Our Bandra-born Gen Z friend has not heard of Gaylord. She looked it up on Google Maps when I said we were going there. ‘Oh, it’s opposite Mezcalita (a trendy Mexican place) she exclaimed.
This 69-year-old restaurant is a Mumbai classic, though its relevance amongst the matcha and avocado lovers of today is questionable.
The folks at Gaylord haven’t sat quiet, though. They have recently renovated the place, and hopefully, it will appeal to the next generation of diners.
We went there on Sunday for lunch with the family elders. They were thrilled to be the ‘youngsters’ among the many Parsi diners there. The place was packed. I spotted quite a few millennials.
Our food order was vegetarian-oriented as the family elders lean towards that side. We skipped red meats,
Barring boti kebabs, given the heat. The kebabs were a bit too spicy for me. The dahi kebabs were soft & a crowd favourite. I ordered a tomato soup in memory of the times my father took me to Kwality Kolkata when I was a kid. It was established by the same individuals who founded Gaylord. The soup felt like a hug and had chunky croutons, which made me do a happy dance.
Fish & chips
The fish and chips with crunchy beer batter and juicy pomfret, both well seasoned, were way better than what I had at a popular stall at London’s Borough Market.
I had the channa with bhature when I went to Kwality Delhi and loved it. Tried it here and loved it again—possibly the best I’ve had in Mumbai. The alu jeere was a sleeper hit, with a nice, mildly crisp surface. The hot nut fudge sundae was a bit of a joke. There was just a sliver of frigid chocolate sauce in it. They need to take some lessons from Nirula’s Delhi on this.
The service was warm. Our primary server got very excited seeing me take videos and got into the mood of things.
The legendary Kwality channa
My mum and aunt later told me about how they used to dream about going to Gaylord as kids in Delhi (now shut), but it was too expensive for them to do so. I found the Mumbai one expensive too when I went there in ‘97.
Places like Gaylord today, while still premium, are not as wildly priced as the modern Indian dining places. The food is heartier, too. A family entertainer in the best traditions of Bollywood!
While I do miss your older style of longer descriptive passages describing food more, I suppose this suits the newer impatient reader generation more.
Request you to make the pictures clickable to larger sizes.
Thanks Manish and I get where you are coming from. I will try to write longer posts too. These are largely from Instagram where they are ‘long’ posts. Will figure out the tech on the pics. Thanks for reading