Restaurant Review: 5 All Day

Hotel Apollo, located opposite Curio Cottage in Colaba, is not the most welcoming of establishments. We learned this on a weekday afternoon when we were looking for the entrance to 5 All Day, a new restaurant that opened on the hotel’s ground floor on Friday, September 30. A particularly discourteous gentleman at the reception brusquely asked us what we wanted before grudgingly directing us to the restaurant. Had we consulted this TripAdvisor review, which calls the receptionists at Hotel Apollo “the rudest people on the planet”, we might have been prepared for such frosty treatment.

Fortunately, the independently-run 5 All Day offers a far more cheerful ambience. The 1,500 square foot split-level restaurant, which has replaced the bar Oba, is a branch of the popular Santa Cruz eatery called 5. The Colaba outpost, which is painted in white, sorbet green and peach, has a different, more casual vibe and comprises a bar, two dining sections and a lounge. We were seated in the lower dining area, which has the cosy appeal of a basement hangout but with tall, frosted windows that let in soft light. The tables are flanked by a well-stocked bar on one side and the lounge on the other.

Like the Santa Cruz flagship, Colaba’s 5 serves fusion fare. The menu has been moderately revised to include all-day dining options such as eggs, burgers and sandwiches. Our first appetiser, the hickory-smoked chicken burger was a lazily assembled dish of Dijon mustard-slathered chicken slices between a burger bun. The chicken, though dry, wasn’t smoked and there was certainly no hint of hickory. The spinach and scarmoza brownie was a brownie only in shape, essentially a square of baked spinach and cheese that tasted bitter. The chorizo wrapped prawns could have been the highlight of the meal, had the prawns not been undercooked. The chorizo, however, was excellent so we happily unwrapped the pork and ate it plain.

For our first entree, we ordered the kasundi marinated bekti. The plump, fresh and well-cooked fish was placed atop a bed of mashed potatoes speckled with a crunchy, deep-fried lentil batter. Our second main course, the roast leg of lamb served with herb rice, tasted just as good but it wasn’t what was promised on the menu. Instead of leg of lamb, we were served shredded lamb in a lusciously thick mushroom-flavoured gravy. The staff-recommended B52 turned out to be a dessert version of the layered shot. The menu offered no description for it, but our server called it “a most excellent chocolate preparation”. The layers of chocolate mousse, cream and Kahlua, however, proved too rich for our liking, and lacked the bittersweet kick of the shot.

There are about half-a-dozen good restaurants in the vicinity of 5 All Day (Indigo Deli, The Table and Le Pain Quotidien to start with). If it hopes to steal away customers, then it would do well to address the discrepancy between what is promised on the menu and what is delivered on the plate.

A meal for two costs approximately Rs2,300. All reviews are conducted anonymously.

5 All Day

LocationHotel Apollo
Lansdown Road
Behind Regal Cinema
Colaba

Phone6524 7070

HoursDaily, noon to 1am