Taftoon, BKC 3.5/5
Address:Ground
Floor, Naman Centre, Unit No.2, KBC, Opposite Dena Bank, Bandra Kurla Complex,
Bandra East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400051
Specialty:
Food from places on the Grand Trunk route all the way from Afghanistan,
through Pakistan, North India, Ladakh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West
Bengal, finally crossing over and halting at Bangladesh.
Type
of Restaurant: All day bar and restaurant
The
details above are from the restaurant/their website and are subject to change
at their discretion
Price
Range: 2600/- for two with one non-alcoholic beverage each. Exclusive of
applicable taxes and charges.
The
restaurant endeavors to take you on a journey from Kabul to Kolkata on the
Grand Trunk route, out of the history books, and onto our plates. One of
the things that connected these places was the taftan. The oldest name for this
bread was taftoon, hence the name of the restaurant.
Taftoon
turned out to be a lesson in ancient Indian culinary history and all the
various the ways in which ingredients and cooking techniques have traversed geographical
boundaries.
Ambience
Taftoon
is a spacious place, all pale yellow lighting, wooden flooring and hexagonal lamps.
Life’s Good, but it’s
not perfect
They
use a Robata grill and traditional degchis and Lucknowi lagans
to send out delicate kebabs and grilled dishes.
Starters: Chicken
Pakodey is a Ladakhi
preparation of boneless chicken wings tossed
in ginger, turmeric and honey, as the menu suggests. We guess there was a lot
more by way of a marinade, but obviously, they are holding their cards close to
their chest. The chicken was succulent, cooked just right and not very greasy.
There were complex flavors in an apparently simple dish. A show stealer and an
apt homage to a route used to transport spice.
The Galauti Kebab was originally made for a toothless Nawab
in Lucknow. There are three in a serve, so order accordingly. Sharing this
could get a bit inconvenient as they are served on bite sized breads. It was
tasty, but a little too much chilly overpowered the rest of the spices.
Mains: Gushtaba are Kashmiri meatballs
served in a yoghurt based Yakhni sauce tempered with mustard oil. The sauce is
flavoursome, sadly though, the meatballs were rubbery and tasteless.
Matke
Me Rum Shaljam is served in an earthen pot. Well cooked mutton, the turnip adds
flavour and complements the meat. The rum flambé is done tableside. This is a
delightful, Moorish homestyle dish.
They
have a good variety when it comes to bread. The Lal naan is flavoured with
rogan or chili oil and sesame seeds. This one is not to be missed. The
restaurant gets their name from the Taftoon. Oven baked, flavored with saffron
and black cardamom, this pairs well with both the mains.
Dessert: we had the Chenna Platter which is an
assortment of chenna-based sweets- sandesh (which was a mini-golf ball which
had to be chased around the plate in an attempt to cut it), malai chop, kheer
kodombo, gulab jamun, chomchom and malai sandwich. Other than the sandesh, the
others were just right.
Drinks: We didn’t partake of the drinks, but
they have a vast choice of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Their
signature mock tails and cocktails looked interesting.
Service
wise, the servers are attentive but could do with a little more food knowledge.
Insider tips
There
is enough on the menu for a second trip. We had the opportunity to speak to Chef Milan.
His passion for food is admirable. He has invested a lot of time and effort in
studying cooking methods, and tries to keep processes as authentic as possible.
What to wear Anything Casual.
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