The second edition of the TimesCity Gourmet Week is currently on across 6 cities in India. It features several restaurants that were awarded at the recently held Times Food Award 2014 and includes many 5-star restaurants (Konkan Cafe, Dakshin Coastal, Tuskers, Cellini, Vetro etc.) and some excellent stand-alone ones (Masala Library, Kofuku, Oh! Calcutta, Cheval to name a few). The menus are significantly lower priced and some of them offer a very good deal indeed. I got a chance to check out the Yauatcha lunch, courtesy TimesCity. I had had one of my birthday dinners at Yauatcha this year (and loved it), so I was excited about trying the Gourmet Week offering. I dragged the husband along for a mid-week date :)
The first course is of course dim sum and you can choose any two from the six options (of which 2 are non-vegetarian). So we picked both the Chicken & Prawn Sui-mai and Pak Choi Wrapped Chicken in Szechuan Sauce.
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| Pak choi wrapped chicken (L), Chicken and Prawn Sui Mai |
Amongst the vegetarian options, we tried the Crystal Luffa Melon Dumpling and the Shitake Mushroom Dumpling. The chicken & prawn sui-mai was excellent and the crystal luffa melon dumpling surprisingly good - slightly sweet, but bags of flavour. The pak choi wrapped chicken was a bit dense, but the accompanying sauce was good. I was disappointed with the shitake mushroom dumpling - there were too many veggies and not enough shitake.
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| Crystal luffa melon dumpling |
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| Shitake mushroom dumpling |
There were four choices for the main course (2 each of veg & non-veg). The husband ordered the Stir Fried Chicken with Szechuan Peppercorn and I decided to go for the Steamed Rawas in Black Bean Sauce. 10 minutes later the server returned to announce, much to my disappointment, that the rawas was not available. Reluctantly I settled for the Stir Fried French Beans with Shitake Mushrooms.
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| Stir fried French Beans (L), Hofan noodles |
Along with the mains, you can order either of the staples - Hofan Noodles or Vegetable Fried Rice with Asparagus & Sweet Corn - both vegetarian. The stir fried chicken was quite nice, sweet and spicy and the stir fried french beans were also perfectly cooked. However, I felt that the accompanying shitake sauce was too salty. The fried rice had a lovely peppery taste and the thickly cut hofan noodles with veggies were delicious. I would have happily gobbled up a plateful of these if I weren't already stuffed!
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| Jaffa cake |
For dessert, the choice was between the Chocolate Mandarin Tart and Jaffa Cake. The mousse in the jaffa cake was dense (not light & airy), but the biscuit-y base was deliciously crunchy. The accompanying chocolate and orange ice cream was creamy and the orange bits gave it a nice bite. I'd suggest you go for the excellent tart - a lovely combination of chocolate mandarin ganache and mandarin caramel cream, topped with confit orange. The tart is served with a refreshing mandarin yoghurt sorbet. Overall a winner!
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| Chocolate Mandarin Tart |
My one grouse is that both the desserts offered on the menu have a similar flavour profile - chocolate and orange. Perhaps another combination would have been a better idea, as it would then really give the customers a choice.
Service was, as usual, quite slow and there was a bit of a mix-up with our bill at the end. It's a good deal for Rs. 1,250 (inclusive), though! Lunch and dinner menus are the same.
There are several interesting menus available across various restaurants - the seafood thali at Konkan Cafe at Vivanta by Taj would be my pick, and the seven course meal at Kofuku also seems like a sweet deal. Take a look at what suits your fancy and book your tables for the TimesCity Gourmet Week 2014! As for me, I have booked a table at Cheval this weekend; looking forward to that steak :)
Disclosure: TimesCity had invited me to try the Gourmet Week experience at Yauatcha.
Labels: Review, timescity gourmet week 2014, Yauatcha Mumbai
