Gallops Mumbai – a race down memory lane

Food with a view

With new options springing up by the dozens, visits to Gallops Mumbai had slowly petered out and then stopped completely. It was such a trip down nostalgia lane to head back there recently. Nothing much seems to have changed here – the same expanse of the race track with the Bombay skyline in the distance and the same old-world interiors. That and the verdant greenery alone are worth a visit to this place.

Indian or Asian?

I  am tempted by the Indian food but since I have managed to convert the son from his Asian obsession (strange how we leave out India from the Asian context when it comes to food) by mentioning the Prawns Thermidor, we mostly stick to the Continental menu. We start with the watermelon feta salad and the chana chat as we want to eat light. The Chana chaat with bean sprouts is light on the palate and a good choice but the watermelon is not quite fresh and the salad has to be returned to the kitchen.

The home of Chicken a la Kiev!

Our order of Chicken a la Kiev and Prawns Thermidor (replaces the iconic Lobster) arrives after a really long wait – that too does not seem to have changed, the unhurried approach to serving the food. The Chicken a la Kiev is a signature dish at Gallops Mumbai (Gaylord being the other place which does a decentish job) and lives up to its reputation and my memory of it. Crisp coating which oozes a river of butter when cut into, encasing a gooey cheesy layer and the chicken breast, this is clearly not a dish for the faint hearted – literally and figuratively ! We doggy-bagged half of this but clearly Gallops had developed a young fan – the son.

est Lobster Thermidor?

The Prawns Thermidor was not half as good as the erstwhile Lobster Thermidor – not as cheesy, with boiled eggs and mushrooms mixed into the white sauce gravy. The prawns did not have the 100% ‘fresh from the sea’ taste – good enough but not a stellar dish.

New favourites

The dark horse dish was the Fish moilee – not very authentic with the fish being grilled in a Tandoori masala before the coconut milk based gravy is added to it. The other dish that’s a keeper is the Pahadi saag bhurji – with spinach, mushrooms, cauliflower, ladies finger and paneer tossed together.

Ho hum desserts

We honed in on the Baked Alaska the instant we saw this on the dessert menu. It came to the table looking just perfect. A ladle of rum was set alight and poured over the dish. The anticipation had built to a feverish pitch. We eagerly picked up our spoons and dug in. Imagine my shock –  whipped cream and not meringue topping! Total and complete sacrilege! The rum left the sponge cake bitter in patches. Barely any ice-cream and what little there was came mixed in with some chewy tinned fruit pieces. The sugar in the whipped cream has not fully dissolved so you get the occasional crunch.

A sore disappointment this one and a wiser bet is to stick to the Indian desserts – rabdi and malpua anyone? The trip down memory lane alone is worth it despite the occasional roadbreaker. We stop at the paanwala on our way out for a nice end to a nostalgia inducing ‘happy meal’ at Gallops Mumbai.

Indian food lovers – check out earthy and robust flavours at Punjab Grill