With a hastily put together food menu, coupled with lethargic service, this tiny new Bandra roastery-cum-coffee shop is as forgettable as its lacklustre coffee offerings are.
By Raul Dias
“Can we start off with a coffee with Old Monk flavouring, a hazelnut iced coffee and an elderflower iced tea, please?” we beseech our server enthusiastically. “None of the three are available as we don’t have the flavouring syrups,” shoots back the rather nonplussed server. Maybe we should have paid heed to that as a sign of our impending doom, done an about turn and saved ourselves from an afternoon that was about to get criminally wasted!
Yes, without going into hyperbolic overdrive, we’ve got to say that the three-month-old Toffee is the kind of roastery-cum-coffee shop that you wish would walk the talk. Especially when you have a rather loquacious marketing manager taking earnest efforts to explain to us their “coffee philosophy”. This apparently entails using only premium quality, single-origin Arabica coffee beans from India’s coffee heartland of Chikmagalur in Karnataka and then freshly roasting and grinding it on the café’s premises. But here’s the kicker. Said manager deigned it important to give us this spiel only when after we had revealed our identity as we needed to co-ordinated the photoshoot for this review, post paying our bill.
Prior to that moment, we were royally ignored by the wait staff with no menus proffered when we entered (we had to ask for them) and no options for drinking water presented. In fact, we were never offered any water right through the meal. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg! Onto the food and drink…
Despite being relatively empty, save for another party of four, our first order took a good half an hour to make it to our table as we sat—surrounded by a swarm of flies—outside the super tiny coffee shop, under an awning that was threating to blow away with every gust of pre-monsoon wind. Our small vanilla latte (Rs 190) had a burnt coffee taste, without even the slightest hint of vanilla, making us wonder if they had perhaps run out of the vanilla syrup as well. Our small machiato (Rs 145) too had that same rancid, burnt mouthfeel. The small sized Belgian chocolate milkshake (Rs 200) had an unpleasant artificial taste with a granular texture. Over diluted and once again lacking any flavour, the cranberry iced tea (Rs 190) was left untouched after a few sips.
Reminding our dining companion of her school days as a boarder, secretly cooking noodles with hot water from the heater in her dorm room, the mag & cheese made with Maggie noodles (Rs 160) tasted just as rushed and hastily made. Ensconced between two slices of stale buns and served with 10 (yes, we counted!) skinny French fries, the plump chicken burger patty (Rs 190) was one of the only things we actually liked, thanks to it being fresh and juicy, with the right amount of seasoning. But far from fresh were the six cheese corn balls (Rs 180) that had a sour aftertaste. Equally terrible was the dry smoked chicken component of the smoked chicken sandwich (Rs 190), as were the rubbery bits of chicken sitting atop the stodgy, 12-inch chicken dominant pizza (Rs 490). Faring a tad better was the perfectly edible chicken salad (Rs 280) with a mint-mustard dressing that served as a ray of hope on the chicken-dominated food menu that needs some serious rethinking. As for those still-unsatiated caffeine cravings, we rushed elsewhere to get our fix!
AT: Shop Number 9, Krishnachandra Road, ONGC Colony, Reclamation, Bandra West.
TIME: 8 am to 11.30 pm
CALL: 7506539555
(This review first appeared on 1st July 2019 in the online edition of the Mid-Day newspaper, India https://www.mid-day.com/articles/sticky-toffee/21265155)
By Raul Dias
“Can we start off with a coffee with Old Monk flavouring, a hazelnut iced coffee and an elderflower iced tea, please?” we beseech our server enthusiastically. “None of the three are available as we don’t have the flavouring syrups,” shoots back the rather nonplussed server. Maybe we should have paid heed to that as a sign of our impending doom, done an about turn and saved ourselves from an afternoon that was about to get criminally wasted!
Yes, without going into hyperbolic overdrive, we’ve got to say that the three-month-old Toffee is the kind of roastery-cum-coffee shop that you wish would walk the talk. Especially when you have a rather loquacious marketing manager taking earnest efforts to explain to us their “coffee philosophy”. This apparently entails using only premium quality, single-origin Arabica coffee beans from India’s coffee heartland of Chikmagalur in Karnataka and then freshly roasting and grinding it on the café’s premises. But here’s the kicker. Said manager deigned it important to give us this spiel only when after we had revealed our identity as we needed to co-ordinated the photoshoot for this review, post paying our bill.
Prior to that moment, we were royally ignored by the wait staff with no menus proffered when we entered (we had to ask for them) and no options for drinking water presented. In fact, we were never offered any water right through the meal. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg! Onto the food and drink…
Despite being relatively empty, save for another party of four, our first order took a good half an hour to make it to our table as we sat—surrounded by a swarm of flies—outside the super tiny coffee shop, under an awning that was threating to blow away with every gust of pre-monsoon wind. Our small vanilla latte (Rs 190) had a burnt coffee taste, without even the slightest hint of vanilla, making us wonder if they had perhaps run out of the vanilla syrup as well. Our small machiato (Rs 145) too had that same rancid, burnt mouthfeel. The small sized Belgian chocolate milkshake (Rs 200) had an unpleasant artificial taste with a granular texture. Over diluted and once again lacking any flavour, the cranberry iced tea (Rs 190) was left untouched after a few sips.
Reminding our dining companion of her school days as a boarder, secretly cooking noodles with hot water from the heater in her dorm room, the mag & cheese made with Maggie noodles (Rs 160) tasted just as rushed and hastily made. Ensconced between two slices of stale buns and served with 10 (yes, we counted!) skinny French fries, the plump chicken burger patty (Rs 190) was one of the only things we actually liked, thanks to it being fresh and juicy, with the right amount of seasoning. But far from fresh were the six cheese corn balls (Rs 180) that had a sour aftertaste. Equally terrible was the dry smoked chicken component of the smoked chicken sandwich (Rs 190), as were the rubbery bits of chicken sitting atop the stodgy, 12-inch chicken dominant pizza (Rs 490). Faring a tad better was the perfectly edible chicken salad (Rs 280) with a mint-mustard dressing that served as a ray of hope on the chicken-dominated food menu that needs some serious rethinking. As for those still-unsatiated caffeine cravings, we rushed elsewhere to get our fix!
AT: Shop Number 9, Krishnachandra Road, ONGC Colony, Reclamation, Bandra West.
TIME: 8 am to 11.30 pm
CALL: 7506539555
(This review first appeared on 1st July 2019 in the online edition of the Mid-Day newspaper, India https://www.mid-day.com/articles/sticky-toffee/21265155)
No comments:
Post a Comment