The Sassy Spoon, Bandra

I liked the location - facing the street with big windows. Never mind that all I could see out of them was the incessant traffic on the Bandra street. And I liked the decor. But what delighted me the most was the menu - I could see a lot of items that I haven't seen on menus of places that I have visited so far. Never mind that I had no clue whatsoever to what some of the words even meant (e.g. what in the world is Pappardelle?). :-)

But the dish 'Paella' was familiar - I had once watched a chef cook seafood paella in a TV program. Of course, I wouldn't have gone for the sea-food version even if it were available on menu - I don't think I am up for eating a concoction featuring mussels, crab, squids and other assorted sea-creatures, however exotic it might sound. So I chose 'Brown rice paella with beans, olives, grilled artichokes, grilled fennel and pickled peppers'. Now that one familiar dish was selected, next one had to be something different so we went for "Thai style chicken with birds' eye chilli and oyster sauce with spicy noodles". Since we were not sure of the quantity of both dishes, we didn't choose any third one to begin with.

There wasn't any significant delay in serving. Of course, since I was eating a paella for the first time in my life (and that too in India!) I didn't have any benchmark to judge it against. So I would just say that it was good but I was disappointed because I was expecting a somewhat different taste than some kind of mildly spiced rice. I suppose a sea-food paella would have it because the juices from the sea-food would seep into it. Or it could be that the dish was adapted to suit Indian
palate.

Thai style chicken

Brown rice paella

Speaking of spices, when the server asked me if I would like the "Thai style chicken" mildly spiced or spicy, I should have gone for the latter. The 'mildly spiced' version turned out to be very little spiced. I would also have loved more chicken. Not too impressed with this dish!

So as far as my score-card goes, the quantity does seem a little insufficient for the price charged but I definitely want to come back to sample more dishes on the menu - even if some of them turn out to be duds. Oh, and I would definitely like to drop by once for their high tea - served with freshly baked scones and clotted cream. Sounds yummy!

P. S. They do have handmade ice-cream available. We were served tiny portions of it in three different flavors at the end of our meal. Alas, the portions were too tiny to make an assessment of the flavor and texture. So I might order one serving of it on my next visit.