Plum by Bent Chair
Plum might be the most beautiful restaurant in all of Mumbai. And if you agree with us, you might be further pleased by the fact that all their furniture, crockery and artifacts – all by bent Chair, and a different set used for every table – is available for purchase. While that, as a concept, might draw in several customers on its own, the food at Plum doesn’t disappoint either. In fact, it’s very good.
The menu isn’t very imaginative, so to say. It serves pan-Asian staples, but does a good job of them. The Quinoa Poached Chicken Dumplings and Shanghai Pork Dumplings are both plump and juicy, not destroyed by thick wrappers. Chili Bean Prawns are lip-smacking, and we’ve got to give props to the chef for sending out a generous quantity of far bigger prawns than we are served (unless we order jumbo prawns, of course) – some great value for money here. Sushi is on point as well. You can’t go wrong with the house special, the Salmon Spicy Mayo Uramaki that comes highly recommended by the staff.
A minor grouse, if at all, is the lack of variety in mains and desserts. Our order of Mongolian Chicken Clay Pot and Garlic Buttered Fried Rice is a safe, standard option. Of the two desserts available, the Plum Tropical Fruit Citrus Cheesecake is the more interesting pick, and puts a nice spin on the usual slice of cheesecake. The dish has a tangy scoop of lime cheesecake served atop a bed of chopped tropical fruits – refreshing, light and not too guilty an indulgence.
Pop-Up Menu at Yuuka
Chef Ting Yen’s modern Japanese restaurant at St Regis Mumbai has always ranked high on our list, so we were quite excited to check out a new pop-up menu that he introduced earlier this month.
Among the few dishes we tried, there were a few hits but unfortunately more misses and some very repetitive elements. The menu isn’t very impressive from a vegetarian’s standpoint. The Mizuna Salad uses a subtle house rice vinegar dressing to add some tang to fresh produce like cucumber, zucchini, carrots, avocado, corn and okra. When it comes to such dishes, the produce needs to be top notch to be able to shine on its own, and sadly it wasn’t.
In the case of the Vegetarian Treasure Box, as intricate as the dish looks with its zucchini net, its stuffing of tofu and veggies is rather bland, and the accompanying yuzu dashi doesn’t do much to add flavour. The vegetarian dish we do like is the pretty O-tsukuri Enoki Mushroom with Gold Leaf – it’s a dish that tastes good because you can’t really go wrong with these mushrooms, but the same yuzu dashi (a citrus-y version this time) makes an appearance.
It doesn’t stop there. The dashi – along with white soy sauce and caviar – is also served with the Hamachi Uzusukuri with Gold Leaf – yuzu citrus dashi with white soy sauce and caviar. This, however, is a dish we really like for its simplicity, yet bold hit of flavour. King Crab Nikkei Style follows, and looks pretty, but fails to pack in much flavour.
Our final dish is a hearty portion of poached scallops and morel mushrooms in a divine soy beurre blanc. The morels absorb the flavour of the sauce beautifully and are a joy to eat. Unfortunately, the same isn’t the case with the scallops that are well cooked, but sadly pale in comparison with the morels.
Given that Yuuka’s regular menu is fantastic, to say the least, we’d suggest ordering from it, while trying a couple of dishes from this menu in case they catch your fancy.
