In your city: Madeira & Mime
Madeira & Mime is the boozy brothera cheerful gastropubto the sit-down prosperity of the restaurant next door
When Mirchi & Mime in Powai opened its doors last year, it was to rave reviews. Run entirely by hearing- and speech-impaired waitstaff, every meal there was a culinary delight and a lesson in empathy. Madeira & Mime is the boozy brother—a cheerful gastropub—to the sit-down prosperity of the restaurant next door.
The process of ordering is the same as it is in the restaurant: You’re given a menu with numbers and signs on them, and you communicate with your assigned waiter by either pointing at the menu or using sign language. The waitstaff is attentive without being obtrusive, and in 2 minutes, you will find you’re communicating intuitively.
The manager came over to recommend cocktails but they didn’t work too well for us, so we opted for the Mad Copa ( ₹ 300), a nuanced blend of whisky and peach, instead. The Bounty Hunter ( ₹ 300) a blend of vodka, coffee and coconut fudge, topped with an airy chocolate foam, was tasty, but it would have worked better as a post-dinner drink.
Among the dishes on the food menu, the Bombil Fry with Chips ( ₹ 285) was passable but the best thing about it was the home fries and chilli and aioli dip. The Curried Chicken Dabal Roti ( ₹ 215) piled high on two pieces of fried toast complemented the overt sweetness of the cocktails.
Maybe it’s teething trouble, but Madeira & Mime doesn’t have a lot going for it at this point. Some of the cocktails, like the recommended Bombay Colada ( ₹ 300), have bizarre combinations: in this case, pineapple juice, tamarind and ground, roasted coriander seeds. It may have worked if it was savoury, but the cloying sweetness overrode everything else, as it did in the interesting-sounding Daru Jor Garam ( ₹ 300), which had none of the promised kick of chaat masala.
The food, too, is a confused rag-bag of odds and ends. There are rice plates and biryanis and pasta, rolls and pizza, and even ramen. The Classic Quebec Poutine ( ₹ 245) was nothing of the sort, with fries and fried cheese tossed in a thin Worcestershire-type sauce. The Poulet a la Rex avec Pilaf ( ₹ 345)—essentially a chicken à la king, the worst of 1980s’ “conti" cuisine we’re never going to miss—could have been cream of chicken soup from a can dumped on rice.
We skipped dessert because the drinks had taken up all our sweet quota for the month. Madeira & Mime has a long way to catch up with its more accomplished sibling.
A meal for two, with four cocktails, two starters and two mains, cost ₹ 2,714.
Madeira & Mime, G2, Trans Ocean House, Hiranandani Business Park, Lake Boulevard, Powai, Mumbai (41415161). Open from noon-midnight.
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