Loca Lucho – Mumbai
The city may be deprived of dine-in options when it comes to Mexican food, but a couple of takeaway joints in the suburbs are doing their best to fill the gap. The latest one, Loca Lucho, is a Bandra-based delivery kitchen that will soon have a presence in south Mumbai as well.
Loca Lucha offers mouth watering Burritos
Loca Lucha gets its name from the brand mascot ‘Lucha’, originated from the popular Lucha Libre that refers to professional wrestling in Mexico. They’re unabashedly modeled on Chipotle, which isn’t a bad thing, really, because they do quite a good job. Case in point is the Lamb Burrito Bowl – a well packed, generous portion of cilantro and lime white rice, pinto beans, lamb with tomato sauce, pineapple and sage salsa, charred cherry tomato salsa, habanero salsa, veg fajitas, corn, sour cream, Monterey Jack cheese and guacamole. The house-made salsas are fresh and really stand out. Props to Gracian D’Souza (industry veteran and Loca Lucho’s consulting chef) for not localizing the dish with cheaper variants of cheese, or with chopped onion and tomato dominating the guacamole.
Burrito bowl
A loaded Chipotle Chicken Burrito uses many of the same ingredients, but swaps out some of the salsas for pico de gallo and an excellent green salsa verde. The chicken chunks are juicy, black beans replace pinto beans and jalapenos and sour cream top off this filling meal-on-the-go option.
Soft Shell Tacos (2 Ways) – Peri Peri Paneer & Chipotle Potato
Loca Lucho lets you customize your dishes as well – be it burritos and burrito bowls, or even salad bowls and soft shell tacos. For our salad bowl, we went with charred beef, and for the tacos, peri peri pork made for a spicy, robust filling.
Salad Bowl
Dessert options are limited, but undoubtedly satisfying. The Tres Leches cake is soft, creamy and indulgent, but an Oreo Cheesecake – way better than we’d have expected – steals the show.
Tres Leches Cake and Oreo Cheesecake
Monkey Bar – Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru
Outlets of the gastro-pub in four cities are celebrating Durga Pujo with ‘Next Stop Kolkata’ – a menu inspired by the street food of the city, available till October 21.
Kolkata-based home chef Iti Misra has worked with Monkey Bar’s Head Chef Dheeraj Varma to curate a selection of dishes that represents the city’s exhaustive culinary offerings.
Beadon Street Fish Roll
The Beadon Fish Roll is a nice croquette to begin with. Lightly smoked bhetki is stuffed with curried shrimps, breaded and fried – don’t miss the kasundi dip and salad. The city’s Tibetan influence is seen in the Elgin Road Pork Momos. The skin of the dumplings is a little thicker than we like, but the stuffing is spot-on, and the highlight is a tangy, smoky chutney broth. The Chinese influence of Tiretti Bazaar is also seen in a wholesome serving of Prawn Dumplings – a rather homely, soothing dish slathered in brown gravy and topped with fried bits of garlic. You can’t go wrong with any of these. Lake Market Chicken Kabiraji takes a popular street food dish and reinvents it. While the cutlet retains its juiciness and thankfully isn’t soggy, we’re happy to skip the house-made apple and kasundi chutney.
Elgin Road Pork Momo
There’s a special menu of cocktails as well, albeit limited to three. Our experiment with the Puchka Pani Capriojka is successful – the tanginess of the Gondhoraj Lebu goes well with our assortment of small plates.
Piara Peara, Puchka Pani Capriojka, Thaanda Cha
If you don’t plan to visit the pujas this year, this menu is a good way to sample some of the food associated with the festival and the city that celebrates it with the most fervour.
