For a hangover without drinking!. Review on Red Box Cafe, Andheri East, Mumbai

Whenever I go to Red Box, I begin to believe that I'm getting older and more mature. While the college kids there seem to think the music is cool, the volume irritates my friends and me. It's been obnoxiously loud each time I've been there (even the Bandra one) and makes it impossible to have a conversation, unless you have the energy to scream across the table all through the meal. You can ask the serving staff and even the manager there to lower the volume multiple times, but they'll lower it maybe a decibel and it just never ceases to be way too loud.

I'll give the restaurant points for the decor and the menu, which is fun and different. The drinks are excellent, specially their kiwi margheritas, just the right balance of sweet and sour. About the food, it veers from being just ok to pretty good. Their vegetable lasagna is delicious, as is their vegetarian canelloni. The vegetarian cheeseburgers are not great, although I love the coleslaw and french fries that come with it. Other sides that I've liked there are the mashed potatoes and garlic bread (always get this with cheese). My non-veggie friends have tried and liked their sizzlers too, and they also have some veg options, but I'm a sizzler purist. If I'm going to have a sizzler it has to be at a Yokos or a Kobes. I've sinned and had sizzlers at places like Pop Tates, but have come to realize that no sizzler beats the ones at Yokos (try the spaghetti and cheese one with garlic sauce and you'll believe me). I've also tried some of green thai curry and rice at Red Box, which my friends thought was nice, but I'm not big on Thai food or anything coconutty. The desserts are awesome, the mud cake with ice cream in particular is to die for. A meal for two with alcoholic drinks will cost between 1000-1200, with soft drinks it will come to about 700.

The service is quite fast, friendly, and attentive, except when you're trying to convince them to lower the music's volume. So the food isn't bad, neither is the service, but the music is a major pain. But the worst moment I've ever had there, surprisingly, has nothing to do with the loud music. We were just getting done with our drinks andstarters when a huge cockroach ran up to our table. Besides the fact that cockroaches creep me out (yes, I screamed, and yes, the music drowned out my scream), insects are just something you don't want to see in a restaurant. It makes you start wondering just how clean the kitchen is. We didn't make a scene, just told the guy who was handling our table about it, paid our bill, and walked out. As you've probably guessed, I haven't been back there since that creepy incident.

Although I've recommended this restaurant, I don't think it's a good place to sit through an entire meal - particularly not now that there was the gross cockroach incident. It's nice to go there for a few drinks and starters, and then you should move to a more serene place and actually hear and be heard. There's a Caravan Serai for Indian food right next door and a China Gate, if you like Chinese, right upstairs. Both, I believe, have the same owner as Red Box. There's also a TGIF in Infiniti mall and Ginger Marie for Italian/Continental food just two minutes away, and Mainland China (again Chinese), Trishna (for non-veggie seafood lovers), and Kailash Parbat (for veggie chaat lovers) across the street.

The reason I've listed all these options is because most sane people with normal hearing really will leave with their head pounding if they try to sit through a hour-and-half to two-hour meal at Red Box. No offense, but only wannabes who think going deaf and shouting over the table is cool can handle being at this place longer than it takes to down two drinks. If you want to give this place a shot, the best option would be to take one of the tables outside, where the music that floats out is at a reasonable volume, enjoy a drink or two, and then go someplace nice and quiet for lunch or dinner, and maybe come back to Red Box for dessert.