In a nutshell:
A newly opened seafood specialty restaurant in Mumbai that serves excellent seafood in a different avatar than the ‘Gazali’s & ‘Mahesh’s of the World.

Address & other details:  Bastian

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:

We read about this restaurant in an article in a magazine & decided to drop in. We were surprised that they were already having ‘fully sold out evenings’ in such a short period. Also, they Open only in the evenings.

They serve Big portions – very American in approach. Dessert menu had different kinds of Cheesecake only – also very American. This talks a lot about the chef’s American background.

We super enjoyed the multiple chats with the Chef as he was hopping from table to table. He explained how he came up with the seafood boil dish that is commonly eaten in US.

Needless to say we cud not eat anything more than this mammoth dish.

Got to know while chatting with our server that almost all ingredients were locally sourced and none is more than 24 hrs old. No wonder everything felt so fresh.

The interiors of the .restaurant was pretty nice. It had an open bar area.

Service was very good. The guys were very warm and attentive.

Food that we had on this occasion was excellent. Look forward to exploring more.

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

We decided to try Bastian boil – real name being Seafood boil. It’s an American dish in which Seafood, sausages and potato are boiled together with eg. Garlic,herbs etc (varies from recipe to recipe).

The sausage was ‘home made’. The meat inside was full of flavor, uneven, juicy and immensely intense and YUMM to taste. It had a thick coarse layer on the outside. Rate the sausage 4.95/5

The menu card mentioned 1 kg crab. What we did not realize is that it means 7-8 crabs adding up to a kilo. Since eating a big crab means less work than many small crabs of the same size, there was a point that we were getting bored of de-shelling the crabs. However the moment the wonderful fresh sweet crab meat wud hit the tastebuds, the boredom wud go & the tastebuds wud applaud with joy.

The crab meat was just too good – as good as it cud get. The crab shells had been cracked by the kitchen in such a way that breaking into the shell was easy. Rate the crabs 4.75/5

The prawns were very good as well. They managed to retain their taste and flavor in front of big brother crab. The prawns were soft and very tasty. Rate them 4.5/5

Potatoes were very enjoyable as well.

The corns were the only disappointment. These were not the juiciest and the best. They were not bad too. Rate them 3/5.

The most interesting part was the broth – it was the remaining residual broth in which all the above had been boiled. It was full of flavours and great to taste. Loved having it by dipping our breads in. Also loved having it just as it is. Garlic and herbs made their presence felt. Rate the broth 4.5/5

We were served a basket of bread that included a giant sea salt pretzel and a large square bread. These had been baked ‘ Inhouse’ . Loved both and rate them 4.5/5

Virgin Mojito was very good. It had a very good balance of sweet & sour. Surely not too sweet. Rate it 4/5

Coconut orgasm was a thick cocktail with flavors of coconut & rum. It looked like a thick white shake. A candied pineapple slice on top was very interesting to munch on. The drink was potent , memorable & thoroughly enjoyable. Rate it 4.75/5

For dessert we had Elvis slice. The menu card read ‘The King’s favorites, all in one – peanut butter, banana & old monk rum. We are usually not the ones who order cheesecake if anything else is on offer. Usually most cheesecakes  in India have a smooth, gelatinous texture on the top & have a uniform smooth paste like body. Most cheesecakes taste worse than what we make at home.

When we looked at dessert menu, we realized that cheesecakes were the only option. So we asked for Chef’s recommendation & this is what he recommended. The cheesecake was firm, had a character to it, had a good balance of sweet & salt, the banana was enjoyable & overall it was excellent. Loved the candied nuts that added a twist to the tale. Rate it 4.5/5

Overall rating of food & beverages at Bastain averages out to 4.4/5

Wud surely revisit to try seafood with ‘under the bridge sauce’.