REVIEWS -- 2

CHEZ MOI

When one hears of yet another restaurant boasting of “French food made accessible” these days, it’s greeted with no small amount of cynicism. Most European cuisines are definitely Indianized to suit the home-grown palate although at Chez Moi its remarkably downplayed to retain the Euopean flavor. Chez Moi  literally means “My Home” and it is a very French-parlor ambience that’s created despite the lack of space in Bombay’s Oshiwara location where this branch is situated. The service was attentive & gracious with recommendations made when we told them we were there for the first time.

We started with olive embedded batter-fried goujons with tarter sauce. It was a pleasant surprise to see goujons on the menu as for some inexplicable reason they seem to have some amount of bad press as opposed to other fish. We found these perfectly fried…crispy on the outside, not too heavy, the meat flaky & delicious within. The olives embedded into the batter added a nice touch cutting the fried batter taste in intervals. The tarter sauce was real tarter sauce, mayonnaise with cut veggies in it. So we were off to a good start.

Our next entrée was cheese leek cigars with balsamic vinegar & a salsa dip. Rolls of baked filo pastry filled with luscious cheddar & edam cheese & slivers of celery leek. Every bite afforded the amalgamation of all flavours blending in harmoniously. The salsa dip added the right touch of spice kick to the cheesy cigars.

For main courses, we had the herb grilled fish with sautéed veggies & butter sauce and pan-seared cilantro infused fish with potato mash & veggies sautéed in garlic oil. The herb grilled rawas had a smoky undertone which blended well with the herbs and dipped in butter sauce tasted absolutely delicious. The sautéed veggies were lightly topped with red wine vinegar which added a hint of acidic tang to cut the butter sauce. The pan-seared cilantro infused basa was delicately flavored without much spices so as to let the actual flavor of the cilantro come through, which was the highlight of the dish. The potato mash was sprinkled with pepper & shaped like a bun which also added to the aesthetics of the dish rather than just being dumped on the plate. In sum all dishes delivered on their promise of taste & quality albeit a tad on the smaller size in terms of portions to satisfy the usual Indian expectations.

The only place where we thought Chez Moi  could pull up its socks was the desert department. The choice of deserts on the menu is rather limited to say in the least & frankly didn’t tempt us at all. There are so many classic options that they can include in their repertoire like crème brulee`, strawberry savarin, quick tarte tatin, various flavoured meringues, apricot or almond clafouti, etc. but none are included. However if you are looking for a reasonably goof European food experience with less than 5-star costs, you’d do well visit Chez Moi as would we soon again