The Spare Kitchen, Mumbai

THE SPARE KITCHEN, Juhu, Andheri

Even though this place is in my list of places to check out. It was not the place that we had decided upon for the day. But I guess destiny had other plans and wanted me to pay visit to this place. It is like my mother dearest says - "daane daane pe likha hai khane wala ka naam". Seems so true as we were stuck in traffic and took almost 2 hrs to pay visit to the other place which I had spent days searching for - in terms of ambiance, food, service. location, view, so on and so forth. But the place was over crowded with a long waiting list, which would mean another minimum of one hour to be seated, we just decided to give up. It was already 10.30 in the night, our stomachs were growling and by the time we would have been seated, they would probably be in a rush to call it a day and its just not worth it then. Hence, the Spare Kitchen. We called in and they told us a place would be available in 15-20 mins as the place is large in terms of space. I didn't mind as the place was already on my list of places to be.

This place also has a good rating on Zomato. I wonder what people like me would do if not for Zomato! Till I discovered Zomato, I relied heavily on just newspaper columns, where they would give weekend specials but you would never know if it is in your budget or not, or if it has the ambiance so it speaks of etc, or on friends and friends of friends who have tried and tested. The likes of Zomato are a boon! Back to the point. This place is pretty popular and is said to have a good ambiance as well, Here, I would care to disagree. The lighting of the place is not really up to the mark, whether you use dim lights, candle lights, tube lights or any other category of light it does not matter. I believe half your game is won if you have thought of how you want the lighting to be. The lighting here is a little shady as per me. In terms of decor, its hardly pleasing. They need to re-do their walls. The entire place had paint coming off and scrapped which does not really seem appealing. They have a huge place to their benefit, which is a rarity in a place like Mumbai. Hence, I really believe they should work on their decor and at least not have paints coming off, scrapped walls etc. You are not a local restaurant to be excused for it. 

Service? Well, a mixed experience at best. When I had called in to check whether there would be a place available, I was told that yes, in the next 30 minutes and they took down my name and number as well. Well, that felt good. Positive. When I arrived? The manager checked and rechecked his register, and my name was no where on their list. Why would you pretend to note down my name & number when you are not really picking up a pen. Gets you down a little. However, the did make a place available in the next 10 minutes, which was a saving grace. So we were seated. I don't know how it makes for an excuse, because I somewhere still find it unacceptable, due to the place being crowded, the staff was having trouble keeping track and it would be a tough task to ask people to provide you service. But, the waiting staff seemed more overloaded with handling several tables than the kind who just are not bothered. Hence, you are left with a mixed feeling.

The food is the talking point for this place. We ordered for a soup - the Dhingri Cappuccino and for starters - Kolhapuri Thecha Paneer Tikka. The Dhingri Cappucino is supposedly a mushroom based soup but weirdly I didn't really find any sign of mushroom in the soup unless and until it was grind and made a paste of which does not really seem the case. Have you had Ragda Pattice? I am sure almost everyone has. The soup felt to be more inspired from the flavors or Ragda, as I had a very eerie sense that I am having Ragda Soup. All of this doesn't mean, I didn't enjoy it. I pretty much did. However, it didn't feel to be extraordinary. The presentation is where they get full points, served in a bread bowl (I am yet to figure out if one is supposed to have the bread as well. If the answer is yes, then its harder to crack than Kadak Pav served with chai, so kindly tell me how??!!). The Kolhapuri Thecha Paneer Tikka is heavenly and is heavy as well. The softness of the insides of the Paneer and the marination is just perfect. A little on the spicier side, you will definitely need to trickle down some drink to let your tongue cool down. We had ordered for a Nizza next, which is a Pizza but on a naan base. Interesting. You need to select your toppings for this one and we went with sun dried tomatoes, jalapenos,, cheese, bell peppers. The taste is indeed unique, the naan base lends the pizza a very unique flavor. Like some thing coming out of a clay-oven. I don't know if I am right in saying this, but when you say naan, you expect a certain softness, as naan is soft, an melt in your mouth. The naan made for hard base here, quite the opposite of what a naan is supposed to be. So a little part of me felt it to be in some ways similar to wood fired pizzas. We had a fresh lime soda and two peach iced teas for me on the side which was nothing out of the ordinary. To me, my iced tea with a meal is like having tea with breakfast. We were too full at this point which is kind of surprising. I would partly say it was because of the soup, as the soup is pretty heavy on the stomach. Also, since we were hungry for a pretty long time and the you eat, you realize that your stomach fills up faster than usual ( Example: Ramadan, after staying hungry for 12 hours, you think you are going to to have everything possible for If-tar, but you end up eating only half of what your appetite on a normal day is). 

If you do end up here, give a go to their fusion meals, rather than the normal food fare, as then you will find it to be paisa vasool. In terms of rating I would give them somewhere between a 3 to 3.5 out of 5 and all of it is only for the food. 

WHAT WE HAD - The Dhingri Cappuccino (Almost Yum)

                           Kolhapuri Thecha Paneer Tikka (Definitely Yum)

                           Make Your Own Nizza (Yum!)

                           Fresh Lime Soda (Yum)

                           Peach Iced Team (Yum Again!)

DAMAGES - Rs 1400/- (Approx incl of taxes)

WHERE - The Spare Kitchen. Ground Floor, Hotel King's International, Compound 5, Juhu Tara Road, MUMBAI