I Think Therefore I a.m.

At Cafe Mangii, they can’t tell time. We visited the recently re-launched Khar restaurant yesterday to find that the menu (divided into time slots) confuses a.m. and p.m., waiters mistake breakfast for high tea and the service is so slow, you’ll age at least a couple years before your order arrives. Tick tock, ticked off!

Wound Up

At least the interior design seems to keep up with the times. Cafe Mangii’s current space is a grown up version of its old one, with a big window that lets the sun into an uncluttered beige landscape scattered with cool light fixtures – bouquets of bulbs, wiry chandeliers and giant standing lamp.
Before we got to the restaurant, we were assured over the telephone that the newly launched breakfast menu would be on until 6 pm, but turns out he was mistaken. Confusion ensued, further deepened by the utterly clueless wait staff and a hapless chef who we finally convinced to cook us breakfast in the evening. Eggs over easy? Not quite.

What’s the Story, Morning Glory?

Available between 9.30 am and 11.30 am, the morning menu features well-priced museli, fruit, omelettes, eggs Benedict, flavoured yoghurt, baked beans on toast, bagels with cream cheese – we picked scrambled eggs baked with cheddar cheese and served alongside hash browns. Also new is a Deli menu (available from 9.30 am to 7 pm), featuring sandwiches, burgers and and fish and chips; our picks included roast chicken and tomato-mozzarella versions.

The sandwiches arrived first, looking hale and hearty, stuffed with all kinds of yummy. The tomato mozzarella here is a pimped out avatar of the classic, boasting decadent additions like caramelised onions and pesto mayonnaise. Roast chicken – star of the evening - is marvellously messy, packed with succulent chicken, fried egg, horseradish and more of those sweet, sweet onions. 

The eggs came last, they arrived soft and scrambled, topped with warm, sticky cheddar cheese, flanked by golden hash browns and crisp toast. This dish deserves your morning, and also the intensely rich, dense Belgian chocolate mousse from Cafe Mangii’s old menu, with which we ended our meal. Easily the best mousse in Mumbai.

And It Dawned On Us

All in all, the kitchen at Cafe Mangii is still stellar: all the restaurant needs to do is overhaul its torpid service, and make sure the wait staff learn how to wind up their clocks and not their customers.

Getting there: Cafe Mangii, junction of 14th and Khar Pali Road, off Linking Road, Khar (W) call 65347788, Rs 1,000 for a meal for two without alcohol.

bpb reviews anonymously and pays for its own meals.