Restaurant Review: Pali Village Cafe
You get what you pay for. That belief is sometimes proven wrong, most often by street food vendors, but once in a while also by gastronomically inept high-end restaurants such as Olive, about a ten-minute drive from Pali Village Cafe. Thankfully, the latter mostly justified the bill of around Rs2,200 a head (including wine), but we considered deducting the service charge included. The only major flaw at the charming cafe close to Pali naka is its service. Despite discounting the teething issues of an opening weekend, we couldn’t help but wonder if it would be worth coming back. We were served another table’s drinks—twice—and it would have been easier getting a supermodel’s attention than that of one of their waiters’ (despite the restaurant being only half full).
Ultimately though, Pali Village Cafe is worth coming back to. Repeatedly. The decor is enchanting: the cafe has a wrought-iron stair railing, a balcony with two tables for two, a cosy dining room with wooden garden chairs sporting flowery cushions, and quirky old photographs adorning its worn walls. The rusted chairs, the lazy fans, the soft Spanish instrumental music and the birdcage outside make one feel that time has slowed down, as if when entering an old, eccentric relative’s house.
Our food was, of course, a huge factor in justifying the price. The menu was thoughtful, with interesting combinations that mostly worked. The peanut butter and banana smoothie was thick and perfectly blended. The hazelnut and nutella smoothie, though, was watery with barely any trace of either. Our first starter, baked scallops served on a bed of asparagus with tomato and mascarpone foam, was flawless. Each component was delicious, and together, offered an array of textures, tastes and visual appeal.
We normally skip pizzas in favour of a burger or sandwich, but since the latter two are only available during the day, we opted for a slice of the fig and pepperoni. Modifying the pepperoni pizza is considered sacrilegious in some countries, but the figs provided subtle sweetness and the crunch of the seeds added value to our perfectly crisp square. The seafood risotto was a bit too soft to be al dente but was prepared with an intense broth that made it flavourful even when the pieces of squid, prawns and clams were gobbled up. The John Dory came with excellent caper cream sauce. Caper berries can be pungent but never spicy, and thus complemented the fresh fish well.
While the outstanding panna cotta had a hint of vanilla and was surrounded by an intense reduction of passionfruit, the coconut creme brulee had little taste of coconut. It was served devoid of a setting dish with a nearly non-existent top layer of caramalised sugar.
We hope the service at Pali Village Cafe improves, and it will be frustrating if it doesn’t. This is because, discounting the service, here, you get what you pay for.
A meal for two costs Rs3,400 excluding wine.
Devendra Das likes a bong, all Bongs and while not preoccupied by either, chronicles his gluttonous experiences.
Tags: Cafe, Food, Pali Village Cafe, restaurant, restaurant reviews, Special Top StoryLocationPali Village Cafe
Next to Janata Lunch Home
Pali Naka
Bandra (W)
Phone2605 0401
HoursDaily, 12.30pm to midnight
Comments (11)
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Please do not blame the service. The guest think they can demand anything anytime. I have seen guests calling the steward while he is taking the order of another tabe. They feel they are the only ones who have to be looked after. Please be polite to wait staff, they work hard, mostly on their toes to give the guests the best- who after getting the best would like the wait staff go even further.
i heard soo much about pvc. i think hype can really kill a place .it reminds me of a nazi germany setting what with the 1920s music and the all encampassing grey grey grey…. quaint but charming…
the mushroom soup was sooo full of butter i must go for a blood test. the chirizo in my measly 2 bite salad potion was so tough i had to chew and spit ….
the risotto was bland must have been made in kanji water and the grilled pepper chicken was decent but no bread accompaniments wich is soo wrong cuz you need the comfort of fresh bread and butter…
all in all rather pretentious…….
dont agree with this review at all. in fact i think PVC is awesome. The ambience and decor is very homely and the food is delicious. i think the service is exceptional as well- really polite. I have been going there since it started and think that every place has teething problems- its hardly 4 or 6 weeks old. The crowd that comes there is very chic and classy. The salmon starter is to die for and the rissottos and pastas are amazing.
I’m really surprised at the great reviews PVC has been receiving. We had heard so much about it these past 2 weeks, that we decided to take a look.
1) Nice, quiet ambience
2) Poor, slow service
3) Dirty tables, dirty glasses
4) No accompaniments (bread, sauces)
5) Tacky menu – printouts on paper with spelling errors galore
5) Atrocious food for a place with such hype.
The beef & hazelnut butter burger was horrendous – a small, processed slab of beef, almost-stale bun, hazelnut butter that you couldn’t taste, dry due to lack of any sauce or butter or cheese (this is perfectly acceptable if the meat is juicy and tender, which it wasn’t).
The goat’s cheese and garlic pizza slice was simply a tiny smear of cheese on crisp, heavy bread. Not a pizza slice by any means.
Roast Chicken, Zucchini and Goat’s Cheese Sandwich was decent, but lacking the oomph that you always get at an Indigo. Cheese was almost absent, but the chicken was tender. Potato wedges were good. The problem was that it was just so-so. Each bite made you feel fuller rather than yearn for more.
Overall, nothing more than a 2 on 5, one point only for the ambience. I wouldn’t eat that burger again even if they delivered it to my house for free.
I hope this was a one-off, but I doubt it was. I don’t think I’d be visiting again.
@Aishwarya: The hype normally lasts 3-6 months in this city, after which any establishment needs to have a proper offering (i.e. either food, nightlife, ambience or a concept as is the case with Blue Frog or Man United Cafe). Assuming the quality of food is maintained, I’m confident of this cafe’s success.
Poor service is an industry-wide problem right now and it takes ages to get it right. See MB’s review for Indigo Deli at Palladium – despite having opened four restaurants over a span of ten years, even Akerkar can’t get it right (initially). Also, for me, one should write off a place only after three tries. Unless all three – food, service, ambience – are a disaster.
I’m not defending the terrible service or the place, all I’m saying is go back in a month or two and see if it gets better.
I would’ve thought of going back to this place for it’s ambience & food, but the service is so horrible that I’m sure I won’t be returning. They’re rude, they hustle you & the manager is so cocky, he doesn’t care whether you return. This place is doing well b/c of the hype around it, I’d like to see how long it carries on.
@Rasa: Why, thank you, I would be nothing without my appetite (or taste buds). In my defence, the slow service made it a very long meal – think of it as evening snack and dinner combined. On subsequent visits, I’ve averaged 1,400 a head excluding alcohol, a slight improvement.
I’m a bit surprised that your meal was so expensive. I’ve been to PVC quite a few times already and our average bill was probably a thousand bucks a head without vino. You, Mr. Reviewer, have a prodigious appetite!!
I was interested to read this article as I’ve been hearing many not so favourable things about the food at this hot new cafe. Obviously the setting is gorgeous but awful things have been said about the wine cocktails, pizza and portion size on multiple occasions.
Also I’ve been stuck in one too many Pali Naka traffic jams these days which I think can be blamed squarely on their valet service.
I agree that the decor and ambiance of the Pali Village Cafe is charming. I would love to go back and recommend it to my friends.
However, the service was so far beyond every other ‘bad’ experience I have had in this city, and the arrogant gall of the owner was so shocking that this is the last place in town I would think of returning to.
Brilliant place! Very tastefully put together…