Foreign Waters. Review on Firangi Paani, Andheri, Mumbai

I've always been amused by the name Firangi Paani, which means foreigner and water. This restobar has a great mix of Indian and international food, so the name works well for it. We happened to go there a few weeks ago when my colleagues and I were looking for a place that had a weekend buffet. It was a colleague's birthday and she wanted to take us out over a weekend, instead of the usual rushed weekday lunch. After asking around, we decided we'd try out Firangi Paani, just off Link Road, Andheri, above Fun Republic. The buffet sounded pretty impressive and was reasonably priced, and we'd all heard nice things about the restaurant, or at least its drinks, so we decided to give it a shot. They handled the reservation well, even calling about an hour before the scheduled time to confirm that we'd be arriving. That's still a mystery to us, because it's not like they had other people waiting... half the place was empty. But overall, in terms of food and service, it was a really fun lunch.

The decor of the place is really nice. The lights are dim, but not so dim that you have trouble reading the menu or seeing what's at the buffet. It's all dark wood and brown upholstery and done up like a British pub. The plush booths made for a lot of bouncy fun, and even the most uptight of my colleagues had a go at it:) It's all very well-maintained and there were no scratches or tears anywhere, at least not yet. And the place looked really clean. The silverware, the glassware, the plates, and the napkins were all spotless. The music was loud, but it was pretty good and had us all swaying at the table. It was not obnoxiously loud like at some places (Red Box, are you listening?).

I wasn't particularly impressed by the wait staff. At the start of the meal they were really attentive and quick to get our drinks and clear plates between courses. But towards the end, before it was even 3 pm, they told us several times that the buffet would be closed in some time, so we should get started with dessert. Some of my colleagues were still having their main course at the time and the rest of us chose to wait for them. Most buffets, including Firangi Paani's or so they claim, stay open from 12:30 to 3:30, so there was no need for them to try to rush us. It's not like they needed the table, half the restaurant was empty anyway. Maybe two or three other tables on our side of the restaurant were occupied. And then at the end, they took forever to bring us the cheque. It wasn't bad service, but it wasn't great service.

Now let's move on to the food. Since we were there for the weekend buffet, we didn't really look at the a la carte menu or the drinks menu. They offered any one soft drink or beer with the buffet, so most of us got iced tea, some got beer, and a few got aerated drinks. The buffet also has soups, starters, mains, and desserts. I gave the soup a pass, but I believe there was some nice vegetable soup and something with chicken. The starters were really amazing and plenty, in fact with all of those you barely need a main course... and I'm speaking only of the vegetarian starters, there's a lot more on offer for non-vegetarians. First they have really good salads, like cottage cheese, mushrooms, and corn in a vinaigrette, a tossed salad, and some mayo salad. Then there are grilled veggies, like broccoli, mushroom, and potato that were seasoned to perfection and served on little wooden skewers. But my favorite was the mini thin-crust pizza. They have tiny slices of delicious thin-crust pizza, with lots of cheese and olives and jalapenos and bell peppers. I just loved these.

After more or less filling up on starters, we moved to the mains. These were a mix of Indian and Continental. There were the usual curries with veggies and cottage cheese. There was some biryani, some decent hakka noodles, some plain rice, yogurt, yellow lentils, and different rotis and naans. And they had adorable-looking little rolls and buns to go with the meal, unfortunately none of these were whole-wheat or multi-grain. But the best part was the baked vegetable, which was so delicious, in a tangy tomato sauce with melted cheese on top. There was also a really well made, light, airy gnocchi in a delicious cheese sauce. The only places I can think of that has better gnocchi are Little Italy and Don Giovanni.

Then it was time for my favorite course! The desserts were... there's only one word for it... awesome! There's this adorable chocolate fountain, if I wasn't such a germophobe, I would have really enjoyed that. I still did dip stuff, like cookies and fruit, into it but at the back of my mind I was thinking who knows who has stuck their fingers in that fountain. But the rest of the desserts were really amazing. There were plenty of chocolaty pastries... and as usual, they had me at "chocolate." There was this really good chocolate-almond pastry that had me going back for more and a chocolate tart filled with rich, dark chocolate. There were lots of fruit-based tarts and pastries as well, particular mention goes to this kiwi pastry that had fresh kiwi on top and lemon tart that was sweet and sour and just so good. There were some generic ice creams like vanilla, and mousses, and for the calorie-counters there was fruit. There were also some Indian sweets like phirni and rice pudding, but I'm not big on that stuff, so I gave it a pass. My colleagues seemed to really enjoy that stuff though.

The only thing that really put a dampener on our lunch was a private kiddies party that was happening across one half of the venue. It was probably a Balaji-type party, with several wannabe, air-kissing moms with tons of make up on teetering around on scary-looking heels. And spoiled-rotten preadolescent kids strolled around, dressed inappropriately and misbehaved and would begin to bawl over anything. With all the "Those pesky kids," going around we felt like we were the bad guys straight out of a Scooby Doo cartoon :)

But despite the saas-bahu wannabes, we ended up having a pretty fun time there. The cheque didn't come to too much. It was something like 450 per head, inclusive of taxes for the substantial lunch buffet. I'd definitely recommend trying out the buffet at least once and a la carte once, because I hear good things about their continental food and sizzlers, and of course their drinks. The only thing I suggest is, if the wait staff tries to rush you, look pointedly at all the empty tables. And when you call to make a reservation, be sure you check whether there's a private party happening there the same day :)