Restaurant Review : Cafe Mocambo, Fort

My date with Mocambo was as eagerly anticipated as a wallflowers's first date with the coolest guy in school . I was flushed with excitement and anticipation - I'd heard such so much about him..errr...it! :P

On the long drive to Fort from Shivajio Park, my cousin A (whom I was going with) warned me that it "was not a hip, youngsters kind of a place- it was rather middle aged". There came my first surprise - I'd always assumed it was a swish cafe (at least it had seemed so from the outside, the numerous times I'd walked past it!) where the swinging set would feed and water themselves.

Once we reached, I could immediately see what A had meant - the decor was far from coolly sophisticated, it was more like a cross between the "family restaurant"s of yore (complete with a yellow lighting, heavy wooden chairs AND a mezzanine floor) and a has-been swish cafe. What was endearing was that the clientele was not terrifyingly sophisticated (well, not all of 'em) but also included old Parsi extended families, the mandatory lovey-dovey couple in the corner, a rumbunctious group (growingly rapidly tipsy) at the next table - in short, an eclectic bunch of people.

We had two starters - Spice-N-Nice French Fries and the Paprika Chicken. Both were yummy, but not in a "WOW - Blew me away!!" way. The fries were drenched with a tangy spicy Schezwan sauce and drizzled with a disappointingly sparse amount of molten Mozarella. The menu description had me imagining fries snowed under gooey stretchy strands of melted cheese!

The chicken nice tasty too - not very spicy but toothsome and tasty, with bits of chilli and garlic scattered throughout the chicken morsels.



For mains, A and his friend R sampled the Fusilli Arrabiata (with special request to make it spicy! :) ) while I decided to conquer uncharted territory by ordering the pork ribs. (It helped that the ribs had a rave review on Burrrp.com !) But both mains turned out to be disappointing - the pasta was lacklustre.....


.....while the ribs were, to my novice tastebuds, fairly revolting.Maybe pan-fried ribs are MEANT to be this way but I could not stomach chewy strands of meat cavorting with soft, melting fat. :(


The roast vegetables (potatoes, carrots and peas) were nice, though. AND the pepper sauce that accompanied the ribs in a thoughtfully separate sauceboat was zingy too.

For dessert, we shared a slice of the Chocolate Mousse Cake - yummy and chocolatey. But again, nothing new.


Service was slow and almost distracted. We asked the waiter thrice to come take our order, to no avail. Ditto with asking for the cheque - we could have walked out without paying and no one would have noticed. :D

In short, the 'date' was a let-down - or maybe I'd pitched my expectations too high. Or maybe we ordered the wrong dishes. Or maybe the kitchen was having a bad day. After all, there's no smoke without fire and Mocambo's reputation is immense. So will reserve judgment for another day!

Date Report Card:

• Prices - Mid to High (starters hover between the 150 - 240 Rs mark, mains between 250-350)
• Ambience - Nice, can get a little crowded and loud. Nice to people-watch, though.
• Food - Nice but not exciting

Mocambo Cafe and Beer Bar
23/A, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta Road,
Fort, Mumbai
22870458, 66065264, 9821053066, 9820051364