Sunday Drunch at The Little Door

Happy New Year everyone! I’ve gone to many restaurants since my last post due to friends visiting and various outings, but I haven’t made the time to blog during the holidays; therefore now I’ll be playing catch-up. I’ll still limit my posts to describe one or few restaurants at a time so that they aren’t too long to read.

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A few weekends ago, I decided to travel to Andheri West to have “Sunday Drunch” at The Little Door. As the name implies, drunch means unlimited booze to go with brunch. Google Maps helped me find the little blue door on a relatively quiet street:

There were inside and outside seating; since it was a nice day (not too hot) and I love al fresco dining in general, we opted for outdoor seating. The ambience was very much to my liking:

Even the bathrooms were cutesy:

The Sunday Drunch prices were fixed for two starters, one entree, unlimited drinks, unlimited salad bar, and unlimited dessert bar. We started off with drinks:

Priam got a mojito while I decided to try the Bloody Mary. They both tasted okay, pretty strong.

Next, our eggs came out:

The starter pictured above was called “Eggs on the Beach”, and it consisted of eggs, mushrooms, and prawns paired with butter garlic toasts. The flavors of the mushrooms and prawns were barely there though, so my eggs tasted practically like regular scrambled eggs. It’s not bad, just nothing special.

I think Priam’s first starter (pictured above) consisted of eggs and ham (sorry can’t recall fully), although similar to mine, I tasted mostly just egg when I tried it. The toast is average as well.

My second starter consisted of mushrooms stuffed with cheese and jalapenos:

These basically tasted like jalapeno poppers that you can get frozen in a bag from a grocery store.

Priam’s second starter consisted of chilly garlic prawns:

These were strictly okay too.

The indoor salad bar (which had more than just salads) looked a lot more promising:

I was pretty excited, so I loaded up two platefuls of food. This was one of the plates:

There was a large variety to choose from, and the flavor of most of the items were pretty good. There weren’t really any outstanding or terrible items in this mini-buffet.

While we were eating, we were given shots without asking:

I do not know what these were nor do I remember how they tasted, so basically they weren’t memorable.

After finishing my second plate of salad bar morsels, I was really full, so I did not mind that the service was really slow. While waiting for my main course to arrive, a waiter (or manager?) went around pouring drinks in everyone’s mouths including mine and Priam’s:

This drink was the most pleasant-tasting drink of the drunch because it tasted like spiked fruit juice. Priam joked that this restaurant doesn’t take itself too seriously.

When my main course came out, I was still full so I couldn’t really eat it:

It also did not help that I did not like the sauce of whatever they put into the pita. It’s supposed to be a chicken shawarma, but it did not taste like one. The potato wedges were decent.

Priam ordered a peppered steak for his main course:

He said that the steak was not that great either. Soon karaoke started, so while we ate, we listened to people singing incredibly out of tune on top of their lungs. The songs played were a mix of cheesy old-school and current American hits such as Britney Spears’s “Toxic” and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me”. Some of the people at the other tables started dancing, while one girl nearby would exclaim, “I love this song!” every time a song started that she liked. It was pretty hilarious to witness and made my lunch quite enjoyable.

There’s always room for dessert, so we grabbed some from the dessert bar:

The desserts were cute to look at, okay to eat.

On the whole, I liked my experience at The Little Door not because of the food but rather because of the hip and trendy atmosphere. This place also has magazines and board games in case you aren’t having enough fun. I’d skip the food but would recommend The Little Door for parties and hanging out in general.

The Little Door

Phone: 022 30151835

Location:

Andheri Lokhandwala, Andheri West›

B31, Ground Floor, Shree Siddhivinayak Plaza, New Link Road, Andheri Lokhandwala, Andheri West, Mumbai

A Christmassy Woodside Inn: Eat Up, Drink Up

I recently went to Woodside Inn in downtown Mumbai to celebrate a recent marriage of one of Priam’s brother’s friends. I really like this pub because it has a cosy, chill atmosphere and comfort food (at least in my opinion). While I had been to Woodside Inn before, this second experience was much better because I was comfortably seated in the upstairs dining area surrounded by Christmas decor and laughing friends:

We had around five orders of onion rings for 10 people throughout the night:

They tasted really unspectacular, but I guess someone must have liked them a lot since it was constantly reordered despite the variety of appetizers available on the menu.

I ordered an IPA and the Woodside-Inn beef burger in a bowl with avocado, candied bacon, mushrooms, sunny side egg, lettuce, and spiced sweet potato chips:

The IPA was nice and flavorful, very pleasantly hoppy. While I was surprised to see that my dish looked more like a salad than a burger (they gave me toasted bread slices instead of burger buns), overall my dish was tasty. The only minor issues were that the avocado was very unripe and the texture of the meat seemed soggy at the end of the meal. The sweet potato chips were pretty good and spicy. The portions were just right too because when I finished, I was neither hungry nor stuffed. I had thought that I was done eating for the evening, but that turned out not to be the case (people kept ordering food to share, so I was nibbling away the whole night).

Priam had ordered filet mignon with pan seared bell peppers:

I took one bite each of the filet mignon and the bell peppers. While I’ve had better steaks in the US (most likely because Indian steak comes from water buffalos and not cows), the filet mignon at this place was still great considering how the whole dish cost less than 10 US dollars (545 rupees to be exact).

Since this outing was a celebration, we had many celebratory drinks. After I finished my meal, I decided to order a mojito:

My mojito was very minty and refreshing, and my sugar cane stick was fun to chew on. It was one of my favorite drinks for the night.

A friend ordered two rounds of sambuca shots in Red Bull (not at the same time):

It went down pretty easy, although later a couple of people said that they had trouble sleeping that night.

Someone ordered chocolate cake, so I had a bite or two of that:

This cake was gooey, chocolatey, and good.

I tried a few sips of someone else’s Tennessee toddy:

This drink reminded me of mulled wine, except I like mulled wine better. This drink had a tad too much of the alcohol flavor for me.

Fries were ordered for the table (they were strictly average):

The most Indianized dish ordered was some chicken skewers:

I took one skewer. It was very spicy and average tasting.

Several rounds of pizza were ordered too:

The pizza was my most favorite dish for the whole night, so I ate three slices. I really liked the flavor, the mild spiciness, and the crispy thin texture.

I can’t remember exactly what was in the shot below:

It definitely had Bailey’s in it, and it was kind of sickly sweet.

Priam had Old Monk mixed with Coke:

I was informed that Old Monk is the cheapest drinkable branded liquor made in India (cheaper liquor in India is possible but can immediately harm the drinker). I didn’t get a chance to try it by itself because Priam already poured the Coke into it. All I tasted was the Coke.

I ended the night with a Whiskey Sour, which tasted very refreshing. A friend had one too and liked it a lot, saying that it tastes better without the usual egg whites. I couldn’t tell the difference because I’ve had a Whiskey Sour only once before that, and I don’t remember how it tasted.

The Woodside Inn is great for chilling with friends or I’d argue even alone. I’d go there again, although next time I’ll eat and drink in moderation (unless it’s a celebration, then I’ll make an exception).

Woodside Inn

Address: Wodehouse Road, Near Indian Mercantile Mansion, Opp. Regal Cinema, Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001

Phone: 022 2287 5752