What an amazing and wonderful concept! 38 degrees east, is exactly what the name suggest, if you dig in deep( or go through the menu: -p) then you realize its meaning. I actually checked the world atlas, and I was proved right! 38 degrees east, serves the cusine of all the major countries that come under the 38 Degrees Eastern Lattitude! PHEW! So the cusines include, Chinese, Burmese, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, I think Thai and Singaporean too, and but ofcourse INDIAN! I realised all this after I visited the place, and so I just absolutely loved the concept! Though anyone would hardly venture into Burmese abd Korean cusine, just playing it safe into the delicious Indian food, and occasional try to Chinese style cooking.
The place is located right across Powai lake, so its a lake facing restaurant. Though it looks to be pretty small place form outside, its stretched long, and is 2 storey high.The lower floor has a very simple yet classy ambiance.Something which you are likely to find in mostly asian cusine restaurants, a large colourful 3D Dragon painting! The 1st section has a funky, colourful pub like ambiance, with music in the background, bar section, and beer bottles hanging form the roof as decor. This is where we sat, or rather this was the only place which offered the lake view during lunch time. Then there’s the terrace section, which opens up at late evening, and it too seemed rather romantic, with minimal decor of artifical flowers on the roof, and the scent of lake in the air. So ambiance wise, its a great bargain!
Service. Ummm. Thinking back to when I visited the place, the service was nothing extraordinary, nor it lacked anything basic, so it would come into the ’good service’ section.
Being done with the amazing concept, great ambiance and good service, lets discuss food!
We started of with ordering quite a good range of mocktails,
PINK BEAUTY - This drink came to our table and lead to disappointment. The guy who served us, brought it holding in a very peculiar way, and then he was going to pour the pink dirnk form a glass flask to the actual glass.So we all got excited and got our camera’s ready, hoping that there would be some smoke coming out or something, but nothing happned! Absolutely nothing! The idea of bringing 2 seperate glasses beats me! The taste was very average, ot was bubble gum flavoured dirnk, and its taste was hardly being detected. The white small balls floating on the drink, I really didnt get why they were there, may be just to make the dirnk look a little bit appealing. Also, the menu stated that it would be covred with candy floss on the top, but the waiter brushed off this query of mine sayi g that it meant that it was candy floss flavoured. So I wouldnt suggest you to try this drink out, and still if you want to, then consider yourself warned!
STRAWBERRY PINEAPPLE MOJITO- Ahhh, Mojitos, I absolutely love them! Their refreshing taste, minty flavour and simplicity just has me everytime! The flavour was fruity, with strawberry providing the base flavour, and pineapple taking back seat here. Mint leaves and lemon slices, the standard tools for presentation, used here as well. A good drink, if you are a mojito lover like me, then go for it!
VIRGIN COCONUT MOJITO- Another one of the amazing variants of Mojito, and a new one actually. Virgin mojito, added with coconut cream based syrup, combination of natural coconut with the fizziness of a mojito. Good one, actually better than the last one. Go for it!
CRANBERRY DELIGHT- This dirnk comes in a tall glass, pink in colour, soda gas oozing form the top, little bubbles on the bottom, and as the name suggest, cranberry flavoured. It had more quantity than the rest of the drinks, and the taste was good too.
LEMON ICED TEA- Another long glass dirnks, the classic iced tea. Plain, simple, lovely. Just another mild drink, not too shabby, if you are the one who loves simple things in life, then this is something you would like to try.
Being done sipping on these drinks, we were forced to just try the starters, as it was 4 pm and the main course isnt availabe then. The starters were not half bad either.
SPRING ROLLS- Starting off with these crunchies, it was better than anywhere I have tried this dish. The quantity was good, and the tasted exceed my expectations. The outer layer was delightfully crispy, with the filling being a little less, but tasty. Finely chopped ingredients, tossed over a chinese based sauce and covered with crunchy layer. Yummy!
PANNER HOT GARLIC- Again, a chinese dish. Here, there were soft cottage cheese cubes, stir fried with capcisums and some spring onions. The main thing, panner was good and tasty.
VEG. MANCHURAIN- A chinese dish, AGAIN! (Trust me, we were really out of options to try something else than chinese! ) One thing I liked about this dish, was that the manchurian was not in the standard balls shaped. The flavour was very simliar on the base level, and the dish was good too.
FRENCH FRIES- Ahhh! This simple little dish came to our rescue. Never had fries tasted this good! I was not that the earlier 3 dishes were not good, but the almost same taste was getting kind of boring. Fries was not in the menu, but we saw people having it with their beers( Chakna, english style! :-p ) and so we ordered these peri peri fries. Served in a little shopping cart, they were really crispy and hot, indicating that they were freshly made.
CLASSIC CHICKEN WINGS- I think, chicken wings isnt an Asian dish, but rather comes under American category, I guess. But, it was made in chinese flavoured sauces ( My God, not again! ), it can be served in this pan aisan restaurant. Good taste, tender chicken. If I wasnt just so bored of the chinese flavour, I would descibe them as 6 pieces of deliciousness!
FRIED RICE- Something Chinese, but mot actually chinese! Plain, aromatic fried rice, served with a small bowl of spicy shezwan sauce. It seemed a little dry, but the taste was satisfactory.
CHICKEN RAMEN- Something I was really really looking forward to try on! Being a huge Anime fan, it always watered my mouth, watching Naruto eat the huge bowl of delicious ramen! I always wondered how actually it would look and taste. I really thank 38 degrees east, for having Ramen in their menu, saved it for the last! Although it wasnt even half same as the real ramen they serve in Japan, it was the closest and only recreation of it I have tried. So baiscally its plain noodles, with thick, almost tasteless gravy, some chopped veggies, chicken stripes and boiled egg, served in a big bowl!
I didnt have anything to compare it with, but I could definately say that it was really something! I had a really great time having Ramen for the 1st time!
For desserts, we tried,
CHOCOLATE COOKIE SHAKE- It was on the mocktail section of the menu, and it was far far away form being a shake. It was really yummy though! So yummy that we ended up ordering 2 of them! So basically it was rich and creamy chocolate icecream, with lots of crushed oreo cookies and mint leaves, giving of a nice chocoklaty-minty flavour! Loved it! Absolutely must try!
A great place for a hangout, and the lake view( but just a couple if tables have this view) is great! Food is good, but its really expensive. So, it scores really low in the value for money department. I would have given it 3 stars, but gave it an extra 0.5 because of introducing me to Ramen!
Happy Burping!