Bubble Cafe - Vivanta Ernakulam — Restaurant in Kerala

I had the great pleasure of dropping in at "The Bubble Cafe", a restaurant within the Gateway Hotel on Shanmugham Road, Marine Drive, Ernakulam, Kochi, Kerala state, India in September 2017. This is a 5-star hotel, a part of the Taj Group of Hotels and formerly called, Taj Residency. I always wanted to give it a try and finally fulfilled my wish with my best friend, one evening. It's a bit on the expensive side, but does offer an excellent service in a way of its own!

The moment you step in within the property, you get a sense of the lush green flora present and once you are inside, you definitely notice the elegant lobby. You would see some great Kerala Heritage just outside the entrance to the Bubble Cafe. It's actually a wooden boat or called a "vanchi" in the Malayalam language. On top of the boat, you would see some of the fruits of Kerala or produce in full grandeur. It's a definite picture spot, at least to me!

Bubble Cafe is impeccable with a bounty of free light, mainly seeping in from outside, very good seating, attentive staff and cleanliness. The cafe faces the backwaters and the distant Arabian sea, Willingdon Island opposite to it and the hotel located along side the busy Marine Drive walkway, apart from the popular Broadway and nearby market for shopping, across the street on the opposite side of Residency close to the Menaka bus stop.

Occasionally, you could probably even spot a celebrity inside the cafe, at least I did! Once you order the food, it really takes some time, since they make it fresh from scratch. We just had tea and coffee, a plate of banana fry along with some snacks. It was pretty good. The restaurant seemed to be a bit less crowded, owing to the fact that it's not always the automatic choice for patrons partly due to the higher prices charged, compared to other ones nearby and around.

Gateway is an excellent experience with its great staff who are very courteous, attentive, caring, prompt and professional. They are really there for their guests! I hope to stay and try out their rooms once. I highly recommend Gateway to somebody who is in Cochin either for leisure or business and even for families and tourists who are exploring Kochi. You can't find a more better spot, especially for excellent views, business and to be near to the heart...

Beautiful rainy Saturday, an evening out by the marine drive and then you think of ending this beautiful day with a good dinner with your family. So we choose this restaurant/cafe based on the 4.3 review it had. As soon as we entered the restaurant we knew we made a mistake because of the near dead ambience created by the staff and simply tasteless and bland food produced by the chef's. I have been in this industry for more than 4 years and I have never been this disappointed by a well esteemed property. Truly disappointed by the chef's and the staff for ruining a beautiful day. Even the spread across the buffet was sad and unappealing. Now coming on to the dishes, fish and chips. Fish was fried in rancid oil because the outer layer of the fish which was supposed to look golden was dark brown almost black in colour. Club sandwich was cold and didn't taste good. Grilled chicken had no grill marks and the sauce served with the chicken had raw flour taste. Next was two portions of pasta bolognese and we were struggling to finish it because we don't like wasting food. Bland bolognese sauce which had no hint of red wine nor it had any herb flavour, all it had was sour beef taste The only good thing we had were the French fries because it came from a packet and all they had to do was fry them. And such a disappointing meal which was so heavily priced. Please...

Unfortunately we had to experience a terrible service from the restaurant workers especially the one who seemed to be the supervisor.We had been told to be prepared for a table sevice by one of the lads working there.We did wait there for atleast 30 minutes until we knew they only had buffet system available there.It would be fine if some of them could have just let us know about it once we got in. Instead , after 30 minutes ,the supervisor without any reluctance , just told us to use the buffet counter. At that point we had to leave the bubble cafe without even asking for refund .Honestly , it was horrendous.They do have a good atmosphere around though despite the bad attitude of the restaurant workers.I should say all the other securities as well as the people in the reception counter were...