Found my third Chinese place in Mumbai. Review on Mainland China, Andheri West, Mumbai

Having eaten at Ling's and China Gate all this while the propensity to eat at another Chinese place has always been low. Don't want to risk a let down, don't want to get into eating a lot of soda bicarb with the food either. Anyways, driving towards Powai one night, we decided to break journey and eat at Mainland China. And this is what we found.

Date Visited : 8th Feb, 04

Location stuff : bang smack, right on the Saki Naka and that I think is a disadvantage. And that has been one of the reasons for my not having visited this place earlier. Always have been scared of stopping in front of the restaurant because of the fear of my car getting struck on the side by one of the zillions of Mumbai's crappy and maniacal drivers (and that includes all those morons who drive the red bully BEST buses) on the road. Thank heavens for valet parking, that problem gets sorted a bit.

The other problem is that this area is the most polluted in the entire city and thus stepping out to the muck is a bother too during rush hours; especially because my allergies get triggered off because of the smoke etc.

Timing :

We got there at about 9pm. Given the above two things, you would perhaps want to visit during weekends, later in the night or holidays only. Now, the problem with weekends is that you will find the restaurant crowded as we did. We had a wait of 45 minutes, but were patient (for once) about this. So, reservations are recommended.

Ambience:

Nothing too great, 'theek hai', nothing special. Thought I saw a couple of wooden laughing Buddhas too. Otherwise white walls etc. Because of the number of people waiting, it does get crowded, people keep coming in to ask the maitre de about seat availability. There is some amount of seating outside for the people waiting. Didn't seem enough, but then there is only so much that a restaurant can do, I guess. However, while we were waiting, we were served some fresh lime...which I thought was thoughtful.

Food: We ordered

siu mai: very nice, just correctly done too. Will start checking out their other dim sums next time.

sweet corn crab soup: Nothing too great, guess this has become standard fare everywhere. The soup was a bit thicker than one would expect and the corn was canned (which I don't like). The amount of crab meat was plenty, and thus not much to complain about on the helping size for sure.

Wine: we had asked for some Riviera Cab Sav, and there was this huge confusion where I had to patiently (patience not being one of my virtues) why not a Chardonnay, and that I want a blush but not a merlot etc. The wine had a distinct wooden taste, quite a like a merlot's but the steward swore that he had opened a new bottle of Cab Sav for us. Not his fault, perhaps the Riviera cab sav does taste different.

Chicken in hot garlic sauce: very nice. Looks fiery but isn't (thankfully). The serving size was fair too.

Jumbo prawns: again very nice. Was happy to see some asparagus in it. BTW, is asparagus a Chinese thing? But then who cares, the dish did taste nice and that is all that mattered at that time, especially because we were dying of hunger at that time. The sauce was nice and light too. The prawns were sizeable and nicely done, just short of it getting rubbery.

clay pot rice with mushrooms: Well, the quantity again was nice, though I didn't like this much because the flavour was a little too pungent and the rice had appropriated a brown colour. Would expect it to be off white and delicately flavoured.

One disappointing thing is that they serve only poultry, lamb and sea food. No beef, no pork :-(.

BTW, do remember that this is more Indianized food than authentic Chinese

Service:

Excellent and polite service. However, the servers are usually a bit confused. We couldn't finish all that we ordered and wanted to take the remaining stuff away. The person who came to pack the stuff up, forgot a plate and was reminded by his superior.

Cost:

Not bad actually, we had our fill, liked what we ate and paid Rs 1500.

Overall Verdict:

Good place, be careful about when you visit and you gotta try out the menu to decide on what to eat and what not.