Firstly, because I write this review after Keri has already written one, I tread carefully with humility et al.
After my initial nasty experience with China Gate, I was reintroduced to it and was convinced that it shares the kitchen with Golden Orchid which I have loved so much. One China Gate regular also suggested that the better way is to actually order home. So, I gave it a try and ....and gradually I hooked on to China Gate. Implying that I need to alter my review as well.
But the downside was that with Chopsticks gone from the area, there was only one Chinese restaurant worth its Monosodium Glutamate. And eating from the same place too often gets you bored, right? That made me look out for another Chinese place in Bandra. Had been trying to locate China Joe for a while, and sort of accidentally bumped into it one night passing through the particular lane. Darn, had I not bumped into it, would have never found the place.
Anyways, went out for lunch one of these days and as usual landed up a little before the crowds hit the restaurants. When we went in, we were the only guests and that suited us fine. The first thing which bothered me was the fact that the seating is backless. Though backless is wonderful when on women, I prefer my chairs to have a back and a comfortable one. No, I am not that old, but that’s the way it is.
The decor of the place is sort of minimalist Japanese type spartan. Somehow the place lacks a bit of gleam and polish, or at least so it seemed to me.
Our server (Joesph) was nice and courteous and ushered us to our table and made us comfortable right away. I liked the fact that the menu also serves as the table mat...reminding me of quite a few of my favourite eating haunts in the US.
At the first glance, the food seems to be nothing out of the ordinary, and the prices don’t seem to be over the roof like in all other Mars restaurants.
While Joe came back for the order, we decided to split a sweet corn chicken soup, which turned out to be just enough for two. Not much, but enough for a lunch. What I liked was the fact that the soup had fresh corn instead of the canned stuff. The soup was not too bad otherwise either.
Had a mind to order the chicken and crispy spinach for appetizers, but avoided that because this is monsoon time and you don’t want to eat anything leafy in Mumbai during this time. You know where those things are grown, right?
While taking our order, Joe actually did warn us about over ordering which we had done and asked us to reduce the amount. That was nice I thought considering again that this is a Mars restaurant, and should ideally be hell bent on fleecing the customer, short measuring etc like all its sister restaurants. Whatever anyone might say, Mars restaurants are designed to fleece customers and get them the raw end. Sorry, I am an opinionated bastard...but my opinions come from first hand experiences only.
We ordered for chicken fried rice, a beef stir fry and a chilly chicken. When the food arrived, we noticed that it was actually enough for two people and were pleasantly surprised. Joe served the food in the beginning and whenever our plates looked empty. That was nice too...especially in this particular chain.
Each of the dishes that we ordered had much lower amount of oil than what one gets to see in any Chinese eatery in our country, and that makes me happy. The gravy dishes too were more sauce than oil.
The taste of both the dishes was a little less Indian-Chinese than most people might prefer I think. They were light on the strong spices, and towards the bland (as opposed to spicy hot) and that is something that I like as well. Especially because I cant handle ’mirchi’ in food at all. The pieces of chicken were succulent, and the beef was soft and almost melted in the mouth.
The chilly chicken wasn’t hot if you picked out the chilly pieces, and that is again a good sign.
We also had two Pepsis, and ended up paying a bill of some 400 odd. Nice I thought. Two other things that I noticed were that they use separate utensils to cook for strict vegetarians and that Chinese green tea is complimentary. Wow, something free in a Mars restaurant :-).
Overall, the experience was nice and I have found an alternative to China Gate in Bandra. Though I won’t be going back to the restaurant (because of backless benches), I shall be having food delivered (they do free home delivery).
If you like Chinese food and are not too hooked on Indianised Chinese, go eat at China Joe or order it home. You will be happy!