BACKYARD UNDERGROUND COMES TO GURGAON ( AN INTRO)

They say, good things come in all shapes and sizes, and in this situation, we can even add “places” to it. What we are talking about, is a place, that, after having measured the heights of success, literally as well as figuratively, is now all set to go down to the depth of it all.

BACKYARD, the casual dining bar which has been an ideal spot to catch up with old friends on laid back evenings, was a winner in Punjabi Bagh. It has now spread its wings, and started delivering the best at a new location- Sector 29, Gurugram. But this new branch, launched on 17th June, also comes with a twist, it’s not just Backyard, it is Backyard - UNDERGROUND!

Like they say, there’s always more than what meets the eye. To get hold of the better fruits from the tree, an extra effort has to be made. Hence, they decided to go down- and are inviting you with them. And as they say on their Facebook page, you’ve just seen the tip of the iceberg, the real deal is UNDERGROUND, 20 feet underground in this case!

As you enter, you can see words and phrases like “Underground”, “Handmade with love”, “What are you smoking” staring/blaring at you, studded with big bright lights and are sure to grab your eyes. As you walk through, there are little details that add up to the underground feel. For instance, a shovel hanging on the door, The words “DIY” surrounded with a variety of hardware tools again adds up to this nostalgia where one is reminded of old summer afternoons, fixing stuff with the big man in the garage, with beads of sweat dripping down the neck. The ambiance is indeed a thumbs up.

STAY TUNED FOR A DETAILED BLOGPOST BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO BE HERE VERY SOON. 

TILL THEN KEEP FOLLOWING US ON OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AND SPREAD THE LOVE FOR FOOD. 

TWIST WITH DESIKLUB,MUMBAI

Desi Klub is small eatery located in Nariman point in SoBo. It is a pure vegetarian restaurant which offers Mumbai street food with a twist and quirky interiors. They have some amazing additions to their menu, so we recently headed to this place to try their latest street food with a twist.

The ambience of the place is very colorful and funky. It has car bumpers sticking out as soon as you enter and a huge picture showcasing the busy Mumbai life. There are pincodes written behind the chairs like on bus stops, Queens Road, fort street, banganga road etc. They have lovely wall graphics showing Mumbai’s life. Also they have cola bottles in some places as decoration. They serve water in Maggie  ketchup bottles, the big bottles that Maggie has.

Walls totally reminded us of streets of Mumbai and the flooring had zebra crossing over it.

Even though we visited the place for dinner on a weekday, it was quite full with people of all age groups present there. After all, who doesn’t like street food. 

As soon as we saw the menu to order drinks, we noticed our favorite drink from childhood, Energee milkshakes. We ordered this tasty bubblegum flavored energee milkshake and along with that we ordered Pineapple ganna juice, which is fresh juice made with sugarcane and pineapple juice. It was very refreshing and tasty. I would say the local ganna juice with a twist of pineapple. We also ordered a pista kesari badam khullad, which was a cold milk based drink and was served in a desi khullad. Tasty!

We had sev-puri which was normal sev-puri which you get everywhere, but definitely was super tasty. We ordered their papad-bhel, which is bhel made with khichiya papad. The bhel was presented very well, in the shape of a mountain, and then you break it and taste the appetizing papad bhel. It is not a must have, but it isn’t bad either. 

We also had their cheese garlic bread, which is garlic bread, which is served on brun-pao and served with a dip. Garlic bread was fair and decent. 

Then we ordered their le le nachos. These are nachos with a twist of nachos being replaced with Lays chips. It comes in a bowl with lays laid over and cheesy sauce served in a cutting-chai cup kept in between. The waiter poured the cheese sauce all over the lays. And that cheese sauce was a total delight. It was so cheese and tasty, it would melt in your mouth, and tasted perfect with those American flavored lays. We were drooling over this!

We also tried their Cheese Corn masala balls, which were small balls filled with corn and cheesy filling. A good one!

They have introduced three new pizzas, or lets say peehzas as they call it, to their menu - Hawaiin Peezha, Indian Focaccia and Paneer Tikka peezha.

We ordered their paneer tikka peezha, which is pizza topped with spiced cottage cheese, onions, cheese and sauce. The pizza was as good as a home-made pizza. Nothing extraordinary about it. But yes, the paneer pieces were extremely soft and tasted good with the sauce. 

Then we tried their cheesy cheez macaroni, which is macaroni tossed in Indian Cheese sauce. The macaroni was cheesy and tasty, and definitely reminded me of the macaroni my mom used to cook for me as a child. With a hint of garlic in the sauce, it is quite palatable. 

They also have two new pulaos in their menu, Subzi mandi and Delhi Belly pulao. We tried their Delhi Belly pulao, which was tava pulao with vegetable patty topped with cheese sauce. Since it was served like a sizzler, the rice had burnt taste in them and we didn’t really like the rice with the cheese sauce, but the patties which was served on top were absolutely delicious. It comes with two patties, we didn’t eat the rice at all, but finished both the patties. It was scrumptious with potatoes and vegetables mashed in it.

They don’t have anything new in desserts, but we ordered from their old menu, Ina Mina Dika and 5-ishtaar Sizzling brownie. We enjoyed both of them.

So if you are craving some really good street food, but don’t actually want to go on the streets, you should be heading to DesiKlub and savor some totally mouthwatering street food with a twist in their lovely Mumbai-street like ambience. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

-PRIANCA BAKSHI

REVIEW ON NOTHING BUT CHICKEN, MUMBAI

As the name suggests, Nothing but chicken is love for chicken lovers. It is located in five places in Mumbai. We visited their Andheri Lokhandwala branch.

Nothing but chicken is a small food joint, where you get marinated raw chicken to cook, as well as cooked dishes.

They have a variety of kebabs, chicken salads and vadapaos. Yes, they have chicken vada pao, a combination of love and bliss.

We started with their salads. We had chicken classic, which is a combination of low fat mayo, and chicken breast topped with black olives, bell pepper and chopped parsley and flavored with zesty black pepper.

Our favorite one was their Bistro salad, which is a European bistro style healthy salad recipe, chicken topped with black olives, corn and capsicum.

Their Mexican salad was good too.

For kebabs we had,

Lasooni seekh kebab, it was a scrumptious garlic flavored seekh.

Chicken cheese torpedoes was oh-so-cheesy with chicken filled with cheese inside (chicken + cheese = euphoria)

Aachari seekh, just like the name says, had an achari flavor in the seekh. It was so tender and delectable.

Galouti seekh was average, and not as soft as galouti kebab should be, it is passable.

We also had railway chicken cutlet which we did not relish as it was again not soft at all. 

They have a variety of dishes with pao and chicken like keema pao, seekh pao, salami pao, desi style burger and so on.

We tried their chicken vada pao. There is an option to choose between brown pao and white pao. We had brown pao. The cutlet, which is the vada, was a bit spicy but was so flavorsome and tasty, we loved it.

Chicken vada-pao is a must have if you are going here.

It is a good place if you are craving chicken and want some flavors and spices. A great place for chicken lovers. You can go here on a random evening and tantalize your taste buds.  

-PRIANCA BAKSHI

A TRIP TO FACTORY BY SUTRA

Where was this place hidden from me from so long ,This micro brewery in sector 29 , Gurgaon is doing wonders, it brings out a totally cool concept , i was literally amazed with the wonderful interiors and the scrumptious food of this place.

With the delectable food the place provides you with coworking space with basic facilities like internet connectivity and a separate charger plug hanging above every table.

The place is huge with rightly done interiors and has classy aura all over.

The staff was well trained and were very polite and efficient and knew about the dishes which is really appreciable.

Volume of music was good enough to have a good conversation .

In drinks there are not many options in mocktails   , we had -

Virgin mojito- very less places do it right , either the mojito is very sweet or very sour but this was nothing less than perfect.

Virgin sangria was equally good .basically it's a drink with various juices mixed with sliced apple.

Factory blast - an amazing mocktail with thr mixture of guava juice , tabasco, black salt ,a perfect drink for summers.

In food we ordered-

Dilli 6 - okay , so we started with this lite dish dilli 6 , bharwa golgappas with stuffing done with delicious bhelpuri , curd , mint and tamarind sauce , very well presented were very luscious.

Hummus and pita - so beautifully presented , this was something to linger on for long . Very yummy.

Vada pao- not a huge vada pao fan but i totally loved it , so good that you'll end up ordering it more.

Chicken tandoori platter - A platter with succulent pieces of chicken which were perfectly marinated were served with spicy onion and mint sauce adding spice to this delish platter.

Paneer tikka- my favourite amongst all , lip smacking paneer , full of indian flavours , a perfect delight!!

Spring Rolls- Gooey, delectable and perfectly balanced flavors. A delightful appetizer.

Coming to the main course, we had a platter which had various kinds of breads like lacha parantha, butter naan and had dal makhani, paneer makhani and green chutney and onions. This was the vegetarian platter which was something else. I mean it was so droolworthy and heavenly and I cant even explain how wonderful it was. I loved the yummy flavors it had and the dal makhani completely bowled us over. It was just so so good. We were unable to stop ourselves from drooling over it. 

Then we had the same platter but with butter chicken and not the vegetarian gravies. This butter chicken was so ambrosial and out of this world. One of the best butter chickens I've ever had and nope I am not exaggerating. Eventually i ended up finishing the entire plate by myself and that too without any regrets. You cannot miss their butter chicken for sure. 

The desserts we ordered were 

Tiramisu, which was just perfect. Being a tiramisu fan and being a big critic when it comes to my favorite dessert, I honestly loved this one. Highly recommended. 

Choco lava cake with ice cream was amazing. Gooey and delectable. 

Apple crumble was picked by my friend but I didn't like it too much. But my friends did. 

All in all factory by sutra is a lovely place where you can have a wonderful afternoon or a romantic evening on their terrace. I loved their quick service and their presentation too was a treat to the eye. 

A place you should definitely not miss. 

-TAVISHI ARORA