Here is a review on one of my earstwhile favourite restaurants. Actually, let me modify that statement a bit, because, this one is a part of what was a chain. I used to love the food at Chopsticks in Bandra, but they shut down, a couple of years ago and their place off Marine drive sort of holds the last bastion.
I happened to be in the area, a few days back and happened to visit Chopsticks. It was a bit late for lunch though, around 3PM actually. I had planned to grab their buffet actually, and wasnt very hopeful of what I would get to eat...perhaps leftovers if any.
When we walked in, the place was not crowded (thankfully), perhaps because of the late hour. I liked the ambience, since it gives the feeling of space a bit. Like most other Chinese restaurants in the area, it has a mezzanine area too, though not really staring you in the face.
The lady who ushered us in, I remember, used to be in Bandra earlier, and as she sat us down, enquired if we wanted to eat from the buffet or order a la carte. We chose the former a bit apprehensively. As we sat down, she came about to ask what kind of soup we want. Both of us ordered a sweet corn chicken soup (lower level of experimentation in an untried place), and a pepsi each. Evidently the buffet includes a drink, a soup, the regular food and a dessert.
We realised that one could have also ordered a beer instead of the pepsi because two women at the next table ordered just that. Anyways, the soup appeared presently. The quantity was enough, it was piping hot and it actually had enough amount of chicken strips. The soup was a bit extra thick though which is not too good, but it wasn’t artificially sweetened, which is good. The overall taste was fairly nice, I would say.
The amount of pepsi, I must complain, was just a wee bit...200ml or so, I think. Its more of a personal thing perhaps, but I need quite a bit of liquid to wash my food down usually. yeah, yeah, I know its a bad habit.
We took a while to recover from the steam facial that we got from the soup and got up to grab the food. The awkward thing about Chopsticks’ buffet is that the food is sort of outside the main restaurant, and you have to open the door, get out of the restaurant, grab your food and make your way in. A bit inconvenient, I thought.
There was enough food on the table. The usual kimchi was present, and there were some steamed vegetables too. I didn’t spend time looking at them much, but did notice fresh looking carrots in the veggies. The next container contained contained sort of fried wantons with spinach and cheese...more like crab rangoons though. Though I like crab rangoons, couldn’t take the risk of eating the spinach during rains in Bombay.
For the vegetarians, there was something made out of paneer, there was some fried rice and a chilly potatoes and okra (bhindi). Gave the other stuff a pass, but the potatoes looked inviting, and thus put on a laddle full on my plate. In the real food section (apologies to the vegetarians, but I don’t possess long ears and red beady eyes), there was egg fried rice, roast chilly lamb, a chicken gravy and crabs. Got a it of each of them in the plate and returned. Had to rest to get rid of the sweat and mugginess. It was really muggy two days back, wasnt it?
The Rice was nice, there were enough eggs in it too. The potatoes and okra were really nice, the potatoes were crisp. If one were careful about removing the chillies, it was quite a nice tasting dish.
The chicken was like whatever, smelt a bit and thus didn’t like it much. The roast lamb was actually excellent. Didn’t smell at all, was nice and soft and tasted yumm too. The amount of chilly was a bit of a deterrent though, and one had to be a bit careful.
The crab had a more of a goanese kind of gravy though, but I am not complaining. The container had crab legs, mid portions etc. Fortunately for once, I was careful and picked up the softer legs and the mid portions, and thus did not have to wrestle with it at all. The crab was more or less fresh and tasted nice.
I was hungry and like the food, and thus did go in for a second helping. After we finished we were offered a choice of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate icecream. We chose the chocolate variety. We got a scoopful each. The icecream was a bit strange, and a bit grainy I thought and thus didnt like it much. And two spoonfuls were enough to turn me off the icecream.
As we paid for the food, two pieces of chlormint arrived and that was sort of needed I think. We ended up paying a bit over Rs 400 for the two of us. Seemed quite good value for money for what we ate, more so because the place is nice, the variety of food is good, its a eat all you want buffet and above all the quality and taste of food is good too. Go for it if you are in the area.
As we walked out, we also stopped by their patisserie and bought some bread and a chicken danish, both of which turned out to be good. Try this place out too.