I am glad I discovered The Mumbai Times Cafe, in Bandra and Thane. It opened a couple of months back and I visited the Thane outlet also just because the the Bandra one impressed me so much. The stupendous success of the Thane outlet led to the opening of the Bandra outlet on the Linking Road, in May. I have to tell you, that I wasnt disappointed at all- it is one of the best places to hang out in Mumbai. Finally Mumbai has a proper place to chill. Seriously, the ambience of the eatery is extremely warm and welcoming. You feel quite at home- the crowd is young, hip and not bothered by your presence, nor do they bother you with theirs. There are five or six LCD screens all around the place where different channels are shown simultaneously.
The manager says that they want to cater to the tastes of their varied audience(No one told them that so many TVs may result in a cacophony) However, no one complains because the news channels have tickers and the sports too do not need much of sound so no resultant cacophony. And most importantly the food and beverage served is so good that no one has time to give a thought to the ambience. The waitress at our table was one cool lady who said we could have the dessert free if we ordered a snack. Imagine! How can one not fall in love with such a place.(Tht was, unfortunately, a promotional offer valid till September 30 only.) The Mumbai Times Café has a menu card like a broadsheet newspaper and has a morning and an evening edition.
The morning edition, like you must have figured out already, has a set of different food items and the evening has more of alcoholic beverages(even alcoholic desserts like Banana’s Day Out- Rum and Caramel infused bananas with mint jelly or Tropical Mop- Tender coconut with white rum scented with ginger.) The food they serve is not very highly priced and if you go during happy hours you get real good deals on your alcohol too, which is otherwise expensive, compared to similar restaurants. A Long Island Iced tea would cost you Rs 299 plus taxes here, while the same is available at other suburban eateries for maybe Rs 150-180.
My favourite food: Sinful Chocolate- This is warm chocolate pudding served with ice-cream. Sounds simple but the taste is simply awesome. The chocolate pudding is amazing and I had no idea that chocolate sauce can be that fingerlicking good. Ummm…orgasmic really. Their chocolate chip cookies are to-de-for.(I need a thesaurus, am running out of adjectives.) You all would have had chocolate chip cookies which may have been laden with chocolate chip and you would have loved it. The cookies they make here, are, zara hatke. At this point I want to warn you that unless you are a chocoholic do not think of trying these cookies.
You really need to be addicted to chocolate to like these - they are not cookies with chocolate chip, they are chocolate chips with a little of cookie crumbles all around them. Amazing.(Roget, I seriously need help!) Starlets, film personalities have all given a thumbs up to the place(their menu card has quotes and pics) and I join them to applaud The Mumbai Times Cafe