bpb Review: Esfahaan

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A City in Ruins

At Esfahaan, named after the ancient city of Iran, you can start your meal with Tom Yum soup and nachos and end with Fish Begum Bahar and sizzlers. Yes, it’s that kind of place, this new multi-cuisine restaurant in Bandra. And how we wish it wasn’t. It took us 20 minutes to traverse the globe on this menu, going from what we later found to be an over-spiced China to a half-baked Italy, with a stopover at Persia, and back to India. The result? Worse than jet lag.

Colour me Bad

Coloured tassels on one wall; a twilight blue chandelier on the ceiling; and chairs that seem to be holding their breath, dressed in faux leather corset tops: the decor here is as random as the menu. If you want, you can choose to sit in the leafy “outside section” that’s literally a narrow curbside on the road. We decided to sit indoors, and got right down to ordering. The startlingly red Tandoori Mushroom Cheese Melt (Rs 135) set the tone (and colour) for the meal. This was followed by Banjara kebabs (Rs 170) overdone with saffron - a far cry from the melt-in-your-mouth chicken cubes they’re supposed to be – with an intensely green shade of chutney. A super-spicy Manchow soup (Rs 50) was the highlight of our meal.

Main Stay

For mains, we picked a strictly passable Chelo Kebab (Rs 200) from the Persian section. The cheese masala naans (request them to go easy on the butter) with basic Dal Makhani (ask for a less sweet version) were better options. No fresh fruit or ice cream on the menu was available. All in all, despite its many pitstops, or perhaps because of them, Esfahaan is a bad trip.

Getting there: A-7, Shiv Darshan Building, 33rd and 15th Road junction, Off Linking Road, opposite Hokie Pokie ice cream parlour, Bandra (W), call 26052379 or log on to www.esfahaan.in, Rs 650 for a meal for two, no alcohol.