On the tomb of Mia Cucina, right next to WTF!, sits the newest Mexican food restaurant in Mumbai. Amigos, I was told, is a pub. It’s a bar scene alright, but pubs should have more than one decent beer and at the very least something on tap. No pitchers here, no draught beer and maybe one brew that I’d place in the ‘decent’ category. But how many people in Mumbai really care about beer anyway? Even I’m neglecting the decent beer because I want to try Budweiser Magnum. So what we have here is this Tex-Mex setting, with the waiters dressed as Mexicans and struggling to arrange for a bottle of Tabasco sauce to go with my teetotal band members’ cranberry juice. Our vegetarian teetotaler’s paneer nachos have gooey cheese and us meat eaters sticking fingers in it, while our tacos are a disappointment. Like the nachos, the tacos come with a kachumber-imli dip, sour cream, refried beans and rice (you can opt for French fries if that’s your thing), but unlike the nachos, the tacos aren’t very filling. Being used to crisp tortillas, the flatbread doesn’t excite us, so we eat it as a chapati. The steaks aren’t all that great either; my teetotaler omnivorous friend’s rare steak turning out to a lot more enjoyable than my well-done, but perhaps I’m just happier with the world around when there’s enough alcohol in my system, but there’s no way I’ll ever ask for another pint of an unworthy beer. You might want to drink at Amigos if you’re loaded and in Versova, but if you’re off the booze I’d ask you to walk another three minutes and eat at Pizza Casa.
Amigos is at Jewel Mahal Shopping Centre, Near Nana-Nani Park, JP Road, 7 Bungalows, Andheri West
Phone: 022-42669249/022-40222140/022-40222141/022-40222142
ALSO TRY: Malwani Kkalwan (Versova)
Nice review. The best Mexican I ever had was at Don Pedro’s in Porvorim, Goa, on the Mapuca-Panjim road, not very far from the famous O’Coquero restaurant, nearest landmark is a church. The chicken fajitas over there is to die for.
I really need to go to Goa. It’s been two years since I went there, and a brief stay there does me a lot of good.
I have similar feelings about Diu much closer to Ahmedabad than Goa. Have been there like 15 times in last 4 years, not joking (can’t even recall the exact number)! It’s like a miniature version of Goa minus the hippies, drugs and overcrowding. The booze is dirt-cheap because of no sales tax or excise duty, you can drink yourself to oblivion and still have plenty of spare change. Not much variety but all decent Scotches are available at the resort bars plus some like Azzaro have a choice selection of mixed drinks. Moreover the seafood is pretty affordable too. The beaches are clean, you can hire scooters and mopeds to roam around town just like Goa. Oh yes, there is direct flight connectivity from Bombay, have flown that route.
Oh, goody! So I’ll head there for a weekend, then.