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Have you ever been to a restaurant after reading a post on Finely Chopped? If you did, how did your experience compare with what you expected? Do write in in the comment section. Would love to hear more.
My restaurant posts are usually based on individual visits and a function of what happened on that given day.
The problem is that restaurants are not always consistent.
Given this, the ideal scenario is a reader goes to a place and has a better experience than the one I wrote about. The converse is the worst. That is, if one recommends a place, someone goes to it and doesn’t like it.
Luckily the latter hasn’t happened too many times. Thankfully there have been more instances of folks who went to a place I recommended, had a dish that I recommended and liked it than the reverse.
I feel even more apprehensive if a post of mine is based on an organised review when a place tries to be in its Sunday best. How reflective is this of the everyday experience there?
I had an interesting insight last night when I went back to Le Pain Quotidien at BKC. A place I was invited to recently and wrote about in this review.
My second visit was at dinner time too. A fairly empty Sunday evening. The thing that I like the most about LPQ is the relaxed ambience. I was catching up with a friend of mine. Both of us are fond of LPQ at Colaba. The BKC one fit the bill too as a place to have a quiet chat. Though I wish the waiters wouldn’t come and ask how the food was every time we put down the fork.
I tried the sparkling mojito as I avoid drinking if I drive. A fairly refreshing drink. Just what one needed on a wet monsoon evening.
As was the Tuscan platter with ricotta and fairly light pesto and olive dips…and some really well flavoured parma ham and Parmesan. Light flavours coming together pretty well to go with the conversation. The sort of dish that doesn’t tax you or overwhelm you and provides a pleasant background to the evening instead.
Tuscan platter
We ordered a quiche Lorraine with ham and Gruyere inside. The filling had melted together in a way where one didn’t get the individual flavours of the ingredients. Perhaps a few shards of Gruyere on the side would have helped as I really love this salty grainy cheese.
The pastry puff was pretty celestial though. One of the best I have had…at the risk of getting carried away one could say that the lovey pie warmed the cockles of ones heart. And I am a sucker for a good carbylicious pie crust.
quiche Lorraine
The sad part of the evening was the braised pork.
I had actually decided on going back to LPQ that evening for this dish which I had described as one of the best restaurant pork dishes that I had come across at Mumbai.
Unfortunately the pork belly this time was not as tender as it was during the review. The apple souffle was sans flavour as was the bacon and bokchoy side. The broccoli definitely needed some anti-age miracle cream. It had yellowed with age as my friend and gifted cook, Gia, pointed out.
A big big disappointment as I mentioned to the waiter when he came to the table and asked us for the 46th time if the food was good.
He smiled and said, “Maybe because you had kept the plate on the table for a while”.
Well actually the evening went downhill after that. I cancelled my decaf cappuccino after the waiter who got it spilt it when he put the coffee down on the table. Plus the coffee looked quite limp and froth free.
We left our ‘chocolate’ cheesecake, which in reality was a caramel cheesecake, unfinished and left.
The question is, was the quiche Lorraine good enough to make me return and, if so, hope it will not do a braised pork on me.

I recently hosted a web chat on South Mumbai traditional eats on IBN 7.  I got 8 qns on the IBN Live web chat while Poonam Pandey who hosted next chat  got 48 including ‘r u going to topless pose on mens magazine’

Here’s the transcript of the chat.

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