We are in Bombay for a few days and that means a diary post needs to be started to document the ever-changing Mumbai. Right now we have sporadic internet connection and getting someone to have the connection fixed has been frustrating.
The call center folks providing technical support for Tata Indicom speak slightly weak but polite english. They have the responses well memorized and anything out of the ordinary usually stumps them leading to more standard responses. 🙂
Anyway we saw a BEST Bus with new different styled seats. These seats were more colorful (yellow plastic handles), and there was a slight gap separating the 2 seats. So its more like a chair now instead of the combined 2 seater that was present earlier. The seat cover was a colorful blue cloth type material. It was easier on the back as well.
Someone mentioned a few local trains have now started to announce the arriving station. Although we have never sat in such a train yet.
Food wise Mumbai is a paradise of course. So many new desserts are now available at weddings, etc. Gone are the days of the standard ras-gulla and gulab jamun and jalebi at weddings. Individual glass sized packs of mineral water are now standard at many weddings and functions.
We found Eggless Mayonaisse here at D-Mart (one more retail chain).
Stay tuned for more updates on Mumbai.
Had Tiramisu at a wedding and “Cold Stone” type ice-cream where the folks mixed ice-cream and nuts and other toppings on the spot.
Have seen the new buses on the road but haven’t sat in one of them. Have seen some bust stops particularly one outside Shopper’s stop in Andheri) getting fitted with LED panels. Wonder if it will show the next bus coming.
Post cereal, Ragu Pasta Sauce, Old El Paso Taco Shells, Peanut Butter is found in quite a few shops around town.
Nirmal Lifestyle in Mulund is shopping and food paradise. I think Prashant had mentioned about it in his last post about bombay.
Fab India, Shoppers Stop, Dollar shop, Shop Rite (mini Wall Mart) etc. are few to shops to mention in Nirmal. International cuisine has become common everywhere in bombay.
Mc Donald, Ruby Tuesday (with the same ambience as in the US), Thai Chi, Donut shop etc. are there along with Indian restaurants in the food court in Nirmal.
All food items in retail malls are now labelled with green dot (vegetarian) or red dot (non-veg). Makes buying food items much easier.
Green dot means “no egg” for sure. 🙂
Thx for sharing notes on the Bombay Diary.
It’s a favorite & I always love reading this!
Wedding in India are a blast …last year we attended a wedding in India that had about 300-400 food items…..sizzlers,cappucino,mousse pastas,desi,videsi u name it and they had it….the whole attraction of the wedding was food….as soon as you enter the arena they gave you a menu card from which you could chosse and order….no need to go around with paltes …it was just overwhleming…..Amit finally got out from seat and he is like i need to see n snese food at weeding before i can eat……
Chedda n EVerfresh in Matunga serve awesome hummus and pita chips…nacho sauce, jain enchiladas seasoning……
We visited Pune and went to this awesome vegetarian Restaurant Shiv Sagar…..its a 3 storeyed restaurant that serves everything from simple South Indian food to desi style mexican and italian food…..their mexican sizzlers and paneer enchiladas were mouthwatering….Prashant you must try this one and dont worry if u visit Hemal n Kalpesh or Kala they are sure to take you there as its their favorite too….
Also try Rajdhani s churma ladoo n dal batti combo at Infinity Mall(Andheri)…this combos are offered by Rajdahni only at their express
counters….
sorry for all typos its plates not paltes….its 8.30 am n am rushin to work
The food stalls in front of Juhu beach have been moved and have relocated to the side in front of Ramada Inn. So now when you enter the Juhu beach you get a clear view of the beach.
There are garbarge cans all over for people to throw garbage in and police roam the beach to catch anyone who throws garbage in the sea.
Prashant, you were asking about resorts around bombay… There is a hotel called “Pushkar Mela” in Thane. (It has rides inside the hotel and is at an hour drive from Mulund). It seems good place to visit with kids. Bhumi and Keya are going to go there from school.
Folks told us here that Village restaurant in Iternity Mall in Thane is also very good place.
While my visit in Mumbai I also saw a AC BEST bus….. very luxurious
There is The Village in Raghu Leela Mall Kandivali and the same mall has the Forest…
Village offers like 100 items …gujrati,rajasthani,punjabi,south indian….they have a puppet show,dandiya and garba arranged…they charge like Rs300 per person….
Forrest has similar concept ..they offer italian ,mexican,indian fast food…also DJ is available all the time…
These places are fun for get to gathers where you want to spend couple hours with friends/family
Even though the topic is Bombay, will add some things about Pune here. Pune has nice garden restaurants – Garden Court, Ambrosia. A nice place for a long dinner with family and friends. Another place Abhiruchi garden offers train rides, nice maharashtrian food in a hut like setting. These places have been there in Pune for the past 10+ yrs, so things would have changed now but our KV localites could visit and update us or start a thread on Pune diary )
We had gone to Village restaurant in Raghu Leela Mall. The food was overwhelming like Sneha has mentioned. They charge Rs.225 for weekdays and Rs.325 for weekend rate. They had diya dance and garba on sunday evening. Also we had been to Abhiruchi in Pune few years back. Lots of open space with greenary for relaxing and play area for kids.
In Ghatkopar(E) also there is a Village restaurant. It also charges about 300 pp. A nice place with lots of space to move around and spend 2-3 hrs with friends/family. They offer all kinds of item – from chat to rajasthani, south indian, punjabi, gujarati. My favorite was the malai kulfi on the loang stick -one we used to get at chowpati. They also had a tarrot card reader, astrologer, mehndi designer.
I had been to Mumbai for my Brothers wedding, had been to couple of new resturents opened in past one year. One of them Barbeque Nation, they have buffet lunch/dinner but intesting part the barbeque prepaired in front of u. Table has slots for putting heated grill and souces to apply on babeque.Buffet lunch was good. Only thing one has to book table in advance. Other one was Angethee (famous Hyderabad chain). Good food and decore.
Barbeque Nations is good….
Also another happening place is Olive….man that is talk of the town…super duper expensive……
Another favorite Restaurant is On the Move near Prabhadevi
From this post one thing is sure, we LOVE to talk about MUMBAI and FOOD.
We went to Bandra cinemax where they have recliner seats. They also serve food during intermission. We had great time.
Went to The Village in ghat-east. It was awesome.
There is nice food exit on Mumbai-Pune express way which has lots of variety.
While in b’lore, visted few resturants which I really liked: Indijoe’s, MTR (loaded with Ghee), Sahib Sindh Sultan. Also enjoyed coffee joints like InfiniTea. Went to Tyca pub where they serve good apetizers.
I think overall India is food+shopping heaven.
Another trend nowadays going on in Mumbai is weight reducing / dieting. People go to dietician / doctors, they give you diet plan and tell you to exercise. You visit them everyday or once a week.
Wow, Bhavini.. you got elephant’s memory about Pune restaurants. Apparently, some of them do still exist just like Vaishali on FC Road.
Amisha, the fitness craze has touched my little town as well. There is an official gym in my town now. As far as I could remember apart from a few structures that vaguely resembled exercise bars. Well, with the introduction of complex food in simple life one would need to run to the gym more frequently.
It has been a decade since I lived in Pune. I forgot the names of some good restaurants that Bhavini apparently still remembers very well. Thanks for reminding and I totally agree with Rohit on elephant’s memory thing.
During our recent visit to Pune, we visited another cool resort type restaurant “Chokhi Daani”. It was an interesting place and kinda like the Vishala Village Restaurant in Ahmedabad. Folks in Pune can add more about that restaurant if they are on this blog.
Just visited ShivSagar in Pune with Kalpesh/Hemal a few days back and the food is just awesome. I had the Shivsagar Special Enchilada, Manchow soup, thandai, etc and everything was awesome. Dipesh took us to another Gujarati Thali place that was also good. Dont remember the name now.
Since there has been so much said about the Village, I will try to visit it in Eternity Mall.
Also updating the date on this post so that it stays on the front page for some more time. 🙂
Finally I managed to get my hands on one of the earliest Hindi Comedy Serials “Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi”. All these years i was searching for episodes in video stores, etc. But no luck. I was afraid that the episodes were lost or what.
But on a recent visit to Planet M, I found that Shemaroo has released some volumes of this evergreen serial. I am getting Vol 1 and 2 which include the first 10 episodes.
They will be available for circulation in KV once we finish watching them. 🙂
– Our favourite Thali place is Chetana near Kala Ghoda for people who still know the old names in Bombay. This place is near Regal Cinema near Jehangir Art Gallery. This place only serves Thali. The various Thalis available are Gujarati, Rajasthani, Healthy Thali and Indian Thali.
– Samrat at Churchagate also is a good restuarant with great Punjabi dishes.
Gujarati Thali place in Pune is Mayur on M.G. Rd
Couple of places in poona we have visited are Vaishali, Shiv Sagar, Shreeman which is more popular these days, German bakery, food at poona club is also good,Shrewsberry Biscuits from Kayani bakery, chitale bandu has good sabudana wada and snacks, shabree(specially marashtrian food), exactly opposite the station there was a small hotel where we use to get good misal and sabudana wada. there are few more hotels near deccan, shivaji nagar and one fc road dont remember the names . there is a small food stall on MG road where u get good dhoklas sold by guju lady.
Well, if you want to get a taste of old style Pune food visit Maharashtrian restaurant called “Janseva”. This is the place to enjoy “sabudanya chi khichadi”, “kaande pohe” and lot of other traditional Maharashtrian stuff. This place is located on Lakhmi road and is a very old restaurant. The service is very rude. Food gets over quickly so there is guarantee that the items on the menu will be available. The restaurant is closed during lunch and dinner hours. Typical Puneri. 🙂
I would love to know if the Burger King still exists in the Camp. Also, does anyone know if Zaamu’s Sizzler place is still around near Dhole-Patil road?
Regarding Janseva I meant that theres no guarantee that items on the menu will be available. On the menu they even have days and timing for when a particular item is likely to be available.
Prashant, I have logged my name in your “borrow book” for Yeh Jo HAi Zindagi. I hope I am the first.
Now that Prashant mentioned it, for P.G. Wodehouse and Calvin and Hobbes fans, Planet M sells a 10 book pack on PG. Wodehouse and a huge compilation of Calvin and Hobbes. The P.G. Wodehouse package of Jeeves sells for only Rs 830. This is a steal. I saw individual books sell 20 pounds in London.
I got myself one. Calvin one was too huge to carry back. 🙁
Jeegar, I am borrowing PG from you.
Prashant, I am the next guy in line after Jeegar for “Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi” episodes.
Jeegar we can come to ur place and watch Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi 🙂
Actually i will just make 2 copies and distribute them to jeegar and nilesh.
That way maybe they can get inspired to think of a “Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi” for this year’s Diwali Party :-)).
Prashant mama, arent we first in line for the “Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi” ? Hum Jahan khade hote hai, line wahi se shuru hoti hai 🙂
Prashant, I will be the next in line for Yeh Jo hai Zindagi.
Jeegar/Nilesh, I will be first in your list if I don’t get it from Prashant.
One other thing which i noticed at the Mumbai weddings is that the all chairs are now covered with cloth cover. I guess this avoids the task of cleaning the chairs themselves. The cloth covers probably are just bulk washed every 3-4 weddings.
Also mobile water fountains and flat planel LCD displays (of the stage area) are now common in receptions.
Its been quite a while since I attended marriages in India and so some of these may already be known by most of you. 🙂
Recently sat in the new purple trains which have a very open design for the coaches. The next station is announce on these trains. Also there is more standing room.