D Crepe's Cafe, Mumbai

D Crepe's Cafe, Thane.

This is one of my most visited places, and now even more because it's literally at a walking distance from my office. Only, most of the times, I order my usual which is why I don't feel the need for a blog update. Though there was something that had caught my eye and I had been meaning to have that and hence the update!

I still prefer the Meadows outlet, because this contains less space and is very tightly spun. The meadows outlet has a more bright vibe to it and spacious (even before the expansion, because I have been coming here since then). Even small spaces can be made to look bigger with the right arrangement. However, since I do love the food, I make do with it. One huge turn off however is the towels drying on the outside. Though no fault of D Crepes because this is actually courtesy the next door saloon I believe, but still a little shabby. Not really welcoming for the saloon either. There are racks and racks of towels. 

The main, which is the food here is par excellence. So this time I called in for the Bangers and Mash which is what I had been eyeing and we also ordered Garlic Bread topped with Tomato, Olive, Pesto and Cheese and also Mexican Paneer Pita with Potato wedges. This summed up our mains. The Bangers and Mash came with a cheesy-alfredo type base where as I was expecting the Onion gravy which is more common. It has mushrooms grated and a base of mashed potatoes with garlic bread and sausages (Divine) laid on top. Maybe this is a new take on Bangers and Mash but it definitely delighted me. I anyways have a soft corner for creamy alfredo sauce. And it had sausage! Aur kya chahiye life mein??!! The garlic bread is another divine story, overloaded with cheese and topped with olives, the thing that actually brings the flavor up a notch was the pesto sauce used at the base. The Mexican Paneer Pita, however was another story. Unfortunately, disappoints. We expected it to be bursting of mexican flavors, wrapped in a pita wrap. But all this was a thick pita bread some paneer and veggies mixed as a filling. Didn't look great, neither tasted great. It honestly was like some one had just tossed some veggies in the frypan added some haldi-mirch and put it in the bread. Not really what I was expecting. 

We also ordered a small dessert treat, the berry crumble crepe. Happiness Personified! I am a huge fan of their crepes and till now I had only had the savory ones, so I ordered the sweet ones because that's what crepes are supposed to be right? Sweet?! The crepes as soft and melt in the mouth always, what was beautiful about it was that the filling was made up of blue berry compote, some oreo, some cream cheese, and some toffee sauce. It was a cheese cake crepe! They should rename it cheese cake crepe! Because that is what it was! And I LOVE CHEESECAKES! So cheese cake crepe? DIVINE! We ordered two mocktails on the side - Blue Bay Driver and Kokum Mint Soda. I am not a huge fan of Kokum, but I loved mine and they looked pretty as well like summer colors! Will make you thirsty immediately.

D Crepes is one of those rare places, where the food is worth more than what you pay for because it's not steep priced, doesn't have too many taxes etc and the food is mind blowing except a miss or two! 

WHAT WE HAD - Bangers & Mash (Yumness Personified)

                           Garlic Bread with Tomatoes, Olives and Pesto (Divine)

                           Mexican Paneer Pita (AVOID)

                           Berry Crumble Crepe (DIVINE)

                           Blue Bay Driver (Refreshing)

                           Kokum Mint Soda (Thumbs up)

DAMAGES - 1200/- (Approx)

WHERE -  D'Crêpes Café., Shop 2, Avila Building, Near Godrej Nature's Basket, Hiranandani Estate, Thane West

D CREPES CAFE, MUMBAI

D Crepes Cafe, Thane

I had discovered this little gem of a place more than 2 years back. It features in one of those places that I can't help but keep coming back to. Food that is truly delightful and the reasonably priced is a rarity in this city. I generally don't mind as Food is my guilty pleasure and is not about to change any time soon, but, it's always nice dropping by places like these that are the very meaning of value for money!

They have a new branch opened up at Hiranandani Estate I believe, though, I always end up at Meadows. Infact I think I could be the unoffical ambassador of this place with the way I have promoted and made sure people from my friends and family pay visit to this place. They always come back with rave reviews! 

The service here is something that has been well maintained over the years, recommending dishes to your liking. They know their menu, something that I actually find in a lot of places that the attending staff may lack knowledge of the items on their menu. It always adds a nice touch when the person serving understands your taste palette and can recommend what would best suit you, making it a good expeience on both sides and strategically avoiding bad reviews!

It is obligatory to order a crepe when you step in here. After  all, the place is names "D'Crepes". So we began with a generous serving of the Barbeque crepe. I should also mention here that the serving size of the crepe has increased or so I felt. Previously the filling inside the crepes wasn't as generous as it was this time. Where most other places you will find it decreasing, here it is the opposite. Kudos.  Chicken and veggies mixed well with BBQ sauce stuffed in the crepe is the stuff of your dreams and it can get down and dirty, so forget your table manners at home to enjoy it the way it should be! Next on the item was some Pasta. The pasta range is under Do It Your Way with giving you selections on how you want it to be prepared. We went for Fusilli Pasta in Portugese sauce as recommended by our attendant. This is supposed to be a very spicy sauce and we had asked him to turn down the spiciness a little and we are glad we did that. Even after the spiciness being reduced, it still ended up being spicy, so eat if your heart, stomach, ears and nose are prepared for. (You know running noses, heart bun, smoke from your ears ) The sauce is a tangy sauce and takes a little after the Arabiatta, though not an arabiatta sauce. I would order it again. However, the one thing that I would want to change about it is the serving bowl. Previously, the pastas were surved in a wooden bowl which has been changed to plates. I always felt it gave a unique touch to the plating with the wooden bowls. We had also ordered some garlic bread on the side and let me just say this is one of the best cheese garlic breads I have ever had the honour to have. Cheesy, soft breads, retaining the garlic flavors. Life couldn't get better. 

I am going to take a paragraph break here. I am a very lazy writer but once I start typing, I think I over write. But it's food!  For drinks I had called for the Iced tea, because nothing like it and truly, over here, I can most definitely say - NOTHING LIKE IT! I order iced teas because it is the safest bet on the menu and I don't spot a lot of creativity in this section in most places. However, the iced ea here is one of the best I have had. Refreshing, tangy, sweet and the perfect balance of flavors. I could order one more. My friend had ordered the Red Velvet Shake and even though I was a little wary of this, because most places screw up the red velvet shake and it feels more of a chocolate shake itself (Arey bhaiyya chocolate shake order kana hota toh chocolate shake order karte na - is something that some people don't get!). Here? You can feel the red velvet taste in every sip you take and I was just in another kind of heaven. A must if you enjoy red velvet as much as I do. The only disappointment - we had ordered for chocolate cheese cake to end our order and this is the first time that I have been let down. The cheese was too heavy, dry and wasn't even exactly sweet. Something I hope they look into. Their dessert range has never disappointed me before so I was a little surprised. 

Go for D Crepes! Go for D' Crepes and in case you still haven't gotten the message - Go for D'Crepes! or well, live to regret. Perfect place for meeting a friend, or for your work from home or rather cafe days and even for a date where you want to impress the said date! 

What We Had - Barbecue Crepe (Yumness Personified)

                         Pasta in Portugaise Sauce (Yumness)

                         Cheese Garlic Bread (More is Less)

                         Iced Tea (Very very refreshing!)

                         Red Velvet Shake (Fantabulous, yumness personified)

                         Chocolate Cheese cake (Let Down)

Damages - Rs 1100/- (Approx)

Where - D'Crêpes Café., Shop 2, Avila Building, Near Godrej Nature's Basket, Hiranandani Estate, Thane West

D'CREPE CAFE, MUMBAI

I am glad I hunted this place out. Because this is one of the hidden gems that Mumbai has to offer. I had to find a place that was economical enough and at the same time had deliciousness to offer and was not a fast-food chain to treat my friends to. I am not going to go to Mc Donalds/KFC/Dominoes and the likes for my B'day. I do like these places and visit them quite often. But it is my B'day!! Turned out to be quite a task as I had to hunt for a place which was located in the nearby areas to my office to make it convenient for everyone. With so many conditions I really thought I would end up going to MC Donalds. Until after much research on the internet, I came across this placed called D'Crepe Cafe. The reviews were good, the food looked good, the place also looked good, The pricing was damn good and it was actually located in Thane! I was like there has to be a catch somewhere, probably I would feel disappointed after coming down here. So I had prepared myself and told my friends about it. None of them had ever heard of it either and placed their trust me. So I hoped against hope that this place turns out to be exactly what the reviews said it were.

When the day to go arrived. I actually felt maybe its a bad idea and just go to the Pizza Hut located right next door. But in my heart I wanted to go here, and so we did. This place is difficult to locate as its not in plain sight and is rather hidden behind the palace in the Hiranandani Meadows. We were searching for a good half an hour and I thought my friends would be cursing me by now and were just about to give up when this place appeared. So happy we indeed were, that now we could finally rest and no need to get drenched in the rains anymore. But to our disappointment, the place seemed full. Disheartened, but with a little hope asked the manager if something could be arranged and I have got to tell you that the service here, though a little on the slower side, all the servers are very attentive and welcoming. 

Lucky for me we got the exact spot that I had wanted when I had gone through the photos of the place. And from this point on everything went extremely well. And I could finally see that all the efforts were bearing fruits because even my friends finally seemed to settle down and looked happy with the place. What a sigh of relief it was.

The walls are done up in shades of yellow, which brightens up the entire place with one wall having notes pinned to the wall( I loved this idea!) and it attraction to the place. Another wall, had books lined up and some good titles at that ( even though we were too busy talking and making merry, this is another fantastic idea if you want to spend some me time). 

Lets talk about the food now. Like finally :P . There are so many delicacies displayed including cupcakes, assorted pastries etc and it all looks so mouth-watering. Since the place is named after crepe, we decided to first go with the crepes. We ordered the savoury kind and I have got to say that each was distinctive in taste and downright yummy. The cheesy french fries was generously topped with cheese and so was the pizza ( I should tell you even Pizza Hut doesn't have such cheesy pizzas). We then ordered for some Pasta which was a little less on salt ( or so we felt) but add a little extra salt and its perfection. The garlic breads were good to go too. Over-all it was a pretty cheesy day and why would anyone complain for that. Coming to desserts, they didn't just look good but tasted good. The desserts were courtesy my friends in order to celebrate my b'day (Happy Happy me ^_^ ). They actually took care to order a cheese cake too since they know how in love I am with them. 

I should say me and my girls, we are still hung over this place as everybody keeps talking about and can still feel the taste lingering on our tongues and thats all we talk about. When do we go back? Soon I say!!

WHAT WE HAD - Caprese Crepe (Out of this World)

                         Indian Summer (Yummyliciousness)

                         China Tang ( Double the Yummyliciousness)

                         Margharita Pizza ( So cheesy, and so yummy)

                         Cheesy Frenchfries (Yummyliciousness)

                         Pesto Pasta ( High on Yumminess)

                         Garlic Bread with cheese

                         Red Velvet Cupcake (Yum! to the power of 10)

                         Chocolate Cupcake ( Dose of Yumminess)

                         Cheese Cake - ( You will get high on the cheese)

DAMAGES - Rs 1500 Approx

WHERE - D'Crêpes Café 21/22, Block 1, Emerald Plaza, Hirandani Meadows, Off Pokhran Road 2, Thane (W), Mumbai.