Ashes of the Phoenix

The restaurants at Phoenix Mills reveal what's wrong with Mumbai restaurants as a whole.

Take Spaghetti Kitchen. Pleasing at first glance: spacious, high-ceilinged, double-leveled, white. But. Endure the wait for a table, and you find waiters rushing by, too busy to offer a menu or even make eye contact. After a good 15 minutes of this, you manage to place your order. Half an hour then passes, while you toy with the cutlery. Finally, your companion's meal arrives, while you wait on, urging her to eat. Your meal then arrives, long minutes after your companion has finished hers. The food itself is passable, not really the sort of fare you remember or want to endorse. Of course, the bill takes its own treacly time to get to your table.

Or take the new Kobe. Or rather, don't. Friendly and effiicient service, but my goodness, the food! It looked and tasted like sizzling industrial sludge.

One hears that the Phoenix outlet of Gajalee is worth going to. Frankly, one isn't holding one's breath.