The Bandstand Pantry — Restaurant in Mumbai

As one gets older, one either becomes rigid or one learns to be principled, being flexible about situations but steadfast about one's priorities and guiding principles. One principle that I have absorbed over time is that in the hospitality industry, the quality of food is probably only 30% of the game. If it were the full picture, people would almost always flock to the lowest priced eatery and prefer food trucks over diners.

Yet, we have restaurants and cafés, and there is a reason why it's called the hospitality industry.

To that end, the only word i have for this place : inhospitable. From abhorrently rude staff that believes it is its job to belittle you, to claiming they don't accept Amex cards as if it is a badge of honour to not accept Amex at a restaurant that comes out to about 800-1,000 bucks per person per meal, the entire place reeks of unsubstantiated pride.

Food's decent, the view is of course excellent for cool and not so humid evenings (outside seating). The indoor seating is cramped, the place is about the size of a broom closet, with only one dining table and rest of the broom closet covered by a wall-mounted slab-table and high chairs.

Oh, by the way, they forgot to return my (visa) card after the transaction and couldn't be bothered to at least call me and inform me of the same (my number's on the back of my card) in over 5 days, or be bothered to pick-up their phone for that matter.

Service: 0/5 Food: 4.5/5 Cutlery: 5/5 View and ambience: 3/5 (lack of useful indoor seating) Washroom: NA (didn't use) Remote work friendliness: 0/5 (cramped space with staff running about will cause excessive disturbance) Nutrition wise healthy options: 4/5 Pricing: 1/5, portions and service not commensurate with the price.

I wish I had rather visited the Barista which is to its left. I have an obsession with non-chain restaurants but at least with chain restaurants you know...

It's a small quaint beachfront cafe on band stand, adjoint with Barista cafe. Seating is outdoor (there is 1 table inside though). They serve typical British/European fare like salads, sandwiches, bagels, eggs to order, shakes and smoothies etc. The menu is large so there's a lot to choose from.

The food is super delicious. They use premium ingredients such as Atlantic salmon, Haas avocado, heirloom cherry tomatoes, all of which is fresh and of good quality. We had scrambled eggs on toast, avocado toastie and Mediterranean Salad with a topping of boiled egg covered in pesto. Everything was amazing and we loved it.

On the down side, seating capacity is limited as it's a very small cafe. Also, the prices are quite steep. For the three things we ordered, the bill came to 1800 or so. So unless you don't mind spending 700-1000 for a couple of items without much thought, think before coming here.

A note to the management - please do not charge your customers 10% service charge for off the shelf stuff like cake loaf, pastries etc. if they're being bought off the counter and not being served at the tables in your restaurant. It doesn't make sense and dilutes the experience. I bought a banana cake loaf off the counter (after having paid for the meal at the table) and had to pay service charge for your staff to literally take out of the shelf and hand it to me. That marred an otherwise amazing time...

The Bandstand Pantry turned out to be a surprise. Initially appearing to be a regular coffee shop, the menu choices were anything but. There’s a whole range of egg preparations (that take up three pages in the menu), Some unique sandwich ideas (which you can choose to have in gluten free bread or croissant, instead of the in-house sourdough/bagel), and overall a wide variety of flavours. We had the Mac & Cheese skillet - slow roasted chicken and Jack (and I can honestly say that it was one of the best Mac and cheeses I’ve eaten), the Avocado and Hummus sandwich which was richly flavourful (also having an added zing of homemade chilli-tomato chutney), and the Mushroom Pâté flatbread with its smoky aroma of truffle oil. Added to all of this was impeccable service by Imtiaz who went out of his way to help us, answering a whole lot of questions, modifying the Cafe Mocha for my diabetic sister, and bringing us extra sides (albeit after apologetically explaining that “it’ll be charged Madam” :-) )The cold coffees could have definitely been better but the vegan Dutch truffle cake and vanilla ice cream was quite lovely. This is definitely a place I’m coming back to and recommending to family...