“Is it a restaurant or a bar?” we asked a member of the staff halfway through our visit to Juhu’s Myx. “It’s a mix,” he replied somewhat cheekily. On the press release, the three-week-old establishment is described as a tapas bar but the ‘bar’ part is to be taken more seriously than the ‘tapas’ tag. Here the meaning of tapas is ‘small plates’ for the multi-cuisine menu has barely any Spanish dishes.
The third Juhu venture from Redbrik Restaurant, the hospitality company behind the eatery Fable and the bar True Tramm Trunk, Myx is an attempt to carve out a space in the molecular gastronomy niche recently formed in Mumbai’s foodscape by the likes of Chemistry 101 in Lower Parel and MasalaBar in Bandra. Décor wise, it isn’t as drab as Chemistry or as distinctive as MasalaBar. The furniture and tableware are in solid shades of red, brown, black, white and grey; the ceiling is decorated with large, coloured ceramic tiles; and the walls adorned with a giant compass and illustrations of air balloons and binoculars suggesting a culinary journey of sorts.
The ponciness of the preparations is nearly on par with both Chemistry and Masala. Almost every drink and dish comes with a side show, mostly involving liquid nitrogen, but what’s in the glass or on the plate doesn’t always evoke the kind of enthusiasm displayed by the bright-eyed waitstaff tasked with assembling the stuff. The Sweet Smoked Cosmo (Rs450) is a Cosmopolitan into which coconut ‘fudge’ is dissolved tableside. The distinct flavour of coconut was the saving grace of the rather syrupy version of the classic. The Magic Mojito (Rs450) was a better twist. It’s made without sugar, the sweetness coming from the candyfloss submerged within. Because they leave out the crushed ice, the muddled mix is almost like a rum martini, with a greener hue than most mojitos. Like the Cosmo, it was served in a stemless martini glass placed in a bowl of dry ice, which smoked for a minute or so.
The most theatrical of all the cocktails we tried was The Myx (Rs450), which is Sex on the Beach in the form of a sorbet. Vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry and orange syrups are whisked with liquid nitrogen at your table to create the frozen cocktail. It was deceptively potent but melted into a watery state so fast that we could drink only half. Ironically, the cocktails with the least frills were the most flavourful. The well-balanced cucumber and green apple martini (Rs375) was smooth and refreshing while the Orange Thirst (Rs450), a medley of white rum, fresh orange and egg white, was impressively frothy and fruity without being overly sweet and enjoyable despite being a tad mild.
That food is given an equal emphasis is evident in the layout, relatively bright lighting and timings (Myx is open for lunch). Though they offer larger dishes such as pasta and risotto, we limited our order to the small plates. The artfully constructed portobello carpaccio, (Rs450), with ‘caprese’ and ‘parmesan caviar’, was more style than substance. The mushroom, presented whole and not as thin slices, were covered in a cloying vinaigrette, and the parmesan reduced, with the aid of molecular techniques, into sharp-tasting soft blobs. The caviar-shaped element on the plate was not cheese but beads of balsamic vinegar, which were actually the only bit of the dish we liked and we suppose made up the ‘caprese’ part. The corn curd-like square-shaped broccoli cakes (Rs375), on the other hand, were proof that if you deep fry anything, even one of the world’s most-hated vegetables, it will taste good.
We had nothing to cheer or complain about the chicken yakitori (Rs400), which was a surprisingly straightforward rendition of the traditional recipe. But we sang praises of the bird’s eye chilli salmon (Rs500) in which pieces of perfectly cooked fish were sat on beds of moist potato mash, all of it bathed in a delectable buttery sauce that cushioned and delayed a hit of spice. We wished the kitchen had shown the same finesse with the mousse-textured Toblerone chocolate oak (Rs300), which could have done with the addition of a crunchy savoury component to relieve its heaviness.
A lack of balance was also the issue with the Irish malai kulfi (Rs350), which was hand-made at our table by pouring a mix of Baileys, Jameson whisky and condensed milk into kulfi moulds. These were frozen by being dipped into liquid nitrogen. The result was a more-boozy-than-creamy dessert that was originally on the cocktail menu. Like The Myx, it quickly dissolved before we could finish it. This was just as well because by that point, the tips of our tongues had been frozen numb by all the chemically-crafted cold creations we had consumed.
Prices exclude taxes. This review was conducted anonymously.
Myx Ground Floor, Navratan Apartments, A. B. Nair Road, next to Juhu Post Office, Juhu. Tel: 022 6022 6700. Open daily, noon to 4pm and from 7pm to 1.30am. Get directions here.
It is our policy to wait at least a week after an establishment has opened before we review it.