 |
| Crab khuddi with croissant pav |
- Note: We visited Bandra Born on 10th December 2023.
Given Bandra’s rich heritage in bakeries, it is no surprise that the food that we tried at Bandra Born featured some great bread and bakes.
Bandra Born is a pop-up restaurant which stands where Salt Water Cafe, a modern-day Bandra restaurant institution, stood till recently. Bandra Born is helmed by restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani and chef Gresham Fernandes who were the team behind SWC too.
SWC had become a prisoner to its success according to Gresham. Attempts to change the menu were apparently met by severe backlash from customers. K and I were guilty of this as well so I get what he means.
 |
| With culinary genius and artist chef Gresham Fernandes |
Here’s what we had that night.
East Indian crab khuddi with croissant pav.
 |
| Pav with crab. Ignore the finger, please. |
 |
| Posh Hearsch Puff |
-
Inside the posh puff
Marrow chilli cheese. The smooth, roasted buff marrow, with a mildly sweet Asian flavouring, was mindblowing and made our tastebuds quiver in ecstasy. It was topped with pickled habanaro which added to the wickedness. Surely a creature of the night! The marrow was served with a Hokkaido bread cheese chilli toast. The toast was nice by itself but seemed incongruous when combined with the marrow. The sharp flavours of the cheese overshadowed the subtlety of the marrow. I’d have served the marrow with plain Hokkaido bread. Or Melba toast. Butter garlic toast at the most.
 |
| Wicked Delicious. The marrow. Not the baldie. |
Chef Gresham said that they have come up with an innovative cocktail menu. We don’t drink anymore so can’t tell you much about it. We didn’t order dessert so he sent us a nice, jiggly caramel custard on the house.
The ambience with its purple-lit ‘discotheque vibe’ reminded me of a time two decades back when we would go clubbing and there’s no sauce like nostalgia as they say.
How ‘Bandra’ is Bandra Born?
To me, the food scene of Bandra is all about creativity, and tasty and memorable food, which you want to keep going back to. Food that starts off as being trendy and then becomes comfort food. The food has to be well thought through and deliver joy. Food which is too clever by half, remain fads that die out soon. We Bandra’ites take our food rather seriously.
Bandra Born ticks all the right boxes. I’d urge you to give in to the great culinary experience on offer rather than over-analysing it and trying to draw pedantic connections with Bandra.
Do we miss Salt Water Cafe?
Of course, we do! Here’s what I wrote about it.
Does Bandra Born make up for it?
The two radically different offers and comparing one versus the other will do a disservice to both.
It’s fair to say that Bandra Born has shaken up the city’s dining scene just as Salt Water Cafe had 15 years back and kudos to the team behind it for that.
 |
| Two Salt Water Cafe loyalists who were admittedly Happy at Bandra Born. |
