Offering coffee aficionados a range of well-made bean to cup iterations of the beverage, this friendly neighbourhood coffee shop is great for those quick-fix, perk-me-up moments.
By Raul Dias
Sitting snugly sandwiched between a beauty salon and a grocery store on a restaurant-infested stretch like Bandra West’s busy 16th Road, it is very easy to miss Easy Cappuccino’s nondescript storefront at first. It’s only when one’s olfactory senses are treated to the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans, does this new coffee shop assert its presence.
Living up to the first part of its name, everything here is easy and relaxed. Mainly so thanks to its minimal, almost Scandi-chic interiors with plenty of blonde cedar wood and comfortable banquette style seating along one wall. Here one will find none of those in-your-face coffee shop décor tropes like sacks of coffee beans, quirky coffee quote posters etc. It makes up for this visual quietude with an intensely flavourful and robust coffee drinks’ selection of both the hot and cold varieties, along with a few food items.
We start off our inning here with a single shot of the punchy Americano (Rs 190) where the smoky roast of the Arabica bean is amply evident in every satisfying sip. We chase this with an Irish coffee (Rs 140) with a thick head of cream and imbued with the taste of (non-alcoholic) Irish Whiskey syrup. We also call for a frappuccino version of the Irish coffee (Rs 190) that is even better tasting in its cold avatar, coming to our table in a generously proportioned glass that’s filled to the brim with the blended drink.
Interestingly, none of this apparent generosity in portion size is reflected in the food items we sample. Though freshly made (we saw the counter staff whisking the batter) and scrumptious till the last crumb, the quartet of peanut butter topped pancake cassettes (Rs 100) are barely larger than a coin each and had us almost call for more. Restraining ourselves, we instead order a rather overpriced nasty Nutella (yes, that’s the name!) croissant (Rs 160), that’s once again woefully under-endowed, but buttery and soft to the taste. Bursting with the freshness of basil that complements the woodiness of the mushrooms perfectly, our only savoury order of the six-inch basil and mushroom pizza (Rs 195) makes for messy satisfaction.
Back to our afternoon’s raison d’etre i.e. coffee, the cappuccino (Rs 110)—that we request to be made with almond milk (Rs 70 extra)—is another winner with the barista managing to give it a thick foamy head, despite the presence of the notoriously-difficult-to-froth almond milk. We end our caffeine-dominated session with one of Easy Cappuccino’s non-coffee blended drinks in the form of a Jim Jam cheesecake biscuit shake (Rs 190) that takes us back down nostalgia lane when our school tiffin boxes would almost always have the jam-centered biscuits in them.
If like us, well-priced, honest-to-goodness coffee is your scene, then we’d suggest giving this place a whirl soon!
AT: Easy Cappuccino, Shop No. 6, Shiv Asthan Housing Society Ltd., 16th Road, Bandra West.
TIME: 7 am to 9 pm
CALL: 8657393549
By Raul Dias
Sitting snugly sandwiched between a beauty salon and a grocery store on a restaurant-infested stretch like Bandra West’s busy 16th Road, it is very easy to miss Easy Cappuccino’s nondescript storefront at first. It’s only when one’s olfactory senses are treated to the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans, does this new coffee shop assert its presence.
Living up to the first part of its name, everything here is easy and relaxed. Mainly so thanks to its minimal, almost Scandi-chic interiors with plenty of blonde cedar wood and comfortable banquette style seating along one wall. Here one will find none of those in-your-face coffee shop décor tropes like sacks of coffee beans, quirky coffee quote posters etc. It makes up for this visual quietude with an intensely flavourful and robust coffee drinks’ selection of both the hot and cold varieties, along with a few food items.
We start off our inning here with a single shot of the punchy Americano (Rs 190) where the smoky roast of the Arabica bean is amply evident in every satisfying sip. We chase this with an Irish coffee (Rs 140) with a thick head of cream and imbued with the taste of (non-alcoholic) Irish Whiskey syrup. We also call for a frappuccino version of the Irish coffee (Rs 190) that is even better tasting in its cold avatar, coming to our table in a generously proportioned glass that’s filled to the brim with the blended drink.
Interestingly, none of this apparent generosity in portion size is reflected in the food items we sample. Though freshly made (we saw the counter staff whisking the batter) and scrumptious till the last crumb, the quartet of peanut butter topped pancake cassettes (Rs 100) are barely larger than a coin each and had us almost call for more. Restraining ourselves, we instead order a rather overpriced nasty Nutella (yes, that’s the name!) croissant (Rs 160), that’s once again woefully under-endowed, but buttery and soft to the taste. Bursting with the freshness of basil that complements the woodiness of the mushrooms perfectly, our only savoury order of the six-inch basil and mushroom pizza (Rs 195) makes for messy satisfaction.
Back to our afternoon’s raison d’etre i.e. coffee, the cappuccino (Rs 110)—that we request to be made with almond milk (Rs 70 extra)—is another winner with the barista managing to give it a thick foamy head, despite the presence of the notoriously-difficult-to-froth almond milk. We end our caffeine-dominated session with one of Easy Cappuccino’s non-coffee blended drinks in the form of a Jim Jam cheesecake biscuit shake (Rs 190) that takes us back down nostalgia lane when our school tiffin boxes would almost always have the jam-centered biscuits in them.
If like us, well-priced, honest-to-goodness coffee is your scene, then we’d suggest giving this place a whirl soon!
AT: Easy Cappuccino, Shop No. 6, Shiv Asthan Housing Society Ltd., 16th Road, Bandra West.
TIME: 7 am to 9 pm
CALL: 8657393549
(An edited version of this review appeared in the 29th November 2019 issue of the Mid-Day newspaper, India on page 25 https://m.mid-day.com/articles/full-of-beans/22178185)
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