Mumbai Times Cafe is a Cool café hangout

After weeks of eating some aspiring gourmet and platefuls of faux gourmet, the system suddenly says “basta!” — give me something unpretentious and wicked. Okay, I’m making this sound like I cleverly planned it and that I really can interpret what my body says to me (mainly though I think it’s trying to say, don’t eat so much but who listens eh?).

Anyway, I tried to go to The Coast but when I got there found that it was not open for lunch (do not believe everything you read on the internet, now where have I heard that before?). Next door was Mumbai Times Café and serendipity. It’s a pub-like place actually and was quite empty on a weekday afternoon. But you could look out and watch the rain while you were cosy inside, so quite a pleasant feeling. Always helped along by a couple of Old Monks — or whatever your poison.

Food-wise, we decided that the cheesier, the wickeder, the non-healthier the better. So we ordered the other kind of comfort food (because in the Indian context it’s usually dal-bhaat or khichdi or something like that) — the fattening variety. So potato skins with bacon, a chorizo, ham and bacon pizza and “prawn chilly” (I quote the menu here).

The pizza arrived first and it looked good and tasted a darn sight better than those home-delivered ones. Absolutely oozing with cheese and plenty of the topping (not the corporate-ordered two pieces of pepperoni per slice), a crisp base and bursting with flavour — hell, it was good. So bad for you on so many levels, but good.

The potato skins were similarly delicious — the potato had been well mashed to creaminess and the top had a layer of grilled cheese, the skin was crisp and it all went down very well.

The chilli prawns (because it was not a cold, chilly dish) was a variation on a Chinese theme and the prawns were fresh and there was lots of soya and it was comforting too. The thing about pub food is that it has to line your stomach and it has to complement alcohol and music — which seemed to be a mix of contemporary rock and Billboard hits. Too fussy and you feel trapped in a fake wine-tasting experience when all you want is a head-banging high. Too basic and you feel cheated.

I would say Mumbai Times Cafe has hit the right mix. To end, we had a chocolate mud pie which was a wonderfully dense chocolate cake — not too sweet and very chocolatey. Perfect.