From The Little Black Book - BoomBox Cafe

Review: RESTRO BAR CAFE

Gurgaon sector 29 is a hub of countless hip-hop cool eating joints. Every food joint tries to offer something different to win customer loyalty. The newly opened BoomBox Cafe has also joined the bandwagon and welcomed us for a food review meet. 

Boombox live upto its name with peppy foot tapping numbers and musical aesthetics on display. I loved the music. Atleast they don’t play the irritating Honey Singh numbers. You would be stunned with the superb ambiance, the moment you enter. Glowing BOOMBOX branding at the ceiling, cool retro musical artefacts, a beautiful large bar and variety of seating arrangement will leave you in awe. 

There were tall tables as well as lounge sofa seating. We chose the low table with four chair seating since our friends Mandira and Manoj had their two years old daughter with them. While the height of the table was perfect, I found the chairs a little uncomfortable. That’s the only area of improvement for Boombox. 

            

Guava Mary

 

Kiss of Kiwi

Chilly Paneer

We began our evening with Guava Mary and chilly paneer. Unfortunately the Guava Mary didn’t suit my taste buds. This mocktail is prepared on the likes of Bloody Mary with salt smeared on the glass rim. I don’t have a taste for bloody mary, so asked for another drink after few sips. The replacement – Kiss of Kiwi exceeded my expectations. Soothing, refreshing and filling it was!

Chilly Paneer was a surprise package. Usually I don’t find spice in pizza or rolls as they claim, so I happily ordered chilly paneer thinking it to be the same case. But the spicy punch inside paneer took me by surprise. It was well marinated and spices had seeped inside. Neither soggy nor hard, this dish was a killer!  

Dahi k kabab

Cranberry mocktail

Chef Deepak met us in person to tell about the menu selection. He personally recommended Dahi k kabab for starters. Sharing the secret of Dahi k sholay, he told us the correct proportion of curd that should go in its preparation. My apprehensions of cholesterol with deep fried stuff was resolved when he told Dahi k kabab were shallow fried. With a great presentation and tinge of tanginess, these soft dahi k kabab tasted heavenly. A good variety of chutney accompanied the dishes.

For another rounds drinks I ordered Cranberry mocktail which had subtle sweetness. Thankfully it did not have the taste of strawberry juice which usually is the case. Hubby tried Italian Smooch which was my second favourite after Kiss of Kiwi.

Veg platter

As the evening sky grew darker, the music tracks changed from one pop number to another groovy song. We swayed to the fantastic music as Chef Deepak curated a non-spicy bowl of veg noodles for Mandira’s daughter. The noodles kept her occupied as we ordered two platters. Non veg platter for husband and Mandira, veg platter for Manoj and me. They highly apprised non veg sampler. The veg platter had Dahi Kabab, Tofu Yakitori, Paneer Harrisa Tikka, Cottage cheese Spring Roll ,Tomato Bruschetta and Caesar Salad.

The cheesy spring rolls and Tofu Yakitori are things to die for! Every dish had the perfect balance of spices and salt. The spacious, beautifully decorated place won our hearts as we left with great memories and the promise to come again.

Highly recommend this place for office parties and large group of friends to chill and spend fun time. 

My rating- A good 3.5 on 5

Cafe Hi5

Café Hi5 reopened this year and buzzed the market with a new menu and expanded place. The interiors are quite cool with funky graffiti on walls and ceiling. The cafe has separate space dedicated for private parties, match screenings, DJ and usual diners. Music was excellent. Credit to the DJ who did not stick to the usual Punjabi songs but played kicky foot tapping numbers.

Chicken Lollipop

We started with paneer tikka, chicken lollipop and fish tikka. Paneer was fresh and not greased with oil. The good thing about the whole experience was that management was open to feedback and ready to improvise. The manager sat with us and tasted paneer tikka when I told him about high salt content. Chicken lollipop and fish tikka were well marinated and soft, juicy from inside. The nice smoky flavor was appealing. Papad & Mint chutney accompanied the dishes. The spread had a great presentation.







The manager showed us the whole place. The showstopper was the bar and they claim that to be the only one in India with tap bar! Take a look at the picture!

Tap bar- The only of this kind in India

Italian Smooch

Juicy Jullian

Chef's own innovation -Juicy Jullian came to us when we asked for a non-aerated mocktail. It was a mix of crushed pineapples, orange juice, mint leaves and sweet lime slice. Mind you, there was no added sugar in the drink. It felt extremely good and refreshing. Italian Smooch is another refreshing mocktail to watch out for. Peachy, minty and no sugar, the drink is a perfect summer cooler. I highly recommend the drinks to all mocktail and non-alcohol consumers.

We scanned the whole menu for something interesting and ordered thin crust veg pizza on manager's recommendation. I sipped Nutella Hazelnut Shake in the meanwhile which was filling and good. Loved the perfect crispy thin base of pizza.  Unlike the usual pizza, this was not overloaded with cheese!  Cheese topping on pizza was fresh and it was not high on salt either.

The manager insisted us to try a dish named “Dal chawal beyond imagination”. The dish lives up to its name and gets a standing ovation from us. Now who would have imagined spotting daal chawal in a hip hop café menu? With the first bite of it, our appetite multiplied and our curios minds jumped out again asking about the masala of it. A simple yet delicious arhar daal and steamed rice with crispy fried potato balls and papad was an out of the box experience! So we now know where to find good healthy home cooked food in Hauz Khas.

The concept behind designing such a dish is to provide economical meal for a single person or twin sharing basis, since it is difficult to find home cooked traditional simple food in cafes.

Brownie

With tummy almost full and guilt tugging at health consciousness within ourselves, made us try the ceasar salad which was a mix of assorted veggie leaves, lettuce, olives topped with mayonnaise. It turned out to be a bad choice as we left more than half of it uneaten. It wasn’t good. Anyway, the last thing we tried was brownie. It was no different than a piece of overtly sweet black forest cake. I was a little disappointed since a brownie is light and non creamy that melts in mouth. But the presentation was nice. It was a compensation for the ceasar salad.