Grain & Bagel, Malad, Mumbai: The Most Awesome Bagels & Risotto In Mumbai

Have you eaten crappy bagels in the city and paid a bomb for it? I have. It pinches to pay for food that you'd rather toss away. And the big problem with restaurants here is a lot of them think you have no clue how real firangi khana tastes. Throw a crappy tart at you and expect you to be all thrilled about it coz guess what? You have never eaten a really good tart!

A restaurant fails when all it worries about is making the cash register ring. You are serving people food - you have to respect their time, their preference for you, the fact that they are giving you a chance and most importantly, it shows when you are passionate about the food you plate up.

But on the other hand, when you really love the food you are plating up, when it drives you day after day to deliver brilliantly on the menu you have decided, it shines through.

Really good bagels, attention to detail, openness to feedback and a seriously friendly staff are what stand out at Grain & Bagel, in Raheja Complex, behind Infiniti Mall, Malad West. And the place has not just won me over with its amazing food but it's also got many great pluses going for it. For instance, this awesome location they have. Tons of lovely natural light, no traffic to look at, and tons of quiet. For a while, you don't even feel you are so close to one of Mumbai's busiest roads.

A nice little place to sit outside when the weather behaves with a counter on the outside with a little dashboard to leave behind a bit of your appreciation on a post-it.

A counter at the entrance where you can look on to the menu on the blackboard on the background wall, get your made to order bagels and/or sandwiches or just announce your choices from the a la carte, grab a seat and wait for deliciousness to hit your palate.

They have a fairly roomy seating area. The man and I loved the ambiance.

Here's a rough collage of the menu.

We got there a bit earlier than usual and so we decided to kill some time. And while we waited, I got myself a mocktail. This is a Kokum & Roasted Cumin Daiquiri. Beautifully cool, lovely hit of kokum, a gentle seasoning of roasted cumin that leaves a great aftertaste. I'd go back for this everyday.

Meanwhile, the man had a sore throat and decided to try out the soup of the day. Cream of Broccoli. Now, this was more of a broccoli broth with a dash of cream on top - cream of any soup does not have little chunks of the vegetable in it, a broth usually fits that definition. It was subtle, not overtly creamy but rich enough to warm you up. And good on the throat. What we missed in this was seasoning - a bit of pepper, maybe some roasted or burnt garlic would turn this simple soup to a gorgeous celebration.

The gang arrived by the time we licked our soup bowl clean. And after a lot of time spent catching up and chatting our hearts out, we realised we were holding up the tasting. Dang. We tried the Mornay Maggi - who puts Maggi on a menu, I thought, mostly those tapris in hill stations, roadside restaurants. What would a gourmet bagel place do with it? So we ordered it. And I was thrown. Lovely, well cooked Maggi noodles in a hearty sharp cheddar cheese sauce, bit of parsley going on it. This was not bathing in cheese which is something you may prefer, but to me, this was lovely. It was gone in less than five minutes.

We also ordered some regular pancakes with maple syrup - because we had to try it out. Nobody was in the mood for pancakes but hell, you gotta review so you gotta do it. But surprise, surprise, these are the best pancakes I have eaten in almost two years. Light, fluffy, airy, melt in the mouth and with that lovely maple syrup going on the side, this is one breakfast I can keep eating everyday. Highly recommended. They also have eggless pancakes.

The man got this - Scrambled Eggs with Pesto, Hash Brown and a side of bread. The eggs were good according to the man - not dry, not too runny, pesto not overpowering. The hash brown was lovely but more like a potato crostini, crispy on the outside, soft and a bit lumpy on the inside. Thankfully not oily. However, we all wondered what that white bread was doing there. If it had to be there, it would be great if it were a buttered toast - this was a broiled under the heat, dried-out white bread. Nobody ate it beyond a bite.

Then came the central hero of Grain & Bagel: the bagel itself. I settled for a rye bagel, toasted lightly, with veggies: lettuce, olives, jalapenos, bell peppers, tomatoes, cabbage - the spread I chose was a garlic cream cheese and the sauces I chose were buttermilk ranch and schezwan - the latter was recommended by our chef. I was not sure how it would go with the choice of spread but viola! What a beauty this was, added a lovely dimension of spice to this otherwise fresh and creamy bagel.

Then came my signature Veg bagel from the menu - plain bread used, with a hummus, carrot tahini and pickles sandwiched between. What I loved? The lovely dip between the bagel slices. And the bread itself was soft, fresh and airy. What I did not like? This is a signature dish and unlike the chicken bagel that the non veg gang ordered, this did not come with a crunchy salad on the side, no dips or sauces (although that may be forgiven because hummus itself is a pretty lovely dip).

The came my litmus test - when I review a place, I check the menu for my litmus test dish: the risotto. Such a simple dish, subtle taste, takes tons of experience to get right although you are working with limited ingredients, and disastrous if you get it wrong. And folks, I am happy to tell you that finally, finally, I have a place in Mumbai that makes such lovely risotto and it is so close to where I live. I could be running down for this risotto every other weekend! This one was a Mornay Risotto served with a healthy dash of olive oil and garnished with pan-seared asparagus tips. My only problem? I wanted more asparagus there. Cannot have enough of those beauties.

 Then came the desserts. G&B have a limited dessert menu and they are mostly chocolate dominated but each outdoes the other. The Gourmet Cupcake was the star of the desserts - we were not expecting much from a single cupcake but this one? This isn't just a cupcake - this is cupcake art.

A knife sliced through it in one clean cut. Soft, light, and not too sweet. The buttercream icing was on the sweeter side but the cupcake could handle that sweet hit because on its own, it carried a more mature chocolatey flavour - the vanilla buttercream worked well with it.

This is the Belgian White & Dark Double Chocolate Mousse - while it had a lovely flavour running through it, it wasn't so much a mousse - this was more like a pudding, with the gelatin evident and perhaps a bit overpowering. That said, lovely presentation.

This was a Coffee Truffle Ganache - I liked it but in comparison to the other desserts and the complexity of flavours running through them - this felt a little ordinary. Nothing wrong with it but this is sort of for chocolate lovers who want a rich pastry and also want to play safe. If you fall in that 'tried and tested' category, this will work well for you.

This was a complex dessert and stands the chance of becoming G&B's signature dessert with some improvements - know as Mandarin Pot De Creme, this is a cooked chocolate dessert with a tangerine orange reduction, flaky bitter chocolate flavours dominant. What I missed was something fresh and citrusy to cut that dense chocolate flavour and balance it out. A poached pear or a tangerine sauce would help, with a wedge of the orange, maybe? Nevertheless, beautiful.

We are definitely going back to this place and highly, highly recommend it. Lovely ambiance, lovely food, reasonable prices and the only thing you need to make it perfect is great company - like I had. From left to right: @desh (aka Abhishek Deshpande), @caramelwings (aka Ashrita), @amritarana (aka Amrita Rana) and that is the man I keep talking about, half sleepy from being dragged out of bed early every weekend to accompany me on my food trips, and a friend of Ashrita on the extreme right, who was caught with a rabid food fan group and is by now convinced we are entirely messed up. What better crowd can you take around, eh?