The Pantry, Fort, Mumbai

On a lazy afternoon in the first week of the new year, I ventured through the lanes of Kala Ghoda and ended up in this beauty to behold. Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting The Pantry :) A place that has already been in news plenty, especially for its waffles that has bewitched at least half of my sister's college friends :D

Kala Ghoda  on its own gives a very tourist-y feeling, a feeling of wafting through some Spanish or Portuguese village and there are really a lot of tourist milling about too. This cafe also looks like something at ease in a French alley and inside also, more than half the tables are occupied by tourists only. So you can be pardoned for thinking that you just migrated from Mumbai to France for a couple of hours :D

The colorful,quirky menu includes Salads, Sandwiches, the famous Waffles, Coffee, Juices, Pasta..Phew, it is considered a great place for breakfast but come on, there is enough to feed an angry hungry hippo platoon for breakfast,lunch and dinner :D I had already had lunch just an hour earlier but was accompanied with my sister who hadn't,so we ordered for Ginger Lemon Iced tea, Savory Duo Cheese Waffles, Veg Lasagna and Nutrition Boost Salad. The decor is so pretty and cozy, it really kept us engaged and food was on our table within 8-9 minutes or so. Very fast, very fresh, very tasty :)

I am not much into drinks. You can see from all my food and restaurant reviews that I hardly ever order drinks, mostly because I find them pre-packaged OR overloaded with sugar and artificial to taste OR too pricey. Well, the Ginger Lemon Iced Tea had a beautiful kick of ginger that I normally would have hated but here it worked perfectly to give a cleansing and refreshing kick that I needed that afternoon. Not packaged, no artificial high sugary content, Me Likey A Lot ♥

The Nutrition Boost Salad had a lot of green leaves (I think, Kale) and Tomatoes which are again not my favorite ingredients but then it had some nuts and orange rinds which altogether balanced the taste well,again a surprise find for me.

I was not very hungry and that is why I did not order sweet waffles. My sister does not have a sweet tooth and so she ended up ordering for Savory waffles which made me giggle-I had only ever heard of waffles being sweet! How would this savory duo cheese waffles taste? Well, like we gulped down a big cloud of awesomeness :D It was soft and warm and melted in our mouth over and over. I ended up having more of it than my sister which made her so angry I had to pay the entire bill :P

Finally, the Veg Lasagna gave me the 3rd surprise of the afternoon. I had some excellent lasagna earlier but all of them had one common thing-the cheese would ooze so much that the moment I would cut down the layers,it would decimate into a big delicious blob. Not here! For the first time, I have had the pleasure of eating non-Indianized Lasagna, with each layer so carefully constructed, so generously heaped with vegetables and that soft cheese that still manages to hold everything together (despite me stabbing vigorously at it!) This is my repeat dish here for sure :)

There were quite a few vegan options on the menu too which is a plus in The Pantry's favor. Service is very efficient and everyone is so polite. Prices are on a bit higher side but each dish is enough for 1 person so that way it is not very expensive and certainly not unreasonable looking at the quality of each and every dish. The ambiance just adds to the plush feeling. All in all, a very memorable visit and waiting to go back soon :) ♥♥♥♥