Sass and Butter

Sassy;

Lively, bold, full of spirit, cheeky, saucy, pert, forward

With its trendy décor and French-fusion fare, The Sassy Spoon is yet another restaurant that adds a chic and somewhat European vibe to its Nariman Point neighbourhood in South Bombay.

Opened just 3 months ago by Rachel Goenka, a Le Cordon Bleu trained chef, whose menu flaunts a wide selection of mocktails, cocktails, appetisers, mains and desserts that are described to tempt.

 I've been meaning to visit this restaurant for sometime now and finally managed to get a date with one of the only other people I know that relates to food as much as I do; an old friend that I restaurant hop with every time we get a chance to meet. So off we went to try out this fancy new joint that’s sprung up not too far from us.

The funky restaurant interior definitely impressed us, especially the wall of cool vintage cases and trunks that even hid a perfectly made doorway that led to the adjacent office building and toilets. Infact, when I asked to use the powder room, the waiter cheekily pointed to the wall of suitcases that thoroughly confused me for a minute as I wondered what exactly he was trying to say.

As our smiling waiter who recommended just about everything on the menu lay down the fresh bread basket on the table (I thought the bread basket was a little skimpy, but then again it’s probably better not to fill up on bread), we scanned the list of cocktails which were fairly impressive. We finally agreed on a Lemon with Honey dew and Kafir Lime Martini and a Passionfruit Martini, both of which were bursting with flavour and delicious.

The night started off well and we went on to order a portion of Harissa Chicken that was recommended by the staff and Cajun Butter Garlic Prawns to share as our appetisers. The presentation was way better than the taste, and this was true for most of the food that followed.

The rustic red harissa chicken tasted like tandoori chicken skewers with a dollop of thick, creamy yoghurt. The prawns that were brought in a small sizzling pan, drowned in a Cajun butter-garlic sauce, were slightly undercooked but the melted flavoured butter that we soaked up with crusty French bread was filled with flavour.

For mains we had Spaghetti in Lemon Buerre Sauce and a portion of the Grilled Mustard Chicken.

Although the spaghetti was perfectly cooked and portioned, the butter sauce in the spaghetti overpowered the dish and the overall taste didn't leave much to be desired.

The grilled mustard chicken was cubes of boneless chicken coated in cream with a hint of mustard and scallions. A tasty dish no doubt, but once again nothing to gloat about.

 By this time we were feeling quite full but I insisted we trial the dessert because we had both heard that this was one of the restaurant's specialities. We ordered a Sassy Stack; bite sized pieces of red velvet cake with a cappuccino foam and a Dense Coffee and Chocolate cake; served warm with vanilla ice cream. The red velvet was ummm nice, a bit sweet and the cappuccino foam was just an airy froth of milky flavoured coffee. The dense coffee-choco cake was good but sadly we couldn't get ourselves to finish it.

On the whole the food was over buttered and creamed and not as flavourful as you would imagine, leaving you feeling heavy, possibly until the next day where one would not want to see another stick of butter for a while.

All in all I would say this is a pretty restaurant with friendly staff but not so great food-wise and doesn't really give you any bang for your buck, or should I say bucks as it is quite pricey.

I’d like to end with an answer to the question that was up on one of the walls; "You are what you eat! So what would you be?" After the Sassy Spoon, fat! ;)

Address:

The Sassy Spoon,

Ground Floor Express Towers,

Ramnath Goenka Marg,

Nariman Point,

Mumbai- 400021.

Facebook:

The Sassy Spoon