The all-day multi-cuisine restaurant that replaced Cheval this month gets its name from the number of the plot on which it’s located in Kala Ghoda. The figure, 145, is also close to the number of times we took a dig at the restaurant’s puzzling decor, in particular at its tacky ceiling installations. Inspired by Mumbai street stall finds and Kala Ghoda’s position as the city’s art district, the works look a bit like multi-coloured fungi: steel kitchen utensils, the favourite objects of artist Subodh Gupta, have been alternated with out-of-place items such as watering cans, bird cages, rubber ducks, smiley face stress balls, kiddie umbrellas, plastic flowers and pails. It felt like half of Crawford Market, which the manager told us is where these items were sourced from, was dangling over our heads.
Ishaan Bahl, a 22-year-old restaurateur whose family owns Khyber, located on the ground floor of the same building as 145, has taken over the management of the new property. The Bahls also owned Cheval and run the nightclub Liv next door in collaboration with promoters Sunny Sara, Ritik Bhasin and Shashi Thadani. Bahl’s young tastes are reflected in 145’s menu and upcoming additions to the restaurant such as a hookah room dedicated to smoking cocktails. The menu is focused on pub-style modern Indian fare and lists a selection of regional and global favourites. You’ll also find a smattering of dishes culled from the menus at what are presumably Bahl’s favourite hangouts, The Bombay Canteen, Monkey Bar and the Social chain of bars. Thankfully the kitchen, steered by Khyber’s executive chef Amol Patil, is far more convincing with the food than The Busride has been with the restaurant’s interiors. With its geometric patterned floor tiles and mirror paneled bar, 145 is in parts like a jazzier version of The Bombay Canteen until you glance back at the eyesore of a ceiling.
Indian is what they know and handle best at 145 as proved by the pao bhaji cones (Rs195), raan bao (Rs220) and butter chicken biryani (Rs375). Pao bhaji is everyone’s favourite dish to reinvent lately – pao bhaji fondue for instance is a popular iteration served at Rustico, Firki and Spice Klub – and 145 creatively presents it as finger food. Their spin on the street snack had inverted mini croissant-shaped bread cones filled with a creamy butter-enriched bhaji. The raan baos were brimming with pliant mutton cubes in a spice-rich gravy weighing down pillowy bread. The aromatic butter chicken biryani had the perfect ratio of saffron-stained rice to creamy gravy and was laden with some of the most moist and juicy chicken we’ve come across in a biryani.
The soya-sauce spiked paneer chilli (Rs195), in which the cottage cheese was tossed with capsicum, spring onion and green chilli, was a tasty reminder of late-night cart-peddled Indian Chinese. The beef bulgogi (Rs295), however, was closer to gymkhana-style chilli chicken. We scraped the sauce-soaked walls of the mushroom bunny chow (Rs325), a nostalgia-stoking preparation of mushrooms afloat in a homestyle cream and herb white sauce poured into hollowed bread. The red velvet cupcake ice cream burger (Rs195) was presented as vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two halves of a red velvet cupcake that was woefully dry and flavourless. Sugar was all we tasted in the chocolate brownie with salted caramel filling (Rs195), which was overbaked to crunchy cookie consistency. Instead of suffering these awful sweet offerings, get dessert round the corner at either Kala Ghoda Cafe, La Folie or The Pantry.
Get: Pao bhaji cones (Rs195), raan bao (Rs220), butter chicken biryani (Rs375), mushroom bunny chow (Rs325).
Skip: Beef bulgogi (Rs295), red velvet cupcake ice cream burger (Rs195), chocolate brownie with salted caramel filling (Rs195).
It is our policy to wait at least a week after an establishment has opened before we review it.
Prices exclude taxes. This review was conducted anonymously.
Open daily, from 12.30pm to 3.30pm and from 7.30pm to 1.30am. 145, Mahatma Gandhi Road, near Rhythm House, above Khyber, Kala Ghoda. Tel: 022 4039 6632. Get directions here.