I’ve had a great last month- my best friend who has moved to New Zealand was down here to visit her dad and us. We had a lovely time together and had some fun food adventures at home and at restaurants too! Today, we had gone to Crawford Market for shopping, and decided to have a light Continental style/ cafe style meal as we’d had a heavy dinner the night before for her birthday celebrations.
Her father told us he’d heard good reviews about the ‘place’ at Kitab Khana at Fountain. We did not know its name, we did not know where exactly Kitab Khana was, and yet it seemed worth the effort to find this place. After a short search, because of wrong directions on Google maps, we found this place at Kitab Khana – a small elegant cafe called Food For Thought.
Food for Thought
The best directions I can give for this is enter Kitab Khana and keep walking straight till you see this:
Food For Thought Entrance
Turn left and you’ll find the seating area of this little cafe.
Ambience at Food For Thought
The ambience at Food For Thought follows the theme of the ambience at Kitab Khana. It is old-world European style with simple, dark wood furniture, wood flooring and muted yellow lights. The walls add a modern touch with an interesting green colour and framed canvas prints of movie posters.
Staircase at Food For Thought
At one corner of the cafe is a beautiful spiral staircase that adds such charm to the decor.
Vegetarians, rejoice! Food For Thought is a vegetarian cafe. It doesn’t have an extensive menu- neither for beverages, nor for food, but whatever they serve is quite well done. In beverages they serve the regular coffees such as cappucino, latte, espresso, tea, hot chocolate and some cold beverages. The food menu is also a very standard cafe-style short menu. The regular menu consists of pastas, salads, Lebanese and Mexican snacks and dishes, Mumbai snacks, Sindhi preparations and desserts. They also serve a Soup of the Day and some dishes of the day that are put on the board near the staircase.
Now let’s see what our lunch here was:
Tuscan Salad at Food For Thought
1. Tuscan Salad
We began our meal with the Tuscan salad. It had a bed of greens with cherry tomatoes, olives, roasted aubergines, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes with a roasted tomato and mayonnaise dressing. The greens and tomatoes were fresh and crunchy. The aubergines went surprisingly well with the rest of the salad. The amount of dressing was just right and the sun-dried tomatoes and the feta cheese added interesting flavour to mix. Overall, the salad was tasty, fresh, light and quite yummy… what more do we need from a salad?
Pesto Cheese Melts at Food For Thought
2. Pesto Cheese Melts
Pesto Cheese Melts… the name itself was so tempting, we had to try this sandwich! It was a good sandwich with pesto sauce, tomatoes, and mozzarella grilled till the cheese melted. The balance of pesto to tomato to cheese was perfect in this sandwich. However, we found the bread to be a little dry and maybe just a dash of butter while grilling could have prevented this. For pesto lovers this is worth a try though.
Lebanese Platter at Food For Thought
3. Lebanese Platter
I would definitely recommend this! Pita bread with a dried herb mix sprinkled on it that can be eaten by itself. Hummus dip with a cumin twist. Piquant, slightly tangy harrissa paste that can be eaten as it is with the bread or mixed into the hummus to add a zing to the dip. And a warm salad of tomatoes, feta and roasted aubergines that just binds the flavours of the rest together. The hummus, salad and the bread are so light that it can easily be eaten by one. Of course, since we were sharing family- style it took us less than 5 minutes to finish this dish.
Mexican Platter at Food For Thought
4. Mexican Platter
The Mexican Platter had fried rice with Mexican spices, refried beans, a shredded lettuce salad, gaucamole and was topped with sour cream. The dish was quite filling and had some good flavours in the rice and the beans. But I felt it missed the zing I always associate with Mexican food and that was a bit of a let down for me.
Dessert Selection at Food for Thought
5. Dessert Selection at Food For Thought
Being a cafe, Food For Thought has a great range of desserts. It serves various kinds of pastries, cupcakes, cakes and cheesecakes. My friend’s father ordered a Blueberry cheesecake for the table. I have never been much of a cheesecake fan – I’d always prefer not to have it- but this one has converted me quite a bit! A rich, creamy yet light fresh cheesecake topped with blueberry preserve- I guess it was cheesecake how it is meant to be!
The things that will stand out for me are the roasted aubergines that went well with the light and fresh salad, ALL of the Lebanese platter and my first taste cheesecake that I found I could like!
How much will it cost me: Rs 600 for 2
Verdict: For readers this place in a bookstore is just perfect! A good book, a good coffee, some great snacks and a lazy afternoon. I would also go back there for the quality of their food, the relaxed ambience and their vegetarian selection of food.
Rating: ***1/2
Address: Kitab Khana, Somaiya Bhavan, 45/47 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai-400001
Tagged: Cafe, Continental, Desserts, Food For Thought, Kitab Khana, Lebanese, Mexican
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