Good Vibes Cafe, Mumbai

GOOD VIBES CAFE, Mulund

I am brutally honest but at the same time I am extremely sweet and am going to avoid every which way to hurt your feelings. It is a difficult task, trust me. But I would like to believe I manage to do it alright. Here, however is where I am going to choose to be brutally honest with no intention of hurting anyone's feelings but probably am going to do so. Apologies in advance.

This place was first brought to my attention by a friend, who wanted to try their breakfast variety and my first reaction was there are so many good places for breakfast in this part of the town, and you want me to travel all the way to Mulund??!! Early in the morning??!! Not happening. However, what had caught my fancy was the edible chocolate cups they have included their menu. For this and this alone, I did want to give this place a try. The rest of the items on the menu seemed good enough to try, the usual pastas and pizzas and a few Indian Tandoori items thrown in for good measure. Is it me or does it feel like all the places around have started to have the same variety. You should note I am searching for good places to try out, which has something different to offer and if any one who has bothered to read this, knows of any such place, write to me and you will make me a happy woman! (Please don't say Masala Library, I am not rich enough yet! :( ) One fine day, when I had headed to my jhalli friend's home for lunch on her promise to feed me Paneer, we landed up here in the evening for an early dinner and Boy! I wish I had chosen any place but this!

The ambiance is much more inviting in pictures than in real life, where in everything seems to be just randomly put together, the lighting is extremely bad. I would go on and say that it looks like an old shed converted into a restaurant and they never bothered redecorating. The Kitchen stays hidden behind, a curtain, or maybe I should say almost hidden. Though, it didn't look unhygienic, it didn't particularly look hygienic as well. I still sat down, having bothered to come all this way and maybe, just maybe the food would be the showstopper. Oh! How wrong, I was. It was a series of disappointments put together into a meal. We placed order for a Carbonara Pasta and Bruschetta with Chicken and Jalapeno accompanied with an iced tea and hot chocolate. Except for the Hot Chocolate, pretty much everything was not worth having and a waste of my hard earned money. I was really intrigued with the Carbonara which on several level reminded me of the egg-cheesy maggi I used to make at home. Yes, I was infatuated with that egg maggi, I made, but that cost me tops 25 rs! if you count, the cheese, maggi and egg in. Moreover, I have out-grown it. So when I am paying 259 Rs + Taxes for this, I feel robbed. What do I have to say on the Bruschetta? It was a piece of french loaf cut and topped with roasted chicken and jalapeno. Simply put bread and chicken. I liked bread, I like chicken. Many a time, when someone cooks chicken Tawa in the house, the boneless chicken is first shallow fried in garlic paste, and I almost always remove some and experiment with it in one or the other form, and for snacking before the meal is actually ready, it seems good enough, but for an actual meal ? Big Fat No + my variations always tasted better. The Hot Chocolate went untouched. Bournvita/Horlics is what they should have named it. I have always found little short comings in a lot of places, but this was on several levels, a disaster. I believe this was not enough for me and I had to go ahead an order some kind of a chocolate cake, because it did look good on the outside. I had wanted to have the edible chocolate cup, which was the whole point of coming here but they didn't have it in the menu. That in itself, got me furious. But since the chocolate cake did look appetizinf and fancy, I went ahead and made another blunder of ordering. Monginis makes better cake than this. The cake had no moisture, was very dry, and worse then the chocolate cakes available in local bakeries. I will never come here again. Not even anywhere near by. Especially since I went all the way to Mulund for this.

This experience was such that I didn't wish to relive it, even bother to write about it becomes that much bigger a task. All I can say is you have been warned!!

WHAT WE HAD - Carbonara Pasta (Avoid)

                           Chicken and Jalapeno Bruschetta (Red Alert!)

                           Hot Chocolate (You can buy an entire box of Horlicks instead)

                           Iced Tea (Even the Iced Tea couldn't save this meal)

                           Chocolate Cake (Go to Monginis instead)

DAMAGES - Rs 800/- Approx

WHERE - The Good Vibes Cafe, Shop No. 1, Mulund-Goregaon Link Road, Next to Runwal Green, Mulund (W), MUMBAI