In a nutshell:

A largely drinking & partying place, this mammoth Resto bar has loads to entertain – A live boxing ring, live music, large screens for watching matches , indoor seating, outdoor seating & much more…………. & they also happen to serve mostly average & some good food.

Address & other details: Soi 7

Meal for 2: Rs. 1500 onwards

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

Some kid I know was saying good things about this place & hence I landed up here on a Saturday evening. Usually I am a bit wary about eating out at predominantly drinking places – so unless the kid wud have mentioned, I might not have turned up here.

As we walked towards the restaurant on the topmost floor, we realized that they had a massive outdoor seating in addition to a large indoor Dining HAll. The open area had a boxing ring in which professional boxers also come. We were told by the waiter that there r boxing competitions at regular intervals. They also had live music in the indoor section.

For Sports enthusiasts they had large screens showing Sports events. Pretty interesting & different I must say. I thought it was good for a large group where people had the option to stick to their kind of entertainment. Might turn quite challenging for couples if one wants to see boxing while the other wants to NJOY the live music:)

There was some cool stuff here & there that showed a good sense of humour. On the loo door, the girl one read ‘Chicks’ & the Guy one read ‘roosters’.

While we were there, nice peppy music was playing, in optimum volume – good enough to b enjoyed & one cud talk as well. The Dining Hall had ambient lighting tending to dark – light intensity differed at different spots in the restaurant.

They also brew their own beer & large beer brewing drums were visible thru the glass from the outside walking alley.
The staff members who interact with the customers r mostly very average to bad. Massive mismatch between the target customer of the bar & the people who can talk to them properly & look after their needs. U will read a lot of these weird stories in the detailed description section.

Food was Oriental – The menu card mentioned the country of origin against each dish.

Directionally the food seemed good. The person who planned the menu did it well. However the execution had its more than fair share of issues. Our experience was that food was average to good. I realized while paying the bill that I shud have stuck to my instinct & not listened to the kid. And then I asked the kid again & he clarified that he liked the place overall and not necessarily the food.

Detailed Description – Read it only when not in a hurry:

We started our evening with Bird eye chilli and kafir lime chicken skewer (Thai). For the uninitiated, The bird’s eye chili is a variety of Chilly that is very pungent & hot (piquant). Our Chicken skewer had only bird, but no trace of chilly. Flavor of kafir lime was just perfect. Not too much not too less. The meat was juicy & soft & very good to taste. I rate it 4/5.

We next moved on to Grilled Prawn sugarcane (Vietnam). As we put the food in our mouth, we realized that the Chef forgot to add salt. We asked the waiter to take it back and I said I will still pay for it – Coz the taste was just bad. The bugger gave me salt to add. Obviously that did not work due to the nature of this dish. So we informed again that we want to return the dish. Waiter without taking it back tells us ‘yeh to bland hota hai’.

I obviously know what is bland & where someone has forgot to add salt. In my experience of eating out in Vietnam, I have had the opportunity to have this particular dish & I can vouch that it was bland but it had basic salt. Just pissed with the whole situation, I asked for the chef to come in. The guy who introduced himself as Chef said ‘yeh sweet hota hai’. What!!! Once again someone assumed that I was having this for the first time. I said ‘do u have salt at all in the recipe’?. He said yes. Then I made him taste the food & asked him if it had salt. He admitted the goof up and immediately offered to change the dish without charging for it.

While we waited for the correct dish to hit us, I was remembering that there was an era when salt was not as cheap or easily available as today. Only the elite had access to salt, that too in some parts of the geographical area. And then the joke was ‘Probably this was an attempt by Soi 7 to go retro.or they thought we were poor & cud not afford salt :)’.

When the new Grilled Prawn sugarcane came in, it was excellent. It was essentially a lump of prawn wrapped around a juicy sugarcane stick. The prawn was Soft, juicy, mildly salted , subtle but full of flavours. Full black pepper inside the prawn lump made some bites hot. The Sugarcane was perfect – juicy and nice. It was way better than a similar dish we had at Canton Spice Company. It turned out to b an Excellent dish once properly done . I rate the revised version 4.5/5. Less harassment by waiters, the final rating is 2.5/5. The guys just spoilt our evening mood & they deserve the rating.

Post this dish we ordered for Garlic Pepper tossed ribs – ‘imported’ baby back ribs with garlic & pepper tossed in tangy red sauce. The guy took the order & came back in some time & said ‘Sir this dish will b sweet. Pls order something else that has salt!!!!’ What kind of people r these? They do not even understand the basics of food. Do they need training? Or r they simply untrainable? The management needs to think about this seriously as to whom r u subjecting ur customers to?

The baby back ribs was good. The meat was fibrous, not soft but not hard as well. Something in between. The meat was surely not fresh. It smelled. I did not tell that to the waiter when he asked for feedback coz I thought there is no point in talking to a wall. I rate the meat 1/5.

The sauce was enjoyably sweet, had right amount of salt and was very hot. No Chinese worth his salt can eat food so hot. We liked it though. The dish was surely non authentic & was actually a chatpata chinjabi dish. Square cut tomatoes and green onions were there in the sauce. I rate the sauce 3/5 due to its sheer taste, inspite of it’s non authenticity. Overall rating of this dish averages out to 2/5.

After such a disgusting experience we still had the courage to order dessert. We ordered Coconut and jaggery ‘home made’ ice cream. It was Excellent. Super loved it. Rich,creamy, robust to taste, with strong flavor of coconut and unevenness of grated coconut. Jaggery was in the mixture and added from the top as well. That made it a bit more sweet but not too sweet. Really loved it and rate it 4.75/5.

We washed down the food with a mixed citrus juice with bitters in it. It was good but not great. Cud have been really good. I rate it 3/5.

Another drink that we tried was All Nighter. It was again average. Not good not bad. I guess our tastebuds have got pampered by good bartenders like in Cocktails & Dreams Speakeasy. I rate the drink at Soi 7 at 2.5/5.

Overall the rating of food & beverage at Soi 7 averages out to 2.7/5. I wud still go there with office colleagues simply coz it is a good hangout place but wud never go there just to eat out.