PA PA YA,MUMBAI

We were very excited to finally tick this Asian restaurant cum sushi bar Pa Pa Ya off our wish-list. It is a glamorous restaurant and its interiors have a very chic vibe with its dimly lit and edgy interiors. There are a couple of black bars one for some really great sushi and one for cocktails, with molecular mixology flourishes.

It is located on the third floor of Palledium mall in Lower Parel. And though we visited on a weekday, we found the restaurant completely packed. Whenever you are planning to visit, don’t forget to make a reservation.

Their massive menu is a delight and serves dishes from almost all across Asia - Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian dishes and so on.

For drinks the bartender suggested lighthouse and spicy delight to us. Lighthouse is a vodka based cocktail which was served in a cute bulb shaped glass. It is a lemongrass-flavored vodka with right amounts of ginger, pineapple and orange juice, topped with lemongrass-flavored smoke. Spicy delight was indeed delightful. It is a mocktail made of guava juice with a spicy ting. Refreshing! Absolutely loved this one. Both the drinks are extremely tasteful and should be tried at least once. 

To begin with, we were served an amuse-bouche of watermelon in lemongrass and chilli foam, on oyster shells topped with liquid nitrogen fumes. It was delicious!

We started our meal with Sushi. Six kinds of sushis were served to us. Each one of which was unique. Sushi at Pa pa ya is much talked about and it did look irresistible by the way it was presented to us in a ravishing sushi tree. And was it as good as it looked? It was only better! Especially the Tuna and Salmon were a total thumbs up! The flavors were well balanced and the sushi was just perfection. Served with wasabi and soy sauce, it is the finest sushi you will get around here.

Vegetarian lovers, you won’t be disappointed with their tofu sushi. It was very flavorsome and we absolutely loved every bite of it.

We then had their grilled chicken tacos. It is a combination of Japanese and Mexican fusion dish made with Japanese style chicken with Sichuan sauces and served in Mexican style tacos made out of gyoza sheets. The filling in these tacos was absolutely delectable and simply perfect!

Their Hamachi carpaccio, yellow tail slivers were well soused in soy and served with ponzu jelly to enhance its presentation. Totally loved the flavors and the meat was soft and delicious.

We wanted to try their variety of dimsums.

First we ordered Double cooked Savoury White Raddish Dumplings. Was a bit dicey about this at first because I’m not much of a raddish fan, but since it was recommended, we went for it and don’t regret it at all. It was very appetizing and was served with a special sauce that went really well with it. They have different sauces for each dish so that it doesn’t give a generic flavor to any dish.

We also had their Har Gao Green Curry Prawn Farce. These were dumplings stuffed with prawns served with green curry, had a great flavor. The dumplings were steamed to perfection and the thai sauce served with it gave them an extra spice and made them just perfect!

Corn Fed Leg Chicken Sui Mai just took our heart away. It is made with chicken leg piece of chicken, which is only fed corn. It was not very spicy but quite flavorsome. Absolutely scrumptious!

Butayakitori which is pork belly skewers glazed, served in an interesting pig shaped vessel was beautifully presented and was delicious too.

Then arrived the second, mid-meal palate cleanser! Absolutely loved it, a nice fresh citrus flavor with the strong and sharp wasabi. It was so refreshing and actually cleanses you palate! Much needed before the main course!

For main course we had Lamb Rendang Curry. It is slow-cooked for almost 15 hours, and it is hands-down the best rending curry I’ve every had. The meat literally fell off the bones and its thick creamy gravy – one with coconut, cashew nut and brown onions, was a sheer delight and would melt in your mouth. Served with some Roti Prata, similar to lachha parantha, is an Indonesian bread and you just cannot have enough of this combo! We experienced heaven! It is definitely not something that you can miss.

Besides this we also tried, Khao pad kar pao and Veg pad thai ! Both the dishes were scrumptious and the flavors could be tasted with each bite you take!

For dessert we had Chocolate Ball on Fire. It is a grand hollow ball of chocolate which is set on fire with flamed liquor on it. Consequently, the chocolate ball melts and a delicious dessert is unveiled. It consists a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, mixture of brownie, cake, dried fruits, fudge, cheesecake, nuts and chocolate sauce oozing out. Since the liquor taste is a little dominating in some places, they also give extra nuts, chocolate sauce and brownie to balance out the taste! Desserts like these are the reason most diets fail! Must try! From the presentation to the taste, loved every bit!

The cost for a meal at Pa pa ya is not very pocket-friendly, but definitely worth every penny! Pay a visit here and you won’t regret a bit spending here! In fact, you might just fall in love. Like we did!

Are we going to visit again? Hell yeah! And you should too!

-PRIANCA BAKSHI