Lord of the Drinks – Worli

It was an outing that I had been looking forward to. One, because outings are few and far in between during these times, and two because our bestie was in town after four months. So, it was a day that started early and we went for breakfast followed by a visit to the new Ikea City Store in Worli where a few happy hours were spent browsing through all that Ikea has to offer. An appetite was worked up too, in those three or so hours, and then it was off to what we all love – food and drink.

Luckily, Lord of The Drinks is in the same building. And it was a place we had been wanting to visit for a long time. It has the biggest bar in Asia and I was curious to see it. Well, it runs almost the entire length of the restaurant. It must be an impressive sight when the restaurant is full and all the bartenders are working their magic.

Once we were seated, there were three of us, two of us decided to have their unlimited drinks with a set non-veg food menu offer @ Rs 1200. The third one wanted only a veg soup and a starter. This caused a bit of a hiccup in the eating plan as servers didn’t agree to it. Apparently, all three on a table had to take the unlimited offer. We explained that the other one was a vegetarian and would only be partaking in her soup and not sharing it with us. Finally, they agreed. So, the first hurdle crossed, we rubbed our hands in anticipation of good food and great talk.

The first thing to arrive at the table was the wine sangria. The dry ice smoking of the drink is so pleasant to see. My bestie assured me the drink tasted as beautiful it looked.

The manchou soup and the peri-peri paneer were excellent. Though she didn’t a bite from our food, we certainly enjoyed a couple of bites from her food.

Now, for the past few years I have developed a thing for curry leaf mocktails, now-now don’t make a face, try it, especially if you like its flavor. So, I ended up having a curry leaf martini, curry leaf mojito, and one more drink that the bartender prepared. All three were excellent and very refreshing. Yes, I was determined to enjoy the unlimited part of the offer.

With our set menus came two soups, Thai coconut, and Kala shorba. By God, I am telling you guys, that Thai coconut was magical. Really, no other word for it. The sweetness of the coconut milk was perfectly offset by the heat in the soup. The noodles and the veggies were perfect. And to think we nearly didn’t have it, we were planning to tell our server Sara, not to bring the soups. I mean how many of us have soup and drinks at the same time. But boy am I glad we forgot to tell her that. One sip of the soup and we forgot our drinks. It’s been a week since I was there, but even as I write this review, I can feel my mouth water. And in contrast to it, the kala shorba was a total no-no. It was like dal accompanied by nan.

The fattoush salad and baby cos caesar salad were good. I have a thing for a good Caesar salad, and though a simple salad, not many chefs get it right. But here it was perfect.

So far so good. Then came the starters Lipta jhinga and Quatro pepper chicken toast. The jhinga (prawns) was nice. The toast was like any cheese chili toast. Nothing great about it.

By this time, we were reaching our full capacity. While we were contemplating what to do, Sara served the main course. Herb-crusted grilled fish and Garlicky chicken pizza. We took a bite of the fish with every intention of not repeating the action. But to our delight and to the dismay of our stomach, we found that the fish was really good. The coating was crisp and the fish inside was fresh, succulent, and tender. The mashed potatoes and the stir-fried veggies, the perfect accompaniment. So, in went a few more bites.

There was no way we could have the pizza. I just tried a bite of it so see what it tasted like. Of all the dishes, this was the least favorite. It was doughy and absolutely bland.

At this point, we told Sara we didn’t want to have dessert. But she insisted and told us that the moong dal halwa was presented in a unique way by the chef. We groaned and our bellies almost rebelled but the treacherous tongue was mighty happy.

So, came the desserts on the table. I am telling you, this is called sweet torture. The halwa was presented as cigars accompanied by rabri. The absolutely delicate wrapping crackled and melted in our mouths. The contrast of the crackle with the gooey halwa was to die for. The chocolate brownies and ice cream must be been very good too, for the other two managed to polish that off too.

All in all a grand afternoon and we had fun gorging, then groaning our way home. If you are ever in the vicinity do check out the restaurant. Hell! Even if you are not, plan an outing to it. But please be safe and best to reserve a table and go in these uncertain times.

PS: The bathroom can be avoided. Though there was provision for the safety cover, it wasn’t working and there was no toilet roll.