Lake View Cafe — Restaurant in Mumbai

When it is about celebration, we tend to find best ways to bring a smile of joy for the participants. On a similar recent occasion I was hunting for an elegant place with a peaceful environment to spend some quality when I browsed through Lake view cafe's page. Being a part of Renaissance powai that's well known from over years now, already promised me an exquisite experience. The property is here is pretty huge than I expected. Lake view cafe is at the end of hill top area which is why it has a proper powai lake view. Would highly recommend to visit this place in day time to enjoy best of scenic beauty.

Lake view cafe is hosting the maharashtrian food festival from 13th September to 22nd September and I was lucky to visit this on the 1st day of fest. Although it is a Maharashtrain food festival but they haven't comprised on other cuisines in buffet and have plenty of other options just incase someone wants to attend buffet. With this Maharashtrain food festival, they will be covering the best of Maharashtrain delicacies from different regions like Vidarbha, maratha wada, khandesh, konkan and paschim. On the first day of the fest, they had food items from Vidarbha like

Chaat: they had a wide spread chaat counter with almost all chaat items you can want before a meal.

Snacks : kothimbir vadi which was air fried to crisp and sabudana vada were the only thing I tried from veg and loved them both

Salad: for the the health conscious people following different type of salad, this was wonderland as they have enough satisfy all different needs with their veg and non veg salad options where one can make their own salad too.

Veg: a huge spread Veg counter had all covered for Maharashtrain food lovers. Starting with

Pitla An authentic recipe which is pretty basic yet tastes amazing served with jowar bhakti and nachni bhakri that can be topped with loni, a cube form of ghee. This counter also had a variety of spices and mixtures to make this dish even more scrumptious like green chilli thecha, red chilli thecha, garlic thecha and dry groundnut thecha.

Mangalorian masala bhaat : a desi style fried rice made in local spices but it tastes heavenly to me and I could stop eating this.

Khatala tikhat dal, valachi usal, themsana singhachi bharit, kachya vangyacha bharit (a must try) and kokama cha saar, were few other options I found and tasted there which got me to the taste I experience in vidharba regions

Non veg: I couldn't have expected anything better than the menu I experienced here special for the non veg course

Kombdi bhaat: a non veg Verizon of masala bhaat but with chicken in it or say the Maharashtrain style biryani which was a lovely treat.

Jawala masala: tried this dried fish for the first time but I did like the preparation

Shankarpur kombdicha rassa: A chicken masala kinda dish but made to perfection with chicken cooked well enough to melt smoothly with some succulent flavors that leaves a spicy and flavorful aura behind

Dessert: like every restaurant of this category Lake view cafe served a range of desserts that we find like tarts, cup cakes, cakes but I found some amazing items here like Pistachio fudge, choclate roulade, almond financier, Orange cheesecake, mango choux, ice creams etc

Some of the special desserts from Maharashtrain food fest were Ukdiche modak, coconut laddu, and 3 different variants of srikhand in Kesar, mango and coconut served with hot and crisp puri.

Overall a lovely and pleasant experience. A special mention of the courteous hospitality we...

I recently visited the Lake View Cafe at Renaissance Hotel Powai to try the buffet spread and was absolutely enthralled by the evening I had. The cafe is large and comfortable and in the day, has the stunning view of Powai lake. The interiors are modern and elegant and the cafe has appropriate seating for groups of all sizes. Let me tell you a little bit about the buffet.

•Salads, Cold Cuts and Cheeses This is always my first course and although it may sound like there’s not much effort involved in these dishes, they are highly dependent on freshness. I was quite impressed with the flavours and variety of salad. There were about 7-8 salads with veg, non veg and seafood variants. The cold cuts were fresh and covered meats like pork, chicken and turkey. I also enjoyed thoroughly enjoyed cheese counter.

•Tandoor and Grills This is definitely my next course at a buffet usually as I do enjoy fresh, hot protein. LVC has some pre prepared tandoor items lying in a hot plate to be picked up instantly as well as an extensive on demand grills counter. I really enjoyed this counter that covered items like corn, paneer, 2 kinds of fish, chicken and sausages. Yummers!

•Chaat Counter If you are a street food lover, then you are going to be ecstatic about this counter. It’s got every kind of chutney, puri, seb and papdi you can think of and you can just unleash your creativity on a plate!

•Main Course•

•Indian The Indian selection at renaissance is the largest one in my opinion. It caters to their foreign audience who enjoys trying the local cuisine. So as an Indian at this buffet, you can imagine some of of your favourite dishes to be available. Dals, vegetables, rich gravies, hot breads, rice, pulao, Biryani. They have it all, and they’ve aced it all!

•Continental This was my favourite counter because it has some delicious, light flavourful food. Butter garlic fish, chicken with jus, cheesy scalloped potatoes and lots more! I thoroughly enjoyed the pairings and flavours.

•Asian The Asian counter featured a customizable noodle soup with lots of vegetables and meats to choose from. The flavourful broth, pulled noodles and toppings could be customized to your liking. The counter also had lots of appetizer and main course options. Semi dry appetizers , fish, gravies, rice and noodles all of which were quite impressive in taste.

•Dessert• How many of you skipped the upper part of my review, just to read this part first. Well, well, well. If you love dessert, you shall not be disappointed for the renaissance has a better than normal dessert spread! A special waffle/pancake counter + a frozen ice cream counter + Indian desserts + a massive counter of cakes and pastries. Yes, all of this on one evening. I found the frozen ice cream counter a great one as you could pick an ice cream of your choice as well as your favourite toppings and watch the chef mash them all together in the exact proportions that you would enjoy. How very satisfying! The cake counter had lots of flavours ranging from exotic fruits to rich chocolate, cupcakes and tea cakes so as a customer, you’re really spoilt for choice.

I absolutely loved the spread and service and after overeating galore, we decided to take a walk by the lake which was just a stones throw away. Overall, the evening was an enjoyable and relaxing one and I am...

Visit 1

The traditional desserts were the best I had in a similar range of restaurants. Varieties of Fresh fruits are another good point to note. And the appetizers - equally scrumptious. There was no compromise over the taste. A must-visit again!

Visit 4

Keep counting the desserts ... Take the lake view ...

The restaurant has come up with an extensive rejig since the brand of the property was changed a year back or so. Right from the background colors & walls, to the kitchen setup & seating spaces, i.a. have changed and the buffet size has proliferated, and the tastes of various dishes improved ( when juxtaposed to my prior buffet experience ).

It did take over 15 mins to assign a table despite having a reservation, but that can easily be forgotten considering the overall experience I had as described ahead.

A spread of mezze, dozen of salad types and dressings, and some cold cuts and cheeses would serve as a good beginning like it did in my case. Mezze types were amongst the very best I have had hitherto. Coming to the hot appetizers, not much of a variety ( when juxtaposed with similar-level restaurants ) but 2 of each of the north Indian ones, the Chinese, and the western ones to choose from. The Chinese counter may not be too big but did offer decent choices. The paneer tikka and kebab were the picks.

When it comes to the desserts, the chefs were replacing them with new types about every 30 mins, which meant I got to try over 20 types, the most I have at similar-level restaurants. For cakes, it was kind of name it, and it was very likely to be on the array. Hard to name the best one since all were delicious, but the blueberry and strawberry cheesecake were the ones I liked the most. Another thing worth appreciating was none of them were dulcified and there were a fair number of low sugar and sugarless options. 4 fresh fruit cuts, 3 Indian types, and a waffle and ice cream section if the ones described previously weren't enough.

A special mention to Mr. Dixit, amongst the best restaurant staff I have met, he was there around to ensure that my experience was smooth, and despite the restaurant being crowded, he was managing it pretty well. Enjoyed my conversation with him. Also, I would like to thank Mr. Dixit for allowing me to carry away a few desserts from the buffet which I loved and there was no hesitation upon making this request.

Would definitely go here once again. Anyone visiting here, do take an outside seat to view the lake if available ( although a downside would be the mosquitoes which would come to the interruption, which is not very unexpected considering the proximity to the lake and mangroves ) and breathe the fresh cool air whilst you enjoy your food, there is hardly any similar-level hotel having such scenic views in the city. Taking time for the food to get ready - take a...