Lounge Review: One Street Over, Mumbai

After garnering rave reviews during his stint at Ellipsis, Colaba, chef Kelvin Cheung has floated his own venture, a tiny bar/diner in a busy by-lane of Bandra, just off a major shopping street. Like Ellipsis, One Street Over too features a mix of modern American and Asian cuisines.

The good stuff

One Street Over looks like a cross between a regular bar/restaurant and an upscale American diner, complete with booths and leatherette sofas. The place has a grown-up feel to it, with brown and slate accents everywhere. The bright, blue-walled bar in one corner is well stocked and the drinks menu has some punchy cocktails.

We began with a Negroni and a Southpaw: Both were quite heady, but spot on. The Negroni ( ₹ 350) was a bittersweet combination of gin, sweet vermouth and Campari, and reminded us of Italian evenings in a piazza bar. The Southpaw ( ₹ 450) was more robust, with bourbon, dry vermouth, bitters and cherry liqueur—very smooth and pleasing.

From the small plates, we ordered the Burrata ( ₹ 750). The dish was beautifully plated: blobs of creamy burrata (fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream) in a tangy carrot marinara, interspersed with sweet roasted baby carrots, while the burrata itself was dressed with a carrot vinaigrette and a herby pesto made with carrot tops: a good example of root-to-stem cooking. The dish packed in a lot of varied flavours (sweet-salty-sour) and textures, and was a clear favourite. We also tried the Date with Bacon ( ₹ 750). We had pictured bacon-wrapped dates, but what arrived took us by surprise, in a good way: There were thin strips of date “leather" (puréed dates, rolled out into sheets and dehydrated), with a thick date sauce smeared across the plate.

The sweetness of the dates was complemented by the salty, cured bacon, placed at the centre of the plate, with a delicious glaze and tart, pickled strawberries. Crumbles of house-made ricotta rounded off the dish. This dish, too, played on the different textures and flavours very smartly.

From the big plates, we tried the Dan Dan Noodles ( ₹ 600). The silky rice noodles sat in a large bowl of peanut-coconut broth, topped with a mushroom duxelle and chopped scallion greens. The nutty broth was quite fiery with the added chilli oil, but warming and hearty. The duxelle added a meaty texture to the dish. We also tried the Pork Belly Bun ( ₹ 750): three open buns stuffed with an exquisite, slow-cooked pork belly glazed with soya sauce and sake. The kimchi provided a fresh and spicy contrast to the pork, but the insipid apple butter added nothing to the dish. We also didn’t particularly care for the crisp-toasted, pao-like buns.

We ended our meal with the Coconut Lime ( ₹ 450), which is more complicated than it sounds. There were thick slabs of coconut-almond pudding (resembling coconut malai in texture), pieces of a light sponge cake made with almond flour and olive oil, blobs of coconut-milk-soaked basil seeds, and lime zest grated all over it. The menu also mentioned white chocolate textures, which the chef had apparently forgotten to add to the dish, but which arrived in a separate bowl. The “chocolate" tasted like crunchy milk crumble, and provided a much needed textural element to an overall scrumptious dessert.

The not-so-good

Compared with the other prettily plated dishes, the Steamed Edamame ( ₹ 550) didn’t look appetizing enough. A haphazard pile of edamame beans, which could have been steamed a tad longer, was dressed with sesame oil, citrus, togarashi (Japanese seven-spice mix), and entirely too much salt. When we complained about the salt, the server kept insisting that it was the togarashi (which, by itself, is not so intensely salty).

Talk plastic

Our meal—two cocktails, three small plates, two big plates and one dessert—cost us ₹ 5,905, all inclusive.

One Street Over, Ground floor, Navrang Building, 35th Street, off Linking Road, Khar—West (022-26002224). Open from 7pm-1am.