If you have been an Archie comic fan, you would be able to relate to this eatery, which cleverly adopts the same name with an apostrophized ‘s’ to avoid violation of copyrights. According to the Archie comics, Pop Tate is the hangout in Riverdale where the kids of Riverdale High hang about. It is the second home of the burger munching Jughead, the chummy pal of our hero Archie. Pop Tate is the place where Veronica and Betty sip milk shakes while the rich brat Reggie gulp mugs of beer. It is the place where Ethel tracks down Jugghead her romantic soul. Pop Tate is where you will find the dumb headed Big Moose and other kids, professors and teachers of Riverdale hang around. Pop Tate finds the place in comic history and now a version of it finds place in Bombay.
The first thing that strikes you when you enter the newly opened joint at Sakinaka, Andheri is its space. Unlike most restaurants that are cramped up for space, here is one that has seems to have abundance of it. Next you find the courteous staff, mostly from students of catering colleges from Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Sikkim, North-West Bengal. Their oriental features with broad sun-shine smiles drives away those travel woos that you probably would encounter reaching this place.
Next, the place is done-up in typical American style of the late 70’s, the kind you find in movies like Grease and/or The Bubble Gum series. You have caricature of the stars of rock-n-roll era looking over you. Open the list/menu and you would be amazed to find characters from Archie’s comics heading the listings, albeit with little changes in their spellings to accommodate the copyrights regulations. Thus you would find Beti’s instead of Betty’s and Harmonica’s instead of Veronica’s.
About the food, well that is great for the price you pay. Confessing here, I always believed I had found the best joint, which served my kinda pizza at my kinda prize, but I was wrong. The joint I loved carried an Italian name and served the best Pizza at the lowest prize. However Pop Tate proved me wrong when a similarly laden pizza is served to me at ¾ the prize. The pizza itself was deliciously done with lavishly laden mozzarella cheese and nuggets of chicken. Similarly the sizzlers served here is not as lavish as served in some other prominent joints, but say it is generous enough to satisfy, one is enough for two with average appetite. The only drawback is that there is not much on the list to choose from and the sizzlers are all served with a dumpling of rice which may or may not be to everybody’s liking.
Of the beverages, the black currant iced tea was below average while the tower beer (they serve draft beer) is not satisfactory as they turn flat by the time you have reached the bottom. The establishment should rethink about changing the brand of beer they serve.
Over all the POP TATE’s is an experience that one would enjoy a repeat. I loved it, so would you… try it today. It is VFM (Value for money)