D:OH, Mumbai

D:OH!, Lower Parel

The sort of not so steep pricing, the ambiance and the freak shakes is what had attracted me here. Everyone around seems to be doing freak shakes and this place's looked insane and had a mention in quite a few articles for where to go for freak shakes. Me being me, had to try it out. 

Located in the Kamala Mills Complex (How many restaurants does this place have? and every few weeks you see one more opening up? Where do all of them fit??!! ). I love the ambiance of this place, and if you love taking photos of your good self, second favorite hobby of mine ), then you will too. They have huge jhulas (swings) for seating against the walls. They also have high chairs on another side, but it's the jhoola that is what attracts me and that is where we chose to be seated. The place has a little raw appeal with uses of wooden elements, bricks, white and hues of blue. 

It's self service where you order what you require and they hand you over a buzzer and will buzz you once your order is ready to be whisked away. A pretty clean system. The one thing that I am not a fan of with self service is long queues (I would crib if the long queue even led to Shahrukh Khan! So queues not my thing, And even worse is no queues which leads to chaos). Hence, I appreciate this slick buzzer system. Hassle Free. 

When Ordering a freak shake, it's always for two, because well it's quite a lot on your own, but my friend wanted to have the chocolate and I wanted to have the caramel (majorly because it was garnished with a slice on cheese cake on top. Ek teer se do nishana types ). I am going to admit to it and say that was a mistake on my end. Or rather on theirs. It didn't really blow me away and after reading all the articles I had, I had expected it to. The caramel on it's own seemed good, but wasn't wow. The cheese cake, as much as I had to say it, is probably the worst I have had. It was hard, stale, lacked taste, the softness was missing. Definitely didn't seem fresh either.  The chocolate one was better, but then again, didn't wow either. Since the freak shake on it's own is too heavy, we ordered somewhat lighter food. We ordered the crispy sriracha chicken tenders and peppered mutton stew. All items on the menu are designed for one. The chicken tenders were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, exactly how they said it would be and for that I am grateful. If it's fried, then I prefer the outer parts to have that crunch. (I liked even my bread to have a little crunch. A little lunatic, that way). The star of the day was the Peppered Mutton Stew. It was like a home-coming meal. After a long journey home, when your mommy dearest serves you fresh food cooked with her own hands. It evokes those kind-of feelings when you have the very first bite. Mixed with exotic veggies (So exotic that I was left guessing what it was, though all good!), served on a bed of brown onion pulav. On a side note, I love brown onion or what we call Biryan. It elevates the flavor of the rice. The mutton pieces were melt in the mouth. The mutton gravy was served on top of the rice itself which can go wrong if one is less or more. Here, the ratio is perfect. 

The more I be to places, the more I realize I should stick to my own gut feeling than go with what dozens of articles. I liked the place quite a lot, but I would avoid the freak shakes and rather dig into the food.

WHAT WE HAD - Choco Freak (Okay)

                           Freak Cake - Caramel (Below Average)

                           Crispy Sriracha Chicken Tenders (Yumness)

                           Peppered Mutton Stew (Yumness Galore)

DAMAGES - Rs 1500/- (Approx)

WHERE - DOH All Day.Ground Floor, Unit 2B, Trade View, Kamala City, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai

Three Chicks and a Bear, Mumbai

Three Chicks and a Bear, Lower Parel

Long Long over due. I had been trying to drag almost everyone I knew to this place and no body just seemed interested. Mostly because of the location. Situated in Lower Parel and most of my friends staying on the other side of town. I am the only one who would cross oceans for a meal.  Well, maybe fly over the ocean.  On a completely different note I just traveled for the first time in my life out of India. Well, I have lived in Bahrain, but that's home and who counts that. So what if it's Dubai and it's just next door.

So how did I finally get to a pay visit to this place? My college buddy was in town and she was staying in Mahalaxmi and then I just ganged up and told her that if she has to see me she has to drop by her and since it was near by to her, she didn't complain much. Also, I Dragged another friend with emotional blackmail of long had reunions to get her out of bed and come all the way here. I can be persuasive if I want to. Mission accomplished.

The place is another offering from the famous Theobroma offering more in ranges of burgers. The limited burgers etc that they offer in Theobroma gives you a good enough idea of what to expect when they provide you with a full blown menu for the carnivore lover. There are vegetarian options but a little limited and I don't know anyone who has tried it out to be able to comment on it. This place is much more spacious in comparison to their Theobroma outlets, and less crowded too. The latter is surprising because a Theobroma on a week day, forget weekend, you would be lucky to find a place. Also, their dessert aisle will transport you to Christmas Charlie and the chocolate factory type feel. I was besotted and taken away with just the aisle itself.

The service is warm as is always with Theobroma. The menu, confusing, because you want to have everything. However, I had as usual, come decided with what I would have. My hobby includes browsing through restaurant menus and day dream of what I would be eating. (No, that's not weird. ) So we called for the meatballs and Canadian pulled BBQ chicken burger. Even though I over all had liked the meatballs, I had expected the tomato basil to be more cooked tomato sauce than on the raw side. I think it would have tasted better if the tomato was sautéed to a point where you don't really see the tomato even, the meat balls would have soaked the flavor from the sauce better then or maybe I prefer it that way. It has the potential to be a 4/5 but it was a 3.5/5. The burger is another story. HUGE! and messy, just how they are supposed to be. The burger was actually ordered by my friend so even though I can't give my complete view on it, it was appetizing in the one bite I tried. Moreover, I have always felt that you can't go wrong with BBQ sauce and chicken. I would definitely want to come back and try more.

Okay, now for the main reason I had dragged my friends here - The Red Velvet Freak Shake. If you are ordering this, please note that this is a meal in itself. It is also not something you would want to share and if someone dared to you would resent them. And even if you tell yourself, you will just have a bite, you CAN'T! So, even though we had thought initially we would share this, I completely regret my decision. I wish I hadn't used that word. You know that the red velvet used is rich and also they haven't been stingy in their usage of it is because of the color of the shake. I have always seen most red velvet shake to be a shade of baby pink or lighter, this was reddish-pink. you can taste the richness of the red velvet in every sip you take of the shake. Add to that the generous amount of whipped cream. And who doesn't like whipped cream??!! That is not it. It has an entire slice of red velvet creamcheese cake on top. If you have had red velvet from here, you know it's second only to their luscious brownies which I think the world also should know about by now! So share, only at your own risk and regret.

WHAT WE HAD - Meatballs (Yumess)

                        Canadian Pull BBQ Chicken Burger (Yumness Personified)

                           Red Velvet Freak Shake (Another reason to Live)

                           Masala Chai

DAMAGES - Rs 1400/- (Approx)

WHERE -  Three Chicks & A Bear.Lodha Supremus, Survey 453, Senapati Bapat Marg, Railway Colony, Lower Parel, Mumbai