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ShareMumbai: Over quarter of a century ago, when I lived in Colaba, Woodside Inn, well, it had a bit of a reputation. You knew why you shouldn't go there and by extrapolation, you knew what to think of the girls from the hostel who did. Ah well. How things change.
Woodside Inn today is a 'hip' place (I do not know how to replace this word from the early days of the last century with something more contemporary) full of chic people and people having fun.
It is, in fact, a sort of pub and the downstairs is all suitably bar-ish. No smoking though, so the pavement outside is also full of 'hip' (you get it, no words) people.
Upstairs there are proper tables and chairs. It's as small as I remember it, but stylishly done up, in a kind of pub-bistro-cafe type of way. The music was classic rock (Stairway to Heaven, A little Help From my Friends). The bar menu is reasonably sized and reasonably priced.
The food menu concentrates on starters, sandwiches, pizza and pastas. This is also
reasonable when you consider that Woodside Inn is more a convivial drinking spot than an eating spot. Meeting a few friends over a few drinks, with wafers on the house, then just a couple of starters will suffice.
You do not, presumably, come here to make a meal of it, although the breakfast menu artistically presented on a blackboard looked tempting enough.
The 'Limon Mushroom' was recommended as a starter and is a good choice. The button mushrooms are suitably tangy and have a good bit of spice on them too. The Crispy Basil Rawas, with prominently large basil leaves was also good, the fish was fresh and the batter crisp. Was unable to figure however whether these two dishes were pan-Asian or pan-European.
Perhaps after you've knocked back a few, you don't mind?
The seafood pizza came on a thin and crisp base. The prawns, fish and squid were fine, the cheese was fine, the fresh basil was fine. The tomato sauce however was far too sweet and therefore overpowered everything else.
The roast beef in a herb focaccia sandwich had a slightly similar problem. Sweetish taste -- could have been the caramelised onions - and the beef was tough.
The desserts however were another story and quite the success. The special fortnightly menu had an orange chocolate almond tart on it -- the orange may not have been much in evidence but the chocolate and almonds were and more than made up for everything else. The blueberry cheesecake was that rare-in-Mumbai treat -- it was baked. For those who like mousse masquerading as cheesecake (common in Mumbai), there was a shot glass with an excellent blueberry mousse on the side.
This was quite the high point of the food part of the night. The pub experience part was far more enjoyable.
