Pan-Asian Restaurant East To Re-Open Next Week

The old East.

Kemps Corner Pan-Asian restaurant East, which shuttered on June 30, will re-open next week in a different avatar. It will now be an all-day establishment with a brand new décor, and a focus on small plates. “We will not follow the appetisers-mains-desserts format,” said chef Nachiket Shetye. “Instead, the menu will have plenty of Asian-inspired small plates, which will not be expensive.” Shetye has done away with the bamboo accents and has replaced the granite flooring with a wooden one. Other changes include the limestone bar and red wall, and sturdier wooden tables in place of the old plywood ones. The prices of the small plates will range from Rs175 to Rs385, and Shetye estimates that a meal will cost somewhere between Rs700 and Rs1,000 per head.

East, which opened in in 2007, was owned by Shetye’s father’s company Nish Pvt. Ltd., which ran its predecessor, the Asian restaurant Nish. Now Shetye, along with a few individual investors, has created a new company called White Window that owns and runs East. Shetye says the relaunched restaurant will be “more professionally run, much like the better fine-dining restaurants that have opened in Mumbai in the last couple of years”.

Diners who loved the roti canai, satays, Shanghai wantons and tofu and black bean need not fret, however. While these old favourites will be available, East will also add a number of dumplings, including baked and soup (steamed packets of fine dough filled with hot soup in addition to morsels of meat or vegetables) varieties, to its menu. Among the other dishes that passed the menu tastings, which Shetye has been conducting in the last few weeks, are the baby potatoes and chicken wings with honey and chilli dressing, and an Asian take on tomato soup. “We felt that this neighbourhood needed a space where people could come and eat and hang, through the day,” said Shetye.