If you have been to the Cafe Coffee Day outlet at Carter Road, Bandra, you’d know that it’s the most strategically placed outlet in Bombay at least, what with being right opposite the sea, and you’ll even spot a few celebs and mini celebs there.
Anyway, I had to catch up with a friend and hang out all afternoon. So, Carter Road CCD was the chosen place. Since it was about 2 pm, there weren’t many customers but still the waiters were busy, doing. I can’t say what. Or maybe they just like to leave people alone and do the catching up for a while before they deem it fit to offer their services.
So, after a bit of waiting, like 15 mins I think, we placed the order, one Aztec for my friend and masala chai for me. Again it takes a bit longer than usual for the order to come. And my masala chai comes without milk! Thankfully the guys gets the teeny weeny jug of milk before my tea has become iced tea.
Then I ask for two glasses of water, and pat comes the reply, "we don’t serve regular water; only bottled water." WTF! Why haven’t I heard that at any other CCD? And their small bottle of water costs double of what it should. Thanks, I can survive without water for a few hours. And it’s not about the money really but the stupid thing of letting people go thirsty.
Our next order was a veg tikka sandwich, which they don’t have. So, we have to settle for corn and spinach sandwich. When the order comes, a portion of it is blacker Pearl Jam’s’Black’. So I tell the waitress, ’this is burnt’. and she mumbles, ’It’s not burnt, ma’m. I ask, ’So, what is it?’. Can you guess her reply, "IT’S NOT BURNT. IT’S CHEESE!" Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzz! Black cheese on top of the sandwich! Wooooooooow! I’d love to meet the chef who makes such special things.
Usually when we go to a CCD, we sit for a couple of hours and order things intermittently. But as soon as we finished here, these guys decided they had had enough of seeing our faces, so we get the bill without asking for it! And dude it was really not like the place was bustling with people.
Now that we had the bill, we decided to go elsewhere. I checked the bill and there was an extra charge for the cheese. and I clearly didn’t ask for any cheese. So, I was richer by a few calories that I was trying to avoid and poorer by money for something I didn’t want.
Oh and I really don’t know when was the last time they mopped the place with a disinfecting solution because there were more flies there than people. Oh, and their loo has been out of order 7 out of 10 times that I have been there!