Nothing to beat the familiar Mela

Our Food Critic

It was in many ways, one of the first concept restaurants in the city that offered fine Indian cuisine and a fun ambience.

There were several other quality restaurants even then - Cream Centre at Chowpatty had the bestest Bhaturas, Khyber at Kala Ghoda had super Frontier food, but nothing to beat Mela: The Worli restaurant had an ambience that was set to make for some conversation even if you were visiting it for the hundredth time.

Mela was a favourite for its unlimited lunch buffet at a little over Rs 200. And the bar and restaurant were equally good in the evenings. Astrologers, palmists, mehendi artists, bangle-makers and music helped make the restaurant live up to its name.

Outside of the five star hotels, and save possibly a Khyber, Mela was the ideal place to take guests from out of the city - especially kids and foreigners - for a meal. In fact, as its prices were much lower, it was everyone’s favourite.

I stopped frequenting Mela the moment newer eateries opened in Central and South Mumbai. But on Wednesday, when a friend (who has just moved in to the city) and I were planning to go for a drink, on impulse I decided to junk the Colaba restobar plan and took a U-turn at the end of the road.

And so we came to Mela, for ol’ times’ sake. The walk along the garden path and the small play-area still exist, and a look inside brought back memories of the place as it existed some 20 years ago.

The bus cut-out, posters, a large hoarding were there but it looked like a restaurant that’s in a war-hit town. The bar was packed with couples and just one table occupied by mid-level execs.

We ordered the tandoori mushroom and machhi til tikka along with our drinks and both of them were very well-marinated. Half-way through the order, I remembered my old favourites in the starters - the galoti, kakori and papad kababs - but by then we had moved from the bar to the restaurant and it was time for the main course.

Our order: bhuna gosht, murg kali mirch, dum gobi adraki and bhindi chamatkar.
The gosht was heavenly and was vintage Mela. The bhindi chamatkar, I discovered, was appropriately named as it was the finest bhindi I have had in some time. But the dum gobi was not even worth its economy rate and the murg kali mirch was, well, as a chicken in black pepper should be.

What I liked about the meal was that it went very easy on the grease and masalas. And because the food wasn’t as heavy, we still had some room for a kulfi, though without the jalebis or rabri that the waiter suggested.

So would we recommend Mela for a meal? Yes for the food, no for the ambience. On second thoughts, go there sometime. Restaurants like these deserve to be patronized at least once.

Rating:

****

Address

Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli,

Telephone
2494 5656, 2494 6956

Valet Yes

Child-friendly: Yes

Swipe quotient: Rs 750 upwards
(meal for two, without alcohol)

Word of warning

If it’s that ‘Indian’ meal that you wish to take a phoren JV partner to on the night before the deal, you may want to look at options.