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| The @spalifekainaz platter |
We went for breakfast to Bandra’s SmokeHouse Deli last Friday. At 1 pm. As we often would on weekends in the pre-pandemic world. A very acceptable time for breakfast in Bandra men!
Not just breakfasts, we have gone to Smoke House for many lunches over the years too. Dinners as well. The odd tea.
With family. With friends who are like family. Often just K and me. We love the place. We love it for the cosiness and sense of familiarity on offer. The lovely food. A nice balance of comfort and elegance. Restaurant to restaurant, I believe that its elder sister from the same group, Salt Water cafe, has a more refined menu but the food at Smoke House has given us unbridled joy as well.
There was a time between 2013-2015 when I would go to Smokehouse for breakfast every Monday and then work. Monday was when Candies, where I worked rest of the week (easier on a freelancer’s budget), was shut. I’d found my spot at Smoke House too and had my designated table by the door. My order was fixed. Fried eggs and toast. Which I would relish with full concentration and then take out my laptop and start typing while the wait staff brought my pot of Malabar dark out of which I would manage two cups. They would never hurry me and I would usually shut shop and step out by 1 when the lunch crowd began to come in. They have a valet here so parking was never a worry. My weekends breakfasts were more indulgent. I would go for the eggs benedict (thought I felt SWC made it better), or a smart (three eggs but one yolk) omelette with salli. Flat, not fluffy. K would go for fried eggs, scrambled eggs (SWC did this better too) or the akuri. We used to love the buttermilk chocolate chip pancakes here.
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| When K introduced G to the chocochip pancakes at Smoke House Deli |
Memories of all those lovely times came back when our young friend and neighbour Gia, K and I went for breakfast to Smoke House Deli on Friday.
The cafe had reopened after its long planned makeover. It has shed its Bandra granny’s parlour design and now looks like a bright and airy new age Parisian bistro. With a cat theme! You will find figurines of a black cat named Salem all across. The three cat lovers at our table giggled at the fact that they had said ‘reserved for felines’ at the tables blocked for social distancing. They meant this figuratively. You cannot get your cat here. In any case, unlike dogs, it is not easy to get house cats out for rides. Or so we believe.
While Smoke House deli has got a new look, it has retained its warmth of service and we recognised many of the old staff despite their masked faces. We sat upstairs as the lower floor was packed (with appropriate gaps between tables). Both sections looked bright and cheerful.
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| K had a fall the previous Friday at our building after we returned from dinner as it was slippery and dark and the result was a hairline fracture |
K went for a fried egg and what turned out to be a rather generous serving of smoked salmon and was happy with it. The ‘@spalifekainaz platter’, as chefs across the world know this as! She approved of the fried eggs and has rather exacting standards and the delicious salmon made her forget the little details of her arm being in a sling.
G took to her truffle mushroom on sourdough egg florentine. The sourdough toast was crisper than the brioche which comes with a regular florentine and offered some ‘engineering problems,’ but she loved the combination once I showed her how to navigate her way through it. The yolks were perfectly runny.
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| Call me Marie Antoinette but eggs benedict (royale in this case) in a cafe on weekends is a touch of the old normal for me |
I had asked for an eggs Royale and it turned out to be best I’ve had here over the years in terms of the runniness of the yolk (my order took a while as the chef was not satisfied with the initial yolks I was told), the punch of the Hollandaise & the softness of the brioche. There was something about the hash browns which made them even nicer than before too. A slight vinegary umami is what I detected and loved.
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| The pancakes have put on weight at Smoke House Deli |
K said that we must end with the choco chip pancakes. They are now bigger and fluffier than the original buttermilk pancakes at SHD but gave the same joy. As did the sampling of their creamy ice creams that we had.
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| Gia AKA @diningwithmao. The dessert princess of Jumbo. |
I had an ABC juice at the start which was quite refreshing. K and I both had cappuccinos made with Dope Coffee beans. You get this at both Salt Water and Smoke House. Dope Coffee is owned by Riyaaz Amlani’s brother and Riyaz is the owner of Impressario, parent to both SHD and SWC. We feel that the cappuccinos at both places have improved significantly since they moved to Dope. This was their achilles heel earlier.
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| Dope coffee is dope indeed! |
I went back a couple of evenings later to SGD and could not find an empty table. I wasn’t surprised. I am sure we were not the only ones to have missed Smoke House Deli, Bandra.
Do read my post from 2014 when I had first written about SHD, Bandra
