It was a mildly rainy afternoon when we landed here for a food review
invite and were impressed by the spacious, clean, warm and inviting
ambiance right away. This has an elegant contemporary feel while
retaining the old world charm of those family restaurants everyone wants
to go to when celebrating any occasion, or just to have some good
hearty meal to satisfy our souls :)
Situated on the first floor
of Thane Club, no entry charges whatsoever, there is a beautiful view of
swimming pool on one side and even a buffet offering for foodies on the
other end. We have realized that traveling to Thane is worth it when we
enter places like these, so vast that they can easily accommodate huge
wedding parties because it reminds us of severe space crunch in mainland
mumbai *facepalm* :D Service is very fast with staff very knowledgeable
about food and they give excellent suggestions, so listen to them when
in doubt. Menu is quite intensive with focus mostly on North
Indian/Punjabi/Mughlai preparations and both veggies and non-veggies
have been taken care of. My family is hardcore veggie and we absolutely
loved our experience, so that says it all :) Prices are reasonable for
quality+ quantity, everything is top notch related.
We started
off with a round of Masala Chaas, this has to be the best Chaas we have
tried so far. It is served in typical Punjabi jumbo glass, so somebody
with a really low appetite, this is your complete meal in itself :D The
main thing is, it has quite an amalgamation of Indian spices to soothe
the tummy, made us remember the chaas our nani made, my sister tried a
strawberry based mocktail which was decent too,
Thereafter, our parents tried Veg Manchow Soup and loved it, had a nice spicy medley of veggies in soya sauce based soup, prominent garlicky hint, nice option on a cold rainy day,
Thereafter, our parents tried Veg Manchow Soup and loved it, had a nice spicy medley of veggies in soya sauce based soup, prominent garlicky hint, nice option on a cold rainy day,
On to starters, we started off with
Vol-Au-Vents i.e. Mini Puff stuffed with Mushroom & Cheese grated to
perfection, these are an explosion of flavors, right from crunchy puffs
to creamy cheese bits, have them while they are hot!
A special mention to Paneer here, we believe they make it in-house because it was sooooo soft, felt like a cloud on our palate :) Loved the creamy Malai Paneer Tikka with the smokey Tandoori flavor,
A special mention to Paneer here, we believe they make it in-house because it was sooooo soft, felt like a cloud on our palate :) Loved the creamy Malai Paneer Tikka with the smokey Tandoori flavor,
Coming to Tandoori
flavor, we also loved juicy Tandoori Mushroom stuffed with Minced
Capsicum & Cheese, and quite liked Tandoori Aloo stuffed with Paneer
& Vegetables -though I personally feel that potatoes go dry in
Tandoor, the flavors were spot on though,
Up next was Cheese
& Corn Seekh kebab i.e. delicately flavored American Corn &
Cheddar Cheese Kebab and it felt like a velvety roll of cheese with
corn, easily my personal favorite in the lot, the cheese here actually
delighted like grated paneer! Got to try this one folks :)
For main course, we chose happy Dal Tadka, Veg Paneer Lababdar -again melt in mouth softest paneer in dense saffrony gravy, along with Veg Maratha i.e. chopped vegetables rolls simmered in red gravy, all 3 were very good, only mom felt that Veg Maratha had a little bit more salt than needed, the veg rolls were really flavorful though,
On the side we also tried Dahi vada which was again perfected the Punjabi way, my mom had a Punjabi best friend and she reminisced how these dahi vadas were very similar to what she had in her childhood, these vadas are not completely soaked in dahi like we are used to and might seem a bit off to some, tasted good though,
Giving perfect accompaniment to our vast main course gravy items were Roti, Veg Biryani and stuffed Veg Kulcha, each tasting as fresh, as delicious as expected,
Obviously, we had a royal feast and it won't be complete without gorging on some amazing desserts, so we noshed on Gulab Jamun, Moong Dal Halwa and Angoori Rasmalai, again dripping with all the deliciousness one might expect from them. Halwa was my favorite, dripping in ghee the way I wanted it to (and having about 10,000,000 calories but who cares :P) It was with a lot of happiness in our tummy that we left Masaledaar by Mini Punjab and we can't wait to go back for another hearty Punjabi meal & hospitality here :)
