A much anticipated evening of comic relief deserved to be preceded by an equally awaited romantic dinner. The great Karthik Kumar was performing his third solo ‘Blood Chutney’ at Canvas Laugh Factory which gave me the perfect excuse to go to Kamala Mills for dinner. After going through Zomato and considering a couple of restaurants I finally settled on Farzi Café. Their menu was the tipping point, it was intriguing. I was really looking forward to it as the café was highly rated on Zomato.
The ‘XL’ sized restaurant has back lit screens (I hope that’s what they are called) and they captured my attention from the moment I walked in. The whole place has a nice relaxed vibe to it. It wasn’t crowded when we walked in around 8.45 pm but was by the time we left at 9.30 pm.
Like a truly gourmet restaurant that promises its patrons a union of the Indian classics with popular global dishes, the service started with an amuse-bouche (it is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. It’s a French term that literally means ‘mouth amuser’. ) I have to admit, neither the look nor the taste was very inspiring but I wasn’t giving up as I was sure great dishes would follow.
What followed before the dishes was the coaster. I loved it. Guess it holds true for most of us.
This was followed by the ‘Shoonya’ (meaning zero, meaning no alcohol) drink ‘Farzi OK’, but unfortunately it was not ok. The orange flavour was overpowering, it was too sour, not a balanced drink. Also they don’t have a lot of options for us poor mocktail-walas.
Next to arrive was the chicken shorba. The shorba was excellent in taste and the chicken meat balls on skewer with it were ok. The meatballs though make the whole dish pretty heavy.
Then came the dak bunglow chicken. The presentation was cute. The taste, ok.
The other starter we had ordered was duck samosa. They too looked cute when they arrived. Unfortunately the skin was too thick to enjoy them. The filling inside was nice though.
The main course consisted of mutton irachi pepper fry with malabari paratha and shawarma biryani. The presentation of the biryani was very appealing. The chicken had to be lifted up from the top of the skewer. The chicken was ok, the biryani was ok too.
Till now the dinner had been a bit disappointing as the café was not living up to its ratings and reviews. But then came the mutton and swept all the disappointment away. It was simply YYYYUUUUUMMMMMMMM. The meat was so tender it just melted in the mouth. The flavour was amazing. The flaky paratha made a worthy companion. The dish made our dinner truly romantic as we shared bite for bite. Just for this I will visit the café again. And thank God to this dish for adding some brilliance to an otherwise lacklustre dinner.
After the mutton, didn’t order any dessert and didn’t even try the appealing gujiya paan. There was no way I was messing with the awesome taste in my mouth. I am glad I had the mutton otherwise I had almost made up my mind never to come back.
PS: They have nice and clean washrooms. It’s all done in mirrors. See if you can spot the handle when you step in.
