There are places that make you comfortable in their snugy ambiance, there are places that touches your heart with the generous hospitality and there are places that makes your tummy happy with the delectable food but there are very rare places that offers all of it and wins your heart! And Pa Pa Ya is one of them.
Location: Hotel Diplomat, Whitehouse Building, 24 – 26, B.K Boman Behram Marg, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai
Landmark: In the same lane as that of Social or opp. Starbucks
Timing: 12 Noon to 1 AM
Cuisine: Pan – Asian
Price Range: 2,000 for two people (approx.)
Its bit heavier on pocket but it’s worth every penny!
Reasons to Visit:
- It opens doors to heaven of Pan – Asian Cuisine along with Molecular Gastronomy.
- They serve the BEST SUSHIs in ENTIRE MUMBAI
Recommendations:
(All of the below mentioned dishes are highly recommended)
- Fuku Sour (Cocktail)
- Hauled Chicken Baozi
- Chorizo Takoyaki
- Pla Samrot
- Lamb Rendang Curry
- Liquid Hazelnut Fondant Matcha Cake
With the innovative presentation and fusion Pan – Asian food they have taken the culinary art to next level. Right from the palate cleansers to signature cocktails inspired from the Japanese lifestyle to starters to entrées to desserts, everything here is extraordinary in their own way!
This place is more of a culinary experience which will blow your mind if you are ready to experience something new. It is the most unique of all the places I have been to because here along with your taste buds the other sensory organs are going to experience the food as well.
Pa Pa Ya – The Modern Asian Bistro & Tapas Bar, coming from the Karla’s family under the Massive Restaurant Pvt. Ltd., the fine quality of the food and mesmerizing molecular gastronomy experience is bound to leave everyone awestruck. The restaurant is beautifully adorned with 3D polygons hanging from ceilings which I guess resembles Dodecahedrons. These structures provide dim light in an innovative way. The place is dimly lit with huge enough space along with a large upstairs seating area. There’s a small bar counter too with drool worthy liqueur collection. They have a trendy music collection which plays in background on a perfect volume. The servers are trained very well and each of them is aware of every dish briefly and they would explain it in a simpler way. If you are visiting this place for the first time then the names and description of most of the dishes are going to confuse you as they are very unfamiliar to an Indian palate. No worries! Ask any of the servers and they will happily help you out.
Our meal began with a palate cleanser named Amuse – Bouche consisting of basil compressed watermelon cube topped with lemongrass and chilly foam. It was served in an open oyster shell on a stone cutlery brimming with liquid nitrogen fumes whose surface was made of shells.
We called for two cocktails – Fuku Sour which was a beautiful blend of Vodka, in house melon liqueur and sour mix and was served an edible raw mango candy. It had a perfect balance of the sourness of a raw mango and the strong Vodka taste. Wondering why the candy is served? It’s because you have to lick the candy which is oh so khatta-meetha (sweet & sour) in taste which enhances the flavours of this drink. It was one of the unique vodka based cocktails I have had ever! The second cocktail was Kosui Tail which is a mixture of white rum and in house lemongrass syrup having a mild fizz and flavour of star anise. We also ordered two Mocktails – Exotica and Life on the beach. The first was supposed to be, as described, a mixture of cranberry, orange juice, passion fruit puree with mint leaves. But I could only taste orange and passion fruit flavours together will hints of minty flavour from the mint leaves, the cranberry flavour was less to the point of being completely absent. This drink wasn’t up to the mark! The other drink was a mixture pineapple chunks, coconut, and apple and lime juice with hints of cinnamon. This drink had a very strong and overpowering coconut flavour. The Mocktails were bit disappointing while the Cocktails managed to compensate and won our hearts.
The dishes that were served to us tickled our taste buds in all the ways they could and gave us a heavenly experience.
Chicken Baozi:
It consisted of roasted Korean style hauled chicken steamed in fermented sweetened buns and garnished with pan seared fermented lotus flowers. The buns were very fluffy and soft with perfectly cooked chicken filling and tasted even better with Sriracha sauce. I highly recommend this dish!
Asian Marfarita Pizzette:
It’s a Pizza but with a base of crispy corn tortillas topped with thin slices of some fish whose name I failed to remember, Edamame pods, fresh truffles, jalapenos, cilantro, drizzling of wasabi mayonnaise and lots and lots of grated Parmesan. It’s a really good effort to make something like this and yet make it consumable for a Seafood lover’s palate.
Nigiri Sushi Tree:
It consisted of different types of Sushis like Tuna, Salmon, Hamachi and Carbon Sushi served on a tree like cutlery. My favourite of all of it was the Carbon Sushi. It was made of Asparagus and Crab meat rolled in rice dyed black with squid ink seasoned with crunchy bubu arare. It was served with wasabi and soy sauce. Dipping the Sushi in soy worked well.
PS: Pa Pa Ya serve the best Sushi in town and if you want to experience the best of all go for this Sushi Tree or for more varieties the Sushi Matrix.
Chorizo Takoyaki:
A takoyaki is a Japanese snack which is cooked in a moulded pan (like the one used to cook ‘appams’) these are soft gooey dumplings which are hot from the inside. It was cooked to perfection with stuffing of chorizo, grilled octopus, Japanese mayonnaise, teriyaki sauce and parmesan Tuile. They have managed to retain the authenticity, with addition of chorizo, which is clearly seen in the texture and the taste of the dish. I highly recommend this dish!
Pla Samrot:
It consisted of tiger prawns tossed in a mildly spicy sauce served with air dried pineapple and a potato and peas sauce. The prawns were perfectly cooked and the flavours of the both sauces together overall enhanced the taste. The fishiness of the prawns signified the freshness of the prawns which I loved the most!
Then came the mains – Lamb Rendang Curry with Singaporean Prata and Singaporean Chilly Crab with Mantou Buns. The lamb was very tender and the falling of the meat off the bone left us with dropping jaws! The chilly crab had soft shell crabs which were served with mildly spicy bit tangy thick sauce. The Pratas were extremely delicate rotis while the Mantou buns were fluffy and sweet rolls topped with sesame seeds. These were to be relished with the lamb curry and crab dish respectively.
After having an amazing experience with starters and mains it was time for desserts. There are limited but fancy yet satisfying the after-meal sweet tooth desserts. We opted for Matcha Cake and Vanilla Pannacotta.
The warm Matcha cake was filled with gooey and rich dark chocolate and was served with blueberry quenelle. This was a pure indulgent with the molten dark chocolate being the highlight of this dish.
The Vanilla Pannacotta was served in a fancier way with Lemon Genoise Cake served with sugar coated nuts. It was one of the finest Pannacotta I have had ever having a very light and less sweetened texture which was balanced by the more sweetened and lemony spongy cake. The freshly made vanilla ice cream using liquid nitrogen was like cherry on cake!
These desserts not only were appealing to our eyes but also to our taste buds.
To sum up our experience at Pa Pa Ya in one word I would say it was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 🙂
Didn’t get what I mean? Go and experience it yourself! You will automatically define it through your own experience. And don’t forget to let me know about it. 🙂
The Saucy Xplorer 