What: Just Deliveries, call Mansi on 9769557799, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.justdeliveries.co.in, start at Rs 50 per delivery.

Why: Just Deliveries is our favorite new treat truck, taking sweets from home bakers like Sweet Toot, Sleight of Hand, Goriawala, Truffles, Choc Affaires to the streets. Just give them a call and pick from their stellar line-up of vendors to have your favorite dessert delivered to your doorstep. Savouries are next on their route.

When: You want to make ends treat.

(Ad)vantage Point

In the swelling tide of transient eateries that bob alongside Carter Road, Molto Bello offers the best (point of) view - a panoramic snapshot of the Arabian Sea best experienced during a picture-perfect sunset. And the view isn’t even the best thing on offer at this week-old Bandra pizzeria. The pizza, loaded with fresh tomato sauce and not a lot of cheese – just the way we like it – is the star of the show here. A bello chow, this is.

Dough Stopper

Brun-maska may not feature on the menu at Brun Cafe, but Juhu’s new eatery is still rolling in dough. Crunchy bread sticks escort steaming bowls of soup; fluffy rye buns sandwich juicy meat steaks; open-faced slices bearing ruby tomatoes come drenched in olive oil; and herbed sausages are deep fried in bread crumbs until golden brown. Bread cred!

Total Eclipse of the Art

Just around the bend from PVR cinema, this all-day lounge (previously Cafe Kino) is many things to many people: pool parlour for those working on cue, office with free wi-fi and mean espresso for nomads, and speak easy to large friend circles looking for a spacious table. For us, it was somewhere to hang before the 6.30 pm show of Eclipse on a rainy Sunday.

Because the weather demanded it, we started with the cream of chicken soup - a cloudy, herby broth so comforting that it reduced the group of raucous adolescent boys nearby from seriously irritating to only mildly annoying. The sprawling white couches, super service and Bob Marley tracks helped too. If only we’d been spared the clichéd wall collage of rock bands and frames of iconic musicians.

Salvation Tummy

Salvation came in the form of a barbeque chicken sandwich and prawn butter garlic. The former wasn’t Indigo Deli fancy, but was bursting with delicious stuffing of chicken juliennes, caramelised onions, crispy lettuce and mayo, and costed much less. The prawns were good too, sautéed in flavourful herbed butter.

For mains, we decided to go with some non-bread options, picking yum fusilli Arabiata and a strictly passable spinach risotto. The menu also features pizzas, burgers and a few continental plated meals, but getting a bunch of appetisers and passing them around is the way to go at Brun. Since dessert is limited to highly unimaginative sizzling brownies, we gladdened our tummies with creamy cold coffee instead.

Brun Cafe is still new, which is perhaps why we were one of only two groups there on a weekend evening. We suggest you go now while it’s still peaceful and you can actually play a round of pool while munching on food that is consistently tasty and well-priced.

Getting there: Brun Cafe, opposite JVPD Petrol pump, near PVR Cinema, Juhu, call 9820055732, meal for two approximately Rs 550, no alcohol served.

At Brown Paper Bag, we review restaurants anonymously and pay for our own meals.

What: Turning Tables underground kitchen with Group Executive Chef of Salt Water Café and other Impresario restaurants, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for a spot, Rs 1,000 this month, BYOB.

Why: Imagine the best of restaurants like Salt Water Café, Tasting Room, del Italia and Smoke House Grill, all concentrated into one dinner party at a subscriber’s pretty home. Throw in the company of 20 cool strangers and a chance to interact with chef extraordinaire Gresham Fernandes, and you’ll have the recipe for a perfect evening! Email us for your seat – plus ones strongly discouraged.

When: Bread and (Salt) Water on August 18, 8.30 pm.

Some Like It Hot – upon hearing of this new Andheri eatery through a Twitter tip-off, we immediately thought of gangsters and cross dressers, seedy Chicago streets and cramped train compartments, millionaires and a cleavage showing Marilyn Monroe. That’s a lot of star power for a restaurant to live up to – and unfortunately, this one doesn’t even come close.

Plastic Paradise

Owned by the guys behind Urban Tadka, Masala Mantar and Pop Tates – Lokhandwala’s answer to Woodside Inn – Some Like It Hot is housed in the same building as Masala Mantar, with which it shares a lobby. The first thing that struck us when we got there was the overpowering scent, best described as a concentrated version of what a new car smells like. It’s no wonder, since the space is barely two weeks old and lined with lipstick red vinyl couches, with no windows to help air out. Other design elements include old Hollywood movie posters, checkered floors and a long, hot pink bar that’s oddly out of place in the quintessentially diner-like décor (think Perkins meets Cocktails & Dreams).

Sunny Side Down

Butcher Cassidy and the Sundance Kiln

Beef up your barbeque game by skipping the supermarket route and stopping by Amish Chinai’s Peddar Road kitchen instead, where the ad and design man moonlights as a deli master, doling out gourmet meats pre-rubbed with organic herbs and delicious marinades that can go straight to your pan or oven. Carnimore, we say!

Friends and family have been juicing Amish’s culinary passion for years now -  he’s always been the designated griller on fishing and weekend trips. But it’s been only two months since Amish decided to extend this service to other meat eaters in the city under the name Chinai’s Kitchen.

What: Juben Wine Cellar and Tasting Room, 2nd floor, Shoppers’ Stop, Juhu, call 9867280003 or view the Facebook group here, start at Rs 400 for a bottle.

Why: Our favourite neighbourhood booze store just graduated to a plush, all-white beer and wine cellar where you can try before you buy. Also taste eight new wines every fortnight under the guidance of sommelier Abhas Saxena, and put in suggestions for theme samplings based on country, colour or grape. Jolly good cellar!

When: Tastings begin next week.

What: Fresh fruit butter, Moshe’s Cafe, next door to Indigo Deli, Colaba, call 22020934, Rs 95 for 250 gms.

Why: Muffins, biscuits, even your tired old toast – these fruity butters can wake up the most boring breakfast. bpb loves the lemon flavor, but they come in kiwi, apricot and pineapple as well.

When: You want to make the zest of what’s around.

What: Boozy dates by Date a Chocolate, call 9820113368 or visit www.dateachocolate.in, Rs 200 for eight pieces.

Why: bpb always recommends getting drunk on a date, especially those as yummy as Vijeta’s. Starting next week, the confectioner will fill safawi and medjoul dates with chocolate and potent shots of alcohol including whisky, tequila and Baileys. Virgin flavours available as well.

When: You want to experience the Khajoor’s Last Sigh.

What: Organic jams and fruit preserves by Magick Potions, to order call Roopa Shukla on 9004336661, home delivery from Andheri to Bandra, start at Rs 150 for 300 gms.

Why: Mumbai’s Lady Marmalade crushes organic fruit into delish jams and sells them in adorable glass jars, minus the synthetic gunk. The mango’s a little too sweet, but we love the fig, plum and apple-cinnamon versions. You can even mix and match fruit and spices to customise your flavour: that’ll be two potions of chilli kiwi jam, please.

When: You want a sexy new Jams Bond.