We finally went out for dinner last night as our maid hadn’t come for a couple of days and the dishes had piled up. That’s when we made the mistake of going to the Steak House at Pali Naka. We’d been planning to try out this place for a while and this seemed to be a good opportunity.
We went in and saw that it was a small place with a bit of an identity crisis. There were about 6,7 tables with stark white walls and a minimalist decor. The owner hadn’t stuck to the ‘steak’ theme. They served hookahs or Sheeshas which were Middle East than steak. This made the restaurant a bit smokey. The first 3,4 pages of the menu had Oriental dishes (Chinese, Thai) and we had to patiently turn the pages to reach the steaks and other continental dishes.
We started a spaghetti ali oili (not 100 p c sure of the spelling). We had it with penne though. We have earlier had this very light, tossed in olive oil pasta at Out Of The Blue and really enjoyed it. The one here was chewy and fried (!). It was almost an Indian tadka version. I think they had used dried Indian red chillies unlike paprika. Very cloyee and oily.
We followed this with a fish steak in lemon pepper sauce. We requested them to give us mashed potatoes instead of rice. That was a wise decision as the mash was the best and only good part of the dish. The fish seemed more fried than grilled. The fish was definitely geriatric and was as stale as an eighties Hindi film. The steak was quite hard and looked dark. Neither of us proceeded beyond a bite.
I think the maitre de figured out that we were quite disappointed with the food and came and asked us how we found the food. I muttered ‘fine’ under my breath, paid an outrageous Rs 700 (14 USD) for the two dishes and two ice teas and ran out.
There is a phrase in Hindi … ghar ka mudgi daal barabar (chicken cooked at home seems as boring as lentil soup or familiarity breeds contempt).
Why bother with new places when one has the tried and tested Out of the Blue, Red box and Salt Water Cafe for continental fare at Bandra?