Chirag Desai

The Nutcracker, Mumbai: 4 / 5
Cuisine: Casual, Cafe (All vegetarian, they serve eggs)

It’s hot and humid. You’re trekking down an alleyway, following the advice of a must-visit place where ‘everything on the menu is delicious’. And you’re dying for a salad after a week long gluttony that comes with travel.

As you perspire your way to the door, you’re greeted with a quaint, bustling, cozy little cafe that has extra stools hanging upside down on the walls. Interesting.

Unlike The Nutcracker itself, a table seems almost hard to find at lunchtime, and there’s little room to wait. Thankfully this phase of our journey only lasts about 10 minutes and we’re ushered to a table. As the waiter eventually comes up to us, I order the Asian salad and I put forth my eternal drink question: “Is your iced tea made in-house?” With the answer in the affirmative, we can proceed.

We feel like our order is too healthy, so a side of potato wedges are quickly added. These crispy bits of heaven remind me of Heston Blumenthal’s triple cooked chips, such is their perfection. And yet I’m blown away most by a condiment—the fresh wholegrain mustard. Such is Nutcracker’s attention to detail that even this — this delicious, lick it off your fingers mustard — is stellar.

The refreshing Iced tea and the delicious Asian Salad makes my lunch absolutely worth it. The tofu grilled vegetable salad is equally good, but the tanginess and zing of the Asian salad makes it our favorite of the meal, at par with 5-star versions of this dish.

As we slowly cool down and settle, it’s time to leave. But not before the 3 people almost breathing down our necks have started where our experience began, ready to take over our table.

I hear the burgers are pretty good too.

The Nutcracker • Google Maps • Zomato
Modern House, Kala Ghoda, Fort, Mumbai
+9122 22842430

Note: I was invited to a complimentary meal at fournil de Pierre, with no obligation for a review.

My absolute first thought on entering fournil de PIERRE last week, inhaling the aroma of a combination of freshly baked bread and freshly ground pepper (oh my) was that my grandfather, an avid bread fan — his last trip to Dubai was spent eating LPQ bread for breakfast every day — would have absolutely loved the place!

Indeed, the place seems to have it just right. Its ambience, fragrance and decor transported us away from the Dubai hustle and bustle to a place where fresh bread, delicious soups and pastries can be had multiple times a day without any effect to your waistline. The influence was completed by French music playing away above us, and an extremely smiling wait staff. I think I’d have melted if they spoke to me with a French accent, but alas, that wasn’t to happen.

The menu is diverse, covering soups, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, pastries, you know the drill. I can confirm that the French Onion soup is the best I’ve ever had, served in a lovely crusty bread and I absolutely need to go back for a sandwich that had some combination of organic bread, green apples and goat cheese.

I was also pleasantly surprised by a mocktail — peach puree, pineapple and…spinach. I only agreed to try it out of utter curiosity — a spinach and peach drink? — and I learnt that it was not just possible but that spinach, when added subtly can enhance a peach puree brilliantly. We concluded that the chef clearly knows his combinations. Worth a try.

A visit to a patisserie cannot be complete without dessert. The chef’s recommended strawberry cheesecake was extremely fresh, and different compared to the usual American cheesecake varieties I’m used to. And the little star was the White Forest, baked with a hint of pineapple.

All in all, it was a lovely getaway, and thankfully not inside a mall. I’m not sure how they’d handle being packed to the brim, but if it was anything like the other night, you can safely bet I’ll be in that crowd.

Check ‘em out, mes ami(e)s. You won’t be disappointed.

*Yes, I know it’s spelt Paris, but I spelt it out phonetically for better effect. It sounds even better if you add a few more e’s to the end. Try it. Really.

fournil de PIERRE

StandPoint Residences, Downtown Dubai.
Somewhat opposite The Pavilion, near Reem Al Bawadi.

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Originally published on June 9, 2013

Who wasn’t excited to hear about the Cheesecake Factory’s opening in the Dubai Mall in August? I was — having loved their menu during my last visit to the US, not to mention all the Big Bang Theory love — but when I learnt of the long wait times, decided I should let some time pass before trying it out.

Not that it mattered. We ventured down to celebrate a birthday, and, lo and behold, the lines had not died down at all. “1.5 hours” said the polite hostess as she handed us a little buzzer that would let us know when our table was ready. Yup, that’s how organized their wait cycle is.

And how long their lines still are.

(Btw, that’s the waiting line to get on the waiting list for a table.)

We opened with the lettuce wraps, something I had tried and loved during my US visit, and was curious to see how that translated over.

‘Rather well’ is the answer. The produce was fresh, the sauces delicious as always and the appetizer gained a thumbs up around the table.

What is a bummer though: they’re not selling their dressings & sauces like they do in the US. Bummer, bummer.

I have to talk about the ‘eggplant burger’ — it’s not exactly called that on the menu — but it is, by far, the best rendition of a grilled eggplant anything I’ve had at a meal. Wrapped in a burger bun, topped with fresh melted cheese & grilled onions and cooked to absolute perfection.

The waiter might have been confused what the sandwich looked like (we were told it was a flatbread sandwich rather than a burger), but the chef most certainly was not. You may be a meat eater or an eggplant hater, but you’re going to have a hard time saying no to this. Ya hear me, Poston?

I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to classify the Factory into a specific cuisine, but at least they do them all well. With over 200 items on the menu, deciding what to eat was hard.

We figured quesedillas were as different as the food was going to get, and these deserve a mention for being served with the freshest guacamole (yes, just about everything we had that afternoon had some avocado in it, but no regrets), delicious salsa and rich sour cream. The quesedillas were kept simple, just the way I like them.

No celebration is complete without a slice of cheesecake — well, no visit to the Factory is complete without one either — and, just like in the US, their staff obliged with a little deco to make the slice look as festive as possible.

What’s interesting overall about my experience is the consistency. Even the look and feel of the decorated plate matched its US counterpart. Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.

The food was delicious, fresh and something you’d definitely want to go back for. The place is buzzing with activity, and if you can get around the incredible wait times — to be fair, it can’t be that hard to kill time in the Dubai Mall right? — you’re in for a treat.

The Cheesecake Factory

The Dubai Mall, opposite the Aquarium

Originally published on Dec 10, 2012.

At first I was apprehensive, but it won me over. Green tea, mint & lemon.

Originally published on Nov 23, 2012

‘My choice’.

Well written & voiced over. Can’t say I totally heart the video but I like the message.

Gorgeous track.

Apple’s Macbook reveal uses this as its background score, which might seem like an obvious choice considering they went gold. But what’s even better is the artist represents the song with three models in the video, against the three available with this Macbook’s release — silver, space gray and gold. Talk about attention to detail.

Think about it sometimes,
The lives that could have been,
The stories left untold,
Somewhere out there.

Think about it one and all,
The things that were said,
The thoughts that lay untold,
Somewhere out there.

Think about it sometimes,
When all was laid to bare,
Somewhere out there,
The journey began within.

Incredible Work by Rob Whitworth.