Over the weekend, we often love exploring new restaurants in Mumbai. This fine-dining Italian restaurant particularly caught our attention when we were recently searching for the culinary “Eureka!” of the weekend. We had dinner twice in this place, and now, it is one of our Mumbai’s favourite restaurants. As you step into the restaurant, located at one corner of the food court in In Orbit Mall in Malad (W) in Mumbai, the simple and chic décor captivates you for sure. For a moment, you will feel like you are sitting in a home kitchen in Italy. Small jars and decorative Italian plates hanging on the walls adore this cozy little place. The atmosphere is casual and relaxed: a perfect place to shed all your stress that you might have built up over the busy week, and enjoy life (and of course, the delectable food and drinks) the Italian way!

Inviting and neat, with no loud music, this is the place where you can just unwind and enjoy your Italian food experience in Mumbai. What we loved about the restaurant is that a number of dishes come with different kinds of innovative sauces, and you will love the variety of sauces served here. The portions are big and the ingredients are authentic. Food styling is taken up creatively for each dish and the chefs are very competent, as is evident from the taste of every morsel we ate there: the taste lingers!

Going through the menu, you will be spoilt for choices. As we settled down to a nice and cozy corner in the Spaghetti Kitchen, we went through the elaborate menu, which is really impressive, as the name of each Italian dish is translated and explained with a special mention of the main ingredients used in them. As soon as we ordered our food, a complimentary bread basket arrived at our table, with an array of freshly baked breads such as focaccia, herbed garlic roll and homemade bread sticks. The kids loved the bread sticks and we loved the herbed garlic roll. As the zuppe or the soup arrived, the place was filled with the delicate aroma of Cappuccino aifunghi (cappuccino-of-four-mushroom soup), which the chef made with fresh wild-forest and button mushrooms. This was served with a delicious mushroom crouton. The soup is worth a try because it is not overpowering and yet we loved the rich and creamy taste. At Rs. 240, this was justifiable.

Try the Ciabatta bruschetta here, which come with choicest exotic toppings such as Greek feta cheese, fresh Italian mushrooms, Sumac, truffle oil, etc. As we are non-vegetarians, we opted for the Olivette dipollo(citrus-marinated grilled chicken served with olives and served in white wine and butter sauce) as the Starter, which was quite satisfactory. Even for vegetarians there are a plenty of options to choose from, such as Baked portabello mushrooms and Parmesan cream cheese baby potatoes.

The range of pizzas is absolutely incredible. You have the option of choosing three different pizza crusts: the cracker crust, thin crust or the whole-wheat multi-grain crust. There is a range of delectable toppings on the offer. There is even a low-calorie salad pizza and an all-vegetable pizza for the health-conscious!

Flipping through the various dishes in the pasta section of the menu, we were almost confused. We were actually not able to decide whether to go for the Gnocchi alla gorzongola (potato gnocchi in gorzongola and cream cheese sauce), Penne affogate (penne with vodka) or the Ravioli in Magro(spinach and ricotta ravioli), as all sounded mouth-watering! Finally, we settled for yet another pasta dish, Fusili con Pollo e Funghi (fusilli with chicken and mushrooms), which was good, though the price (Rs. 500) could have been a little lower.

As any hardcore non-vegetarian would do, now it was the time to order for the meats. We ordered for the Cottolette di maiale (US grilled pork chops served with a choice of two kinds of sauces; Rs. 620) and Scaloppini alla Valdostana (Escallops of veal from Valdosta, served with white-wine cream sauce; Rs. 650) and both were outstanding. Both the dishes were cooked to perfection and the meats were succulent. We enjoyed every bite of these dishes, along with the wonderful sauces, which made these meats taste divine! The veal dish was topped with mushroom duxelle, Belgian ham and melted Fontina cheese. For food styling, the chef used mashed potatoes, artichokes and asparagus. All-in-all, these two meat dishes were just fabulous and I would go there again and again to try these: strongly recommended to our readers!

The Tiramisu (Rs. 250) was no less either. By the time we ordered for the dessert, we were so full and satisfied with the huge servings, that we ordered just one Tiramisu for the four of us! And our guess was right: when the Tiramisu was served, one cup was actually enough for all of us. It was plenty and definitely, heaven in the mouth.

Being non-alcoholics, the humble peach tea served our purpose. But for wine lovers, there is an impressive wine cellar, offering choicest wines at your service. The dining experience is definitely worth every penny spent!