Neel at Tote on The Turf Is Now Open For Lunch

SPECIALS
• Bombay Baking Company, the bakery at the J. W. Marriott hotel, is holding an apple pie festival. You can pick from the classic apple pie; the apple prune and coriander tart; the rabri apple tart; the apple philo pastry; and the apple tarte tartin. Until Wednesday, August 31. J. W. Marriott Hotel, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu. Tel: 6693 3399.

• Starting today, Friday, August 26, India Jones, the South-East Asian restaurant at the Trident, Nariman Point, is hosting two chefs from the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Singapore. Chefs Ong Siew Huah and David Tan have drafted an a la carte menu that features Cantonese specialties such as otak-otak (fragrant banana leaf parcels with spicy mackerel mousse); chilli crabs; Katong laksa (rice noodles with shrimps and fish cakes in a chilli coconut broth); Hainanese chicken rice; and Singapore fried noodles. For dessert, they will serve bubor chacha (sweet potato and tapioca pearls cooked in coconut milk) and chilled cream of mango with sago pearls, pomelo and lime sorbet. Until Monday, September 5. Trident, Nariman Point. Tel: 6632 4343.

LAUNCHES
• Neel at Tote on the Turf is now serving lunch. The menu includes paneer tikkas made with saunf; stuffed mushrooms served with a green olive chutney; New Zealand lamb chops in a spicy ginger marinade; pine nuts soup; Kashmiri apple curry; achari portobello mushrooms; haleem; nalli nihari; and biryani made of morel mushrooms. Lunch will be served daily, from noon to 3pm. Mahalaxmi Race Course, opposite Gates 5 & 6, Keshvrao Khadye Marg, Mahalaxmi. Tel: 6157 7777.

NEWS
• The Gordon House Hotel in Colaba has denied that its popular retro-themed bar Polly Esther’s has permanently shut. The venue closed for renovations two months ago. “Renovation work is still on and that will take some time,” says Farzad Virji, the hotel’s food and beverage manager. Sanjiv Ardekar, the general manager of human relations, said that they were working on getting licenses cleared. “We cannot afford to incur the losses we are facing by keeping it shut,” says Ardekar. “Hopefully the license will come in a month.” [Hindustan Times]