There’s always a brand-new bar, a hot new chef, a splashy new dining spot, a pop-up to reserve, a sauce to taste, or, even at your usual place, an exciting new menu to try. Check Please, our monthly rundown of food news, is just the kind of edit for those who may not eat out every night but love to be in the know.
Summer is here and this month brings with it all things cool: ice cream sundaes designed for movie nights, a frothy monochromatic Negroni with charcoal, a supermarket cafe that evokes Cubbon Park and a sesame-infused Manhattan frosted with mandarin dust that you’d want to lick right off your fingertips. Whether it’s a quick post-work round of sake or an unlimited boozy Sunday brunch where the tab won’t leave you head spinning, there is a lot to imbibe and consume this May.
Everyone’s celebrating the mango, so you’ll find its many varietals on produce shelves and dessert menus everywhere. May is the annual Vitamin A binge-fest. (Did you know that mangoes are loaded with vitamins, specifically C, A, K and E? Read that again and tell us you don’t want a pastry, stat.) We also say goodbye to Toast & Tonic in Mumbai’s BKC soon, in proper T&T fashion—with an extended six-week tequila and tonic party. Scroll below for other food related news.
OPENINGS AND FAREWELLS
A final toast to Toast & Tonic, Mumbai
As the East Village-style bar shutters its BKC outpost, it’s handing out one for the road. With six weeks to go before it bids farewell to Mumbai, Toast & Tonic is throwing a little tequila party, cleverly called The Teq Tonics. The menu features tequila-based drinks, each made summery with an unusual topper and some tonic. Drop The Betel has betel cordial, Bloom Bloom has blue-pea-infused tequila with a sakura shrub, and The Spice-berg pairs tequila with bergamot and jalapeño. The picante is everywhere now. And at T&T it has passionfruit, coriander, lime, and tajin. Boba Poppins feels like a fever dream—it adds tapioca pearls to tequila.
To soak up all the booze, there’s a Hall of Fame menu that revisits the best of Toast & Tonic. Old-timers will remember the mixed mushroom and burrata flatbread with its green mustard spread and tomato gojju, and the permanent menu fixture, the cacio e pepe. Other dishes making a brief comeback include bajra and ricotta gnudi with creamed amaranth and spinach velouté, beer-battered avocado taco with chipotle salsa, and the nolen gur T&T tres leches.
Gaijin, Mumbai
Last week, we told you about chef Anand Morwani and restaurateur Rohan Mangalorekar of Pack-a-Pav and Rocketman Pizza teaming up with Karan Gaba of Bombay Salad Co and Bokka to bring a Japanese restaurant to Mumbai’s Linking Road. Gajin is finally open and, we’re happy to report, it’s lots of fun. An alleyway along the side of the two-level restaurant feels like we strolled into Golden Gai—the famous lane in Tokyo with grafitti, signboards, shops and tucked-away bars. This is where they might have a ramen cart or a robata grill night. The inside, with its open kitchen and carefully calibrated vinyl-led sound system that delivers a soundtrack without the sensory overload, is an intimate but lively space.
On the menu are dishes that are Japanese in spirit, riffed with irreverence and playfulness—more a fever dream than messy fusion. For us, the sharing plates were the stars of the meal—don’t miss the Not B**F Carpaccio laced with bone marrow and served in a gyoza shell, the white and green asparagus with kimchi beurre blanc, the ‘tenderloin katsu vs. yaki’, the morel mushroom with black garlic puree, and corn and leeks with togarashi butter. If all this sounds a bit inaccessible on paper, we’ll have you know that we tried many dishes without knowing what they were and called for seconds. From their scrapbook-like cocktail menu pasted with pictures and stamps and scrawled with marginalia, get the dramatically presented Mt. Fuji (chrysanthemum-infused Dolin Extra Dry Vermouth, Tanqueray London Dry, and orange bitters), and the nutty, complex and utterly quaffable Sesamhattan (hibiscus and toasted sesame Sazerac Rye, Cinzano Sweet Vermouth, aromatic bitters, chocolate bitters, and mandarin dust).
Foodstories, Bengaluru
After Delhi and Hyderabad, Foodstories has opened on Lavelle Road in Bengaluru. Here, the luxury supermarket also has The Garden Cafe, a 12,000-sqft 70-seater all-day eatery with terrazzo flooring, bamboo and wood chairs, and delicate chandeliers. The cafe’s pavilion is inspired by the iconic Cubbon Park nearby; a gulmohar tree that stood on the property pre-construction has been retained in the cafe. On the vast and varied menu: savoury waffles, hopper rice bowls, pancake stacks, a ‘glocal dhokla’ with avocado and hibiscus chutney, plenty of salads, juices, pasta, pinsas, and sandwiches.
