Food shoppers often confuse quality with price and imported food. Expensive foreign food is not necessarily better or healthier. The Future Group enters the food retail market with its first premium food store at a time when foreign food is equated with a desirable lifestyle.
Foodhall is neither a supermarket nor a boutique. In sheer size (15,000 sq. ft) and variety—coupled with the fact that it is a food-only store—it is one of its kind in Mumbai.
The good
There are options for every kind of shopper—from Arabic dry fruits to African sauces. There are some organic brands, including Morarka Organic Foods, which has rice, oils and
ghee (half a kilo of organic
ghee costs Rs 530). There’s a sampling of some of the best: Kalamata olives (Rs 315 for 200g); Tipiak couscous (Rs 290 for 250g packets); Japanese wholewheat Soba noodles (Rs 175 for 250g); Guylian Belgian chocolates (Rs 1,950 for 360g); French Confiture jams (Rs 380 for a bottle of 125ml); organic coffee from Papua New Guinea (roasted and grounded, Rs 675 for 275g). In breads, the best are Moshe’s flavoured focaccias (Rs 40-70).
The not-so-good
The staff isn’t knowledgable. I was taken on a tour by a manager, after which I decided to navigate the store myself. Most salespersons could not answer simple questions. Foodhall is meant for those who know their brands. The non-vegetarian section is limited, with only chicken and turkey. Ready-to-go meals and sandwiches aren’t of gourmet quality.
Talk plastic
It’s a wide range, starting from around Rs 40. Prices of Indian foods are on a par with the supermarket prices.
At Palladium, Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel, Mumbai.
Sanjukta Sharma