In a nutshell:

Was blown over by Christmas food at Bombay canteen – Christmas family home recipes of chefs cooked by them at the restaurant.

Address & other details:  The Bombay canteen

Meal for 2: 2000 onwards

Cuisine type :  vegetarian & non vegetarian

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:

This review is about the Christmas lunch that is being served from 25th dec to 27th dec 2015.

All the food was Almost home cooked, made from home recipes of the chefs at the restaurAnt. The beauty of these dishes is that they cover a good range of Christmas home food of india – including East Indian food, Goan , Kerala etc.

The restaurant is huge but attention has been paid to each and every square foot of vertical and horizontal space. From retro floor tiles to Graphiti on the wall to glass partitions with real Windows to an auto rickshaw with loads of daroo etc.

Service was very good. The guy who served us paid attention and always proactively tried to make sure we were enjoying our time.

Menu card was short and crisp, with good description of the dishes.

Food was excellent. At one point we cud not believe how almost everything was so good at the same time.

We went bk in the evening again for a Little while and then the place looked quite different and livelier.

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

Good ol’ egg nog – old monk cinnamon, vanilla, cream. Lovely flavour of cinnamon, old monk and a little bit of vanilla, ll made their presence felt. Very nice Sweetish taste. Loved it way beyond expectation. Rate it 4.75/5

Strawberry based mocktail was tangy, refreshing & awesome. It had mint, strawberry fresh fruit chunks. Great balance of sweet n sour. Rate it 4.5/5

Lawrence’s pork sambari – An East Indian pork curry with fugias. We loved munching on the fugias – they looked like pakoras but were not lentil based. For the uninitiated, Fugias are a kind of East Indian bread – close to a donut.

The pork curry was very nice directionally but it had excess salt. Flavours of spices and that of the pork, both made their presence felt. The pork was super soft and yumm. Wud have rated it 4.25/5 with what I cud imagine the perfect dish to b. Since it had extra, my final rating is 3.75/5

Coutinho’s apa de camarao Goan prawn pie with a balchao filling. The pie had a super crisp outside but a bit moist (inside of) outer layer. It had a very favourful prawn filling, including dried prawns. Yumm to taste. A masterpiece I wud say.

Note of caution – not recommended for those who have just started eating non vegetarian food / just started eating seafood. The smell might b too ‘fishy’. Rate the dish 4.75/5

Next dish we treid was Cardoz’s braised oxtail in a hot and sticky jus with rice pilau and carrots. The last memorable oxtail curry I had was at a South American shop in Miami. This one at Bombay canteen turned out to b as good / even better.

The meat was intense in terms of both flavour and taste. It was super soft and meat was falling off the bone very easily. The sauce was super intense and super yumm. Robust, rustic and memorable. Rate it 4.95/5

Zacharia’s duck curry – it was slow cooked half duck on the bone, cooked Kerala style with coconut and potatoes. Wow. Another awesome one. The duck was cooked with skin – so the meat retained its juiciness. The flavour of meat was enjoyable. Though the gravy was thin, it had a strong character. Flavours of ginger, black pepper, curry leaves, coconut milk made their presence felt. The hot aftertaste was even more interesting. Super loved it and rate it 4.5/5

For dessert we had Silgardo’s bebinca. ‘layered Goan coconut milk custard’ was the description of the bebinca on the menu card.

The bebinca was much more ‘dense’ and mildly sweetened than the ones we have had so far. The bitterness from the charred feel of baking the bebinca balanced very well with the sweetness. Rate it 4.5/5

Overall rating of food and beverages at the Bombay canteen averages out to 4.5/5

Needless to say I wud revisit to try their round the year offering.