A new QSR in Powai offers value-for-money Mexican and Middle-Eastern dishes
Cottage Cheese Burger
The restaurant landscape of Powai has minuscule space for street food favourites, barring the desi ice cream trucks that line its famous lake. The scene is dominated by fine-dine chains or international fast food properties. So, when restaurateurs attempt to offer a novel quick service restaurant (QSR) experience, it could go either way. In such scenarios, pricing and innovative menus play a key role in swinging the customer opinion.
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El Rancho and Pick Pocket’s menu grabs our attention on both counts — its pricing and attempt to focus on two cuisines, which not many QSRs can pull off. What we also like is the floor plan — it is divided into two sections to represent the two cuisines, without giving the patron a feeling of claustrophobia on entering the outlet. It’s a great example of utilising a small space.
Veg Mexican Pizza
For a QSR, the menu is extensive, and we are tempted to try a few dishes, except for out-of-context options such as chicken stroganoff and anda bhurji. We stick to their specialities and start with cottage cheese burger (Rs 179), Veg Mexican Pizza (Rs 119, for a slice), veg nachos and a falafel pocket (Rs 159 each). We eye a box of Jenga to while away our time, but the service is super quick and two dishes make it to our table under 10 minutes. The portions overwhelm us too. Famished, we start with the nachos that are served with a tasty salsa sauce, cheese sauce and sour cream. The nachos are crisp to our liking.
Chicken Kabsa
The Mexican pizza arrives with near-identical flavours that include beans, mozzarella and a tangy sauce, but we like it nonetheless, especially the crisp base. The burger is a big downer. While the portion size is generous, the jerk sauce that they serve is nowhere close to the real one and the thick paneer patty is bland. The falafel pocket scores a ten on ten, though. The pita pocket is super soft with several pieces of falafel stuffed in, and with the right amount of hummus so that the pocket doesn’t feel dry. In love with this dish, we pick another option — butter chicken pocket (Rs 189). It offers a heady, smoky gravy but chunks of fragrant chicken are a tad undercooked. The Mexican chicken pizza is bland too (Rs 169) and the bad run continues with the chicken kabsa (Rs 249). The chicken is raw, but the accompanying gravy is fragrant with cumin, which compliments the saffron rice.
Baklava
The saving grace is the deep fried shredded barbeque chicken burger (Rs 199). The glistening bun is stuffed with melted cheese and delicious pieces of chicken (more cheesy than BBQ though). The dish is perfect and our favourite of the evening; we would love to return here just for this mean burger.
Stuffed, we attempt to try their dessert offerings. Since the churros weren’t available (it’s 11.30 pm now), we call for Turkish Baklava (Rs 199) and umm Ali (Rs 199).
Deep Fried Shredded Barbeque Chicken Burger
Both the sweet treats are the QSR versions of the indulgent ones we are used to having, but we aren’t complaining. The baklava doesn’t have many layers, but we’re fine with this abridged version as we are pretty full by now. The umm Ali, with four pieces of croissant dunked in milk doesn’t have the crust a baked version should have, but is tasty nonetheless.
Despite the chicken debacle, the quick service and tempting price points somewhat tilt our opinion. Both menus display promise but the kitchen needs to up its game for an all-out glitch-free experience.
TIME 10 am to 1 pm
AT Cypress CHS, Hiranandani Gardens, Powai.
CALL 30151775
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