The ideal job

If you read my blog, chances are you love food, or are at least somewhat fond of it.  And therefore you would agree that being a food critic would be a super cool job: getting paid to eat free food and then review it!  After eating at a great restaurant, I’m going to temporarily dive into that role.   Hopefully this will be of use to those living in Mumbai or planning a visit to this side of the pond soon.

Eating out in Mumbai isn’t the most exciting.  If you google ‘Mumbai restaurants’, you would think I’m exaggerating about the shortage of restaurants. Although there are a billion of places to eat here, my friends/family/I tend to gravitate towards the same 5 or 6.  That’s why I was excited when The Table opened up.  It’s a trendy restaurant in Colaba, about 2 doors down from Indigo Deli.  As it’s only open for dinner, getting a reservation is not always readily available.

The menu is very tapas-esque.  With a selection of ‘small plates’ and ‘large plates’, ordering tends to be family-style.  Given its menu, sharing seems ideal as you can sample a bit of a lot.  Each dish seems too inventive to only choose one!  As for the origin of cuisine, the menu contains touches of Italian, French, American, Japanese, and Chinese.

I used to be quite a boring restaurant-goer.  I would order the same dishes to be ‘safe’ (Penne Arrabiata especially comes to mind :D).  Now I try not to order something which I can cook myself at home.  To be honest, it’s:

*boring
*a waste of money
*a waste of calories

With The Table, such would not be the case.  Even if I wanted to, I would not be able to recreate (or think up) any of the dishes.  We ordered:

*Zucchini ‘spaghetti’ almonds &  parmesan (no carbs were present- you coulda fooled me)
*Boneless chicken wings
*Lobster & shrimp cakes
*Grilled calimari & peanut salad
*Brocolli sauteed in Kasmiri chili
*Seared rawas with bak choi and garlic jam

While you would expect 1 or 2 the dishes to be sub par, they each surpassed my expectations. Delicious, yet not greasy or heavy on the stomach.  As for the dessert, you don’t want to get me started.  When the owner suggested the fig & almond tart, I was a bit skeptic…ok highly skeptic.  I went with it because vanilla gelato was involved (when is that ever a bad thing ;)).  One bite in and I was sold!  It was one of those desserts where each bite seemed worth the calories.

I promise I have no connection to the owners nor am I try to boost their ratings/profits.  I’m just giving credit where due.  From the ambiance to the food to the service, The Table captures all what eating out should be about.  I will definitely be going back sooner rather than later, especially as there are loads of dishes I still want to try 🙂