bpb Review: Xtreme Sports Bar

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Here’s a place to lay your weary head, to wash away the dregs of another day at the office with a game on the big screen, hot bar snacks and a cold beer. These are principal elements of Xtreme Sports Bar, Fort’s newest watering hole, ones that have made it a popular franchise stretching across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, and Secunderabad – all cities with large populations of young working professionals.

Got Game?

When we went on opening weekend, the stereo was blasting a perplexing mix of ABBA, Queen and Dr Dre, a bunch of girls were arguing over Margaritas, and Sachin was manning the crease on screens, large and small. Business was surprisingly slow, considering that the Mumbai Indians were playing, but this is still an unknown place and one that we imagine will be a lot more happening at 7:30 pm on a weekday than a weekend night.

A well-lit, multi-level space (6,000 sq ft) with a range of pop-culture photos (guitars and skateboards, Madonna and Agassi) on faux brick walls, Xtreme Sports is your quintessential neighborhood spot. We suggest you sit upstairs, where the long bar dominates one wall, a pool table is tucked into a corner, and booths are fitted with glass insets containing miniature cricket balls and football jerseys. The mezzanine floor with a foosball table and plump beanbags isn’t open to the public yet.

Cheers!

The drinks menu at Xtreme is surprisingly extensive – they have a nice collection of single malts including a 14 year-old Glenfiddich; 12 kinds of champagne; and a range of cocktails and shooters. What struck us most, though, was the reasonable pricing: 30 ml of Smirnoff at Rs 120, Kingfisher pints at Rs 99, champagne bottles that start at Rs 1,000. Plus, if you go during happy hours (3:30pm to 7:30 pm daily), you score a buy-one-get-one-free deal.

We got the Royal Challenge pitcher, which at Rs 549, held enough whiskey to drown the deepest workplace woes in, and a Bartender In A Cup cocktail, pink and astonishingly unpleasant. To which a friend drolly said: “It’s a sports bar. Be a man and get it neat.” We suggest you heed his advice.

A Big Bite

The food menu too is more comprehensive than that of a typical sports bar, offering Chinese, Indian and Continental cuisines. The Santa Fe spring rolls looked interesting, but we were told that the Continental menu wouldn’t be available for the next couple of days. Same deal with the Chinese spring rolls. We finally settled on crispy chilli potatoes: brightened with strips of bell peppers and onions, these were spicy, greasy and a perfect accompaniment to the whisky. Also good was bites of softly marinated paneer from the Indian section.

Score!

All in all, this is one of the better sports bars in South Bombay, one that we’ll be frequenting pretty often. Spot us at the bar, and- at these prices - we’ll buy you a drink!

Getting there: Rustom Sidhwa Marg, Behind Citi Bank, Opp. Residency Hotel, Fort, call 9833321322, Rs 99 for a Kingfisher.

At bpb, we review restaurants anonymously and pay for our own meals.