Bar Review: Cerveza

New Kala Ghoda beer bar Cerveza is a case study in having a great concept but not knowing how to best execute it. The bar, as you may have read, sells beers from around the world. And beers they have aplenty—the menu boasts 16 kinds of lager, two wheat beers (Hoegaarden and Schneider Weisse), four ales, two stouts (Guinness and Murphy’s Irish) and one type of fruit beer (Liefmans), dry beer (Asahi) and farmhouse beer (Saison Dupont). The menu, both in terms of the drinks on offer and the way it’s been put together, is in fact the most impressive thing about Cerveza. Not only does it give you a concise description of each beer, it also tells you what kind of food pairs well with it so you can accordingly order your bar snacks, some of which are from the menu of Chinese restaurant Silk Route, located on the ground floor.

Excerpts from the vibrantly designed menu are printed on the tabletops, but the main decorative feature of Cerveza is the orange mural of a world map that has facts about beer and quotes about drinking written across it. What we found strange however, was that though the owners decided to have an orange wall, the bar is so dimly lit that it has none of the brightness and cheeriness that you associate with the colour (or beer drinking for that matter). It’s so dark inside that the waitstaff have been given pocket pen lights that they can whip out if customers have trouble reading the menu. We also didn’t understand why they feel a place like this needs a DJ. We got there at around 7pm on a weekday evening, when the background music was some pleasant-enough electro-lounge but just half an hour later, the soundtrack changed to loud house tracks that just made us feel old. First, we couldn’t see properly, and now, we couldn’t hear each other.

Maybe Cerveza is hoping to draw some of the South Mumbai college crowd but we have our doubts about whether they’re going to frequent a joint where the average price of a beer is upwards of Rs400. The beer cocktails might be targeted at younger customers but the two that we tried weren’t worth repeat orders. There was nothing explosive about the Lava (beer and grenadine, Rs300), which was sweet and like the beer version of a Bacardi breezer; it was, on the other hand, way better than the weirdly named Nature’s Call (beer and amaretto, Rs350), which had a medicinal taste. The cocktails come served in tall, narrow test tube-resembling glasses, and you’d need at least three to get any sort of buzz going.

If a buzz is what you’re looking for, you would do well to order a pint of Duvel or Chimay, two fine ales that come with an alcohol content of 8 per cent. With a price tag of Rs800 however, a chug of Chimay is a costly proposition. But, for a stand-alone bar, Cerveza does live up to the promise of having the largest range of beers in the city. Though Hoegaarden was not in stock, they serve the equally hard-to-find Guinness and the excellent Saison Dupont, the smooth and citrus-y taste of which makes its Rs550 a glass price a satisfying indulgence.

In these taxing times when a bottle of Kingfisher Mild costs nearly Rs100, drinking international beer brands is perhaps only for the connoisseur. For an establishment that serves up some of the finest offerings of the beer world, it’s then a pity that the ambience at Cerveza, with its indistinctive slatted wood ceiling and chrome-plated bar stools, resembles that of such of middle-rung Colaba bars such as Indus, Tavern and the first floor of Leopold. Woodside Inn may have half the number of beers as Cerveza but it’s got a far greater vibe, which to us at least is a big part of what makes a worthy drinking spot.

Prices start at Rs150 for a mug of Kingfisher draught. This review was conducted anonymously.

Cerveza

LocationFirst Floor
Silk Route
38 K. Dubash Marg
Near Rhythm House
Kala Ghoda

Phone2281 8572

HoursDaily, 3pm to 1am