Poco Loco

Hola ! Spanish food in India? Well I have wanted to try that out in ages, but never managed that until yesterday. And Yeay! It feels good, although my next plunge with Spanish food will only have to be Spain, not India. I am sure some people out there know what I mean. We like to experiment with food, liking that comes secondary. Spanish was one cuisine I could not lay my hands on and now I am just content, because I can tick it off my wish list.

As a resident of Mumbai, there is no dearth of eating joints. But after having looked up, the options for Spanish seemed limited. The closest one to me was Poco Loco, situated at Pali – Bandra next to Totos.

To begin with, I think the name Poco Loco is so apt –which in Spanish means a little crazy. Crazy people in a crazy places. Nice!  So how crazy it was ? Ambience is great and pictureholics like us found it ‘picture perfect’.

The place is well lit and is a one flooreyed place, where the stairway led to a nice cosy area upstairs. We chose to stay put up there. It can perhaps accommodate about 15 people with just about three tables.So ideally not meant for a very large group of people ;but more suited to small group of friends or couples.

Top Floor

View From the Top

To begin we had the ‘ Ensalada de Citrocos’, in short an exotic fruit platter . A friend on fruit detox chose pick on that one. Must say it was a delight to the eye J . The other two of us hogged on some bread, cheese and mashed potato. The cheese was peculiarly different and I loved it. You should try that one J

'Ensalada de Citrocos’

Post which in entree we ordered Patata Bravas ~ Potatoes with spicy tomato sauce . Frankly this was dismal , and I ordered it specially with the reviews people had given on Zomato. It is nothing but a blander version of French Fries with your regular tomato ketchup with a fancy Spanish name. The Champinones was mushrooms tossed in garlic and olive oil. Not very impressive again , however mushroom lover thatam, I thought it was fairly good with adequate amount of flavour. 

Patata Bravas & Champinones A La Plancha

Post which in entree we ordered Patata Bravas ~ Potatoes with spicy tomato sauce . Frankly this was dismal , and I ordered it specially with the reviews people had given on Zomato. It is nothing but a blander version of French Fries with your regular tomato ketchup with a fancy Spanish name. The Champinones was mushrooms tossed in garlic and olive oil. Not very impressive again , however mushroom lover that I am, I thought it was fairly good with adequate amount of flavour.

'Croquetta de Mozzarella'

After which we ordered the main course. All of us being veges ,our pick was ‘ Croquetta de Mozzarella ‘. As the name suggests , it was some sort of a roll with exhuberant filling of mozzarella complemented with basil oil and tomato cheese. Definitely stunner of a dish , although I liked the stired veges with its dressing better.Personally if I had to pick again , this would’nt be my pick.

Holistically speaking, the place is fabulous , ambience is vibrant , food is not really up to mark ( dont know if Spanish food in Spain would be better ), service friendly and reasonably priced.

If given an option , hell yes I would go there again with a different group of people and try other stuff on that menu.  So, ‘Buen provecho’to all J

Cafe by the beach

Man v/s Food…Well yes this story never ends. Most of us like exploring into this specific segment.

 Catching up on new restaurants and experimenting with cuisines..Well anything to pamper our pallets.

I too did the same for the last couple of years..Felt like catching up on the number of years that I missed out on. For someone as cynical as me, most restaurants seemed like the usual.

Today we chose to head to this place called ‘Café by the beach. Beaches are not typically my thing. But somehow got a very different vibe from this place. It was Sprawled over a large area and floored with sand all over. Overlooking the beach as it is, some sort of equanimity prevails. The ambience is the USP which is perfectly lit with these small caged lamps. They were hanging all over the place and it did captivate me. As it finally poured the weather seemed in tandem to the place.

Well what we ordered? Parpadelle pasta in saffron chili sauce, nachos and couple of mocktails. Like the look of the place, the presentation of the food matched it impeccably. I chose to highlight the presentation because that’s where it stopped. The taste was mediocre. Looked perfect but perhaps not something you would relish. The mocktails perhaps were a tad better than the food.

Somehow the food is something that most people who come here may not complain about…The ambience covers for it beautifully. For all those who look forward to a romantic outing this place may surpass their expectations. To top it there are these beautiful looking cottages with couches in there. People wanting more privacy may head there too* wink wink *.

Perfect place to end a stressful day and unwind. Certainly one of the places I liked most. I rate it a 3/5.

Suggest you go there and let me know..!

 P.S : Location ; Choupatty.