Westin in Goregaon, Salt Water Café, Churchgate, Smoke House Deli, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Olio at Novotel Hotel, Juhu and Maritime by San Lorenzo at Taj Lands End, Bandra. Reservations can be made by calling any of these restaurants directly, the European Union Restaurant week starts on 6 September and ends on 12 September.

Joss, Savoy Chambers, next to the Mini Cooper Showroom, Linking Road Extension, Santacruz (W). Call 022 26617771/2/5 for reservations. See the restaurant’s Facebook page for more details.

Book the four-course tasting meal at Joss through Gourmet It Up here. For a full list of prix fixe Asian dining options, click here.

This weekly series, which appears on Tuesdays, looks at what’s new with food and drink, and how we are interacting with it.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 02 Sep 2014, 05:32 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App