Pop Tate's at Saki Naka is pretty close to my office so, sometimes, when we feel the need to unwind after work, we end up there. It's not the kind of place you go to if you want to enjoy authentic food, be it of any cuisine - Italian, continental, Chinese. But the ambiance is pretty decent, the music plays loud, and the 'spirits' flow freely :) Ideal for an after-work 'my-life-sucks' session!
Their cocktails aren't much to talk about. Stick to something basic like a Screwdriveror a Pina Colada... not even the most inexperienced bartender can mess these up. The one slightly complicated cocktail they do a pretty good job with is the Long Island Iced Tea - one is usually enough to get you giggly. There's a pretty good selection of alcohol and beer to choose from. They also have Bacardi Breezers in case you're not looking to get hammered. But, disappointingly, they usually have just the Orange, Lemon, or Cranberry to choose from - Wild Berry, Melon, and the other new ones are so much yummier! And I remember asking for a Cosmopolitan once, even though it's not listed, and the bartender was even willing to oblige, but turned out they didn't have cranberry juice - major letdown! But like I said, if you stick to the basics, it's a fun place to be! For people who don't drink (alcohol I mean), there's a decent selection of soft drinks, mocktails, iced teas, and fruit juice, and even hot beverages like cappuccinos, lattes, and teas. The pricing is pretty decent, with cocktails starting at about Rs. 150.
We can't have drinks without starters, can we? Every time I go there, I just have to have the Jalapeno Poppers - jalapenos stuffed with spiced cheese! Don't let the name fool you into thinking these are really spicy, they are actually very mild and really yummy. Don't miss the Drunk Mushrooms- a few drinks down and this name sounds really appealing :) These turned out to be large button mushrooms marinated in some wine-based sauce, pretty yummy and juicy. The spring rolls - both veg and non-veg - got the thumbs up from our table too. The Chicken Tikka and Chicken Lollys were wolfed down by the meat eaters. The Nachos and Cheeseare great - crisp, warm nachos with oodles of cheese sauce all over! The other starters were pretty OK too, just not worth a special mention.
On to the main course, they have plenty to choose from, but most isn't too authentic. This isn't to say it's bad, all I mean is if you want real Italian food you'd be happier at a place like Little Italy. Despite knowing this, I usually stick to the Vegetable Lasagna or some pasta dish. The lasagne's pretty good, slightly spicy, loaded with minced vegetables, and served with garlic bread. The sizzlers are pretty good here, the Paneer Tikka sizzler deserves mention, as does the Steaksizzler. You can swap the fries with mashed potatoes if you want. Most sizzlers are served with a spiced red rice, but if you prefer, you can even swap this with spaghetti. One thing that left me a bit confused was that they have an Oyster Saucesizzler listed in both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian sections. Isn't oyster sauce, by itself, something that's non-vegetarian? If anyone has answers, please fill me in!
Pop Tate's has lots more to choose from like burgers and sandwiches. I hear the Chicken Burger is really good, as is the Chicken Club sandwich,both are served with fries. I've tried the Vegetable Burger with fries, which is pretty huge. It tastes good and is perfect if you're there for a quick lunch. They also have some Mexican, Thai, and Oriental food, never got around to tasting any of it, but I hear it's OK. The salads are pretty good too, specially the cold Macaroni Salad. The portion size is enough for an entire meal, specially if you get a side order of garlic bread to go with it. Or you can get the salads as a side order with your meal for a nice hot-cold combo. You can ask them to put the dressing on the side if you're watching your calories. And finally, the pizzasare delicious. They use thin-crusts and are pretty generous with the toppings and cheese.
I'm ashamed to admit, but I've tried every desert there. And no, I'm not a piggy, it's just that we once went in a huge group from the office. And so, at the end of the meal, when we were trying to figure out what to order for desert, we realized that we could just order one of everything. The ice creams are the usual, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, nothing spectacular. The apple pieis pretty good and served warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The caramel custard is just about ok, as is the fruit salad, served with or without ice cream. The piece de resistance is (according to me, anyway) the sizzling brownie! It's really yummy, the warm, rich, fresh brownie, topped with ice cream, and hot chocolate sauce. The hot-cold combination makes me weak in the knees. And if you ask nicely, they'll even swap the vanilla scoop for a chocolate scoop on your brownie. Yummy!!!
The service is pretty friendly and fast. They do mix up orders pretty frequently, so if you're not too hammered, remember to ask them what it is that they put down in front of you. They once put a chicken pasta in front of me instead of my Vegetable Lasagna, and I nearly freaked out. Unfortunately the place doesn't have any clearly demarcated smoking and non-smoking zones. I can't stand the smell of smoke, but at Pop Tate's you really have no choice. Be prepared for leaving the eatery with your hair smelling like a pack of cigarettes. The happy hours are from 3 to 7 (pm not am), when you get a drink free for every drink you buy. I'd have to be seriously depressed to start drinking in the afternoon, so I've never been able to take advantage of this. They also have theme nights, one night it's candlelight dinners, one night it's retro music, and so on.
The Pop Tate'sat Saki Naka has valet parking, which is really convenient given that this junction has crazy traffic all the time, and it would be really difficult, if not impossible, to find parking. It's a sprawling restaurant with plenty of tables. But you might have to wait to be seated, specially on Fridays and weekends. It's very reasonably priced, a meal for two (with alcoholic beverages, starters, main course, and desert) would set you back by about Rs. 1,000-1,200. Pop Tate's is also at Andheri West, Powai, Mulund, and Malad, in case you're closer to those suburbs and want to check it out.
P.S. In case you're wondering about the title of my review, I borrowed it from Hugh Grant's song in Music and Lyrics (Pop goes my heart!) :)
