Not Just MoMos!. Review on MoMo Cafe, Andheri, Bombay

A few months ago, on my way from tennis class to work, I noticed that Courtyard by Marriott had come up at Andheri-Kurla Road. I knew they had a 24-hour Cafe Momo, but I assumed it was a chinese place because of the name. Then I found out that it's a multi-cuisine restaurant and that's when I really wanted to go there. I’d pretty much forgotten about the place since the rains started and class stopped. A few days ago, the gloomy weather put my colleagues and me in the mood for a nice hot spread. I remembered MoMo and since none of us had tried it yet we were all game. So I called and made a reservation, which we realized wasn’t necessary when we got there and saw that the restaurant was half empty (or half full for all the die-hard optimists).

We got there at 1:30 and the first thing I noticed was their thorough security check. First an adorable sniffer dog that looked like a cross between a lab and a golden retriever in a cute red raincoat checked our car, while the polite security staff checked the boot and bonnet. Then once the car was handed to the valet (yes, they have valet parking), they frisked us and even checked our temperature in a bid to turn away anyone with suspected swine flu.

Then came the restaurant which is open-plan and on the lobby level. It’s spread out wonderfully and ensures that the tables are far enough from each other that people can have private conversations and don’t bump chairs. The place is pretty clean and for the prices they charge it better be. The white crockery sparkles, as does the cutlery and the glassware. The table cloth and napkins were clean and freshly laundered. Unfortunately, we did notice several fruit flies, particularly at the salad spread and that wasn’t appealing.

I wasn’t thrilled with the service. They didn’t explain what the buffet comprised of, like they do in most restaurants. They also didn’t explain whether the dishes at the buffet spread were vegetarian or not, since the red and green dots were pretty random. Some dishes had them, some just had the name with no dot to indicate whether it was vegetarian or not. What was really annoying was when one of the servers came at 2:30 and told us that the buffet would be closing in 15 minutes. By that time we had all moved to dessert and were finishing up, so it was unnecessary of him to come and try to hurry us, specially considering it wasn't like they had people waiting for a table. And then, after we were done it took forever to catch their eye when we wanted the check. So even though we left a decent tip, the service staff needs training and if I don’t go back, they’ll be a major reason.

Now let’s move to the reason we were there: the food! I wasn’t impressed with the salad bar. They have a make-your-own salad concept. Figuring out what greens and veggies to get and what dressing would work with it was too much of a hassle. When you're at a restaurant, it's nice when they do your work for you - the only exception is Just Around The Corner, where the dressings and salads are so yummy and organized that the salads taste great no matter how you put them together.

What was nice at the salad section were the different dinner rolls. They all looked cute and interesting, but I stuck to a multi-grain roll. They have three flavored butters to smear on your roll, oregano butter, chili butter, and mustard butter – the oregano and chili flavored butters were delicious. They also provide a large, warm bun at the table, and some chutney with that.It melts in your mouth and is just delicious, especially with oregano butter smeared on it. As always, I gave the soup a pass,butfor vegetarians they had sweet corn and I think there was a chicken basil soup for meat-eaters.

The main course was decent. There was a lot for meat-eaters to choose from but I don’t remember any of the names except a Goan Fish Curry and a Mutton Biryani. For vegetarians there was some delicious vegetable biryani, some yellow dal, raita, curd rice, and patra, dhokla, and khandvi for people who like Guju food, and some delicious exotic vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce. There was also paneer malai tikkas and a paneer in redgravy, but the paneer seemed tough. A Punjabi can always tell good paneer from bad paneer, and this was not good. There was also plain rice and they brought a fresh, hotbasket of naan to the table.

The desserts were awesome and there was a lot to choose from. I actually took a walk around the dessert counter before I got started on my meal. They had some truly amazing cherry pie, some orange creme brule that I didn’t like, blueberry cheesecake that I loved, raspberry panacotta that I thought was gross, and a delicious mocha mousse cake. They also had mango cheesecake, pineapple upside down cake, pineapple jelly, cham cham, doodhi ka halwa, suji ki kheer, and ras malai. I’m not big on anything with mango or pineapple and Indian sweets, so I gave these a pass but my colleagues seemed to enjoy them.

Finally, there was a hot case full of warm, gooey brownies and a freezer full of ice cream with lots of different flavors, but I stuck to chocolate. There’s nothing more perfect than ending a meal with warm brownies and chocolate ice cream! There were alsosome cheeses like gouda, cheddar, and edam. I love cheese, but the other, sweeter, more sinful options were more tempting and so I gave it a pass. And there was fresh fruit, but in my opinion fruit is not dessert, especially when there are brownies and cheesecake as alternatives.

While I enjoyed my meal at Momo Cafe, I think places like Rodas and Mirador’s Tangerine have better buffets and are more economical. MoMo Cafe has a la carte as well and also different buffet options where people can opt for multiple buffet spreads, only a couple, or even just one. Instead of the entire lunch buffet at 795 per person, you can opt for only the dessert buffet or only a salad and soup buffet at 350 per person. Or you can skip the main course and get the soup and salad buffet and dessert buffet for 550 per person. Overall, this place is just average considering the price, with the ambiance and desserts being the only saving grace, so they should thank their pastry chef :)