Farrokh Khambata owns two of Mumbai’s most popular restaurants, Joss and Amadeus. And now, this loved restaurateur is back with his first ever open-air bistro, the Café at The NCPA. The perfect weather and the tranquil ambience, away from the city’s chaos, made it the perfect place to be on Sunday evening, as Farrokh and his wife Dilshad Khambata, hosted a Sundown Preview evening, along with Khushroo Suntook, the Chairman of the NCPA.
The evening saw distinguished guests from the world of business, art, theatre and movies, soaking up the ambience of this gorgeous al fresco eatery. Everyone seemed visibly delighted to welcome a place like this, in a remarkably popular cultural space like the NCPA. We were surrounded by green on all sides, with the grass-edged flagstones lining the walkway on one side, and potted plants and palm fronds on the other.
The evening began with an engaging performance by the Symphony Orchestra of India. Divya Palat and Aditya Hitkari told me how excited they were about the place, which is ideal for performing artists, such as themselves. With their brand new production, Foreplay, coming to NCPA this Feb, the Cafe will be an ideal place to chill out between rehearsals & practice for their shows (and it helps that Divya thinks the coffee is superb).
I totally cherish my little chat with Madhoo Shah, who told me that her husband loved the MissMalini video of her and her daughter Ameya at the Burberry party. But, the craziest part of the evening was bumping into my gynaecologist, Feroze Soonawala and his dad, the amazing R.P.Soonawala.
I love that they have three open-air counters, and everyone seemed to enjoy the live kitchen that offered the Cafe’s specialities like dimsums, gruyere sandwiches, mini beef burgers (my favorite), cocas (same as the ones at Amadeus), stuffed kulcha slices, grilled chicken, lamb kebabs, prawn momos, sinful chocolate cake and an interesting selection of coffee, tea, smoothies and wine. I particularly loved the warm and gooey Normandy Apple Tart (which I went back for the next day as well).
With the light and scrumptious Cafe menu, and the food at Amadeus getting better with time, staying at the NCPA is starting to threaten any hope I had of losing weight. Maybe, just one last chicken and pickled gherkins burger and then I won’t go for back for a week…I mean month…
Spotted: Simone Tata, Jamshed & Pheroza Godrej, Rati & Nadir Godrej, Shyam Benegal, Mahesh Dattani, Dipti Bhatnagar, Vidya Malvade, Lata Patel, Sunil & Tanuja Padwal, Brinda Miller, Kunika Singh, Gauri Pohoomull, Sonali Dalwani, Farzana Contractor, Sabira Merchant, Sooni Taraporewala, Sabira Merchant, Akshay & Payal Kilachand, Akanksha Agarwal, Aarti & Kailash Surendranath , Marat Bisengalier (of the Symphony Orchestra of India) and Sooni Taraporewala.