Begining a new season of Restaurant reviews. we have a new season of Gourmet Monday.
The restuarant chosen is Le Cafe , which is based out of Chembur (east) on the eastern suburbs of Mumbai
We had been to this restaurant Le Cafe (Mumbai) recently and as it came highly recommended from friends who love continental / Non-Indian food, our expectations were quite high.
{The following is my personal review of the same, and this is not a paid review}
What we ordered:
1. Roasted Tomato Basil Soup
2. Hummus platter with pita
3. Oven baked Stuffed Mushrooms
4. Tomato Mozzarella Bruschetta
5. Sweet Potato Poutines
6. Le Cafe Penne Paprika
7. Grilled vegetables
8. Thai Green Curry with Rice
9. Warm Carrot Cake
10. Hazelnut Chocolate Cake slice
11. Mint Tea
The Pluses :
1. The service is quick and the waiters are quite attentive.
2. The place serves breakfast too so its quite popular for those lazy Sunday brunches when one is too tired / lazy to cook up a propah-sunday breakfast.
3. Washrooms are spectacularly clean and dry. Better than any 5-star hotels I might add.
4. This is a menu that would appeal to both veg and non-veg fans, although I wish the dishes were marked GF, Vegan in the menu itself etc.
5. It has a small display of cakes and tarts from where one can make a selection.
6. In the mornings, the windows open to a small but refreshing city view giving a feel of an European cafe.
Our experience:
1. The quality of the food was reasonably good, although the portions were abysmally small across all dishes. Small plates is misleading here, I think they might have been better termed “tiny plates”. For a family of 4 very hungry diners, we kept ordering dishes (listed above) but each dish was so tiny we were compelled to order another
2. The thai green curry could have been delicious if only there were some veggies with it. Sadly, it reeked of crushed lemon grass stalks that we needed to constantly pull out while chewing ! not appetising at all, pun intended.
3. The soup was just so-so. It lacked a certain body that’s usually in a broth / soup. I personally found it too tarty and watery.
4. The tomato bruschetta could be named toastie-cheese. it was too small and tiny to even appreciate it.
5. The mint tea was fresh (PS : fresh mint and hot water !! – you can’t go wrong with that)
6. The much touted Sweet potato Poutines were soggy, sad and totally unappetising !!
Verdict (all ratings out of 5)
Service – 4/5
Quality of food – 3.5 / 5
Quantity of food / Value for money – 2 / 5
Cleanliness / hygiene – 3.5 / 5
Wheelchair accessible – didn’t check (the cafe is on the first floor)
Overall, speaking:
Definitely tasty food, but not value for money. Would choose other options in the locality if I need to eat Continental food
