Check out our new website at www.bpbweekend.com!The trend is near. We can smell it. We like what we sniff, but we don’t like what we pay. Casual-chic cafes selling overpriced sandwiches stuffed with fancy cheeses and organic yummies - that’s what Mumbai’s culinary circuit is dishing out. The latest - Sandwich & Co in Bandra - joins the likes of Indigo Deli, Bagel Shop and Gostana, selling expensive whole wheat and multi-grain sandwiches, along with show-off shelves that display three-citrus fruit jams, garlic and parsley mustard, black olive paste, green tea bottles, salty crackers, smoked cheese, Spanish cured chorizo and pretty much anything you usually buy at Nature’s Basket or Santé. The bread selection isn’t as exciting, though.
In the Company of Delicious
It was hard to keep from drooling over the shelves, but then it was time to order. A welcome distraction. After glancing at the menu we decided on the BBQ Chicken and More Than Mozzarella sandwiches from the set menu, and a multi grain one with roasted garlic mayo, mushrooms, scamorza smoked cheese, iceberg lettuce and other greens from the make-your-own sandwich counter. The men behind it, were informed enough to tell us that the Spinach and Corn Baps didn’t go with the smoked scamorza. They also let us try multiple cheeses – no matter how expensive or sealed - before our taste buds finally picked one.
Time, Forbes and other literature kept us company while we waited in the seating area outside, a setting that might not be so peaceful after the freak showers leave us with the violent October heat. But last evening, it was cool and quiet, the answer to Bandra’s people-spilling hangouts off Carter Road. We actually heard the crisp iceberg lettuce crunch between our teeth when we got down to business ten minutes later, a half read magazine fluttering by the side.
The Breaded Moment
The combinations were well put together, the greens fresh, and the roasted garlic mayo, delish. The finale act - the Apple Crumble - didn't disappoint either. But none of the picks were tasty enough to warrant the exorbitant prices we saw on the bill. While the Chicken BBQ was reasonably priced at Rs 175, the make-your-own vegetarian sandwich cost us a cool Rs 315, and the mozzarella one was Rs 225. And the café, though fancy on the inside, can’t boast of a seating area that makes you want to stay.
Expensive Pick-ups
Here, the price tags take away the casual air that’s supposed to sit inside a sandwich. The kind that makes you want to pick one up en route, stuff it in a brown paper bag, and lug it to work without wondering if you dropped part of the 300-rupee organic filling while paying the cabbie. So will these costly pick-ups succeed in seducing Bandra? They mayo, they mayo not.
Getting there: Shop no 2, ground floor, Perry Cross Road, ahead of Turquoise, Bandra (W). Call 26553366 (free home delivery).
At Brown Paper Bag, we review restaurants anonymously and pay for our own meals.
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