Last Friday, I was one of the fortunate ones to get an invite through FBAI, for a classic gourmet dining experience at one of the iconic restaurant in Mumbai, Gaylord. Gaylord is probably one of the oldest restaurant here. It probably is also the very first to serve Indian, European and Continental dishes. Founded in 1956, Gaylord is thriving immensely with its delicious food, excellent hospitality and generations of customers.
This was my first time at Gaylord. As always I reached late but I was welcomed by a whopping 15 bloggers table. I knew it then this is going to be a fun evening. As the starters were served, Mr. Noel D’souza, the General Manager of Gaylord since the past 26 years, yes! 26 years, told us about the place and its earlier days. I soon realized, he isn’t the only one who is working here since ever! Most of the staff have been working there for years. Gaylord is more like a big family, serving great food.
So we will start with the food now but first here is the menu for the night –
As you can see from the long nice menu, we had loads of food awaiting us.
Chicken Kebabs came first. This small little cutlets of tender meat were packed with flavors and reminded me of a gourmet Ramzan meal.
Bharwan Aloo was one of my favorite dishes of the night. Perfectly cooked potatoes filled with yummy mashed paneer and herb filling. Definitely a must order.
Kesari Paneer was the more of a grilled paneer with a subtle flavor. Least of my favorite starters that night.
Fish was also served but as you know, I am not a fish fan.
Waldorf Salad is tossed with apples, walnuts and celery. Though the celery was missing and mayonnaise a bit too much. It was okay.
Next soups were in order. Now I am not a soup person. I feel soup is only needed when you are ill or else on a diet. Soup is such a thing that fills you up unnecessarily for a very short time. Perfect when you don’t want to eat the food. And I wanted to hog on the main course. Which was seemingly impossible with my recent curbed appetite. So I avoided the soup. But I did take a nice snap.
Main course was served and I was so dumbstruck by the sheer amount of food and very engaging gossipy conservations on the table, that I absolutely forgot to click pictures. I know, I am sorry. But I did taste everything. The vegetarian dishes included Chana Pindi, Paneer Tikka Masala, Lasuni Palak and Dal Sukhi. I tried the Lasuni Palak, Paneer and Chana. I loved the Paneer tikka masala, the gravy was perfectly spiced and I am a big fan of tikka masala gravy and this one was super. Second the Palak was good and Chana was more like a starter than a main dish, as I felt it was too dry.
In the non-vegetarian section I had Kheema Nalli Ghost and Murg Makhani. I prefer the mutton I eat minced and not with bones. So I was a bit in a situation here, as the I loved the kheema in the dish but the Nalli was the part I couldn’t eat. But a dish definitely to try when you are there. For the Murg Makhani, I want to say is that if your are serving Indian/Mughlai cuisine and you can’t nail a Murg Makhani / Butter Chicken, you aren’t supposed to serve any food. But I will be a fool to say that that Gaylord doesn’t know its murg and makhan. It was spot on. Full of flavors and yummy buttered gravy which I loved with the fantastic Truffle Naans.
Here is the best dish that was served in the night, the winner for me were the yummy, fresh, hot truffle naan and Pudhina Paratha. I could eat this anytime of the day. And I could eat this just about with anything or even nothing to go along with it. I absolutely loved these naans. I am definitely going back for more.
So now we come to my favorite part desserts –
I loved the presentation of the Crunchy Raspberry Chocolate Mousse. Temptation was an understatement. Mousse had a base of perfect crunchy crust in the bottom, super soft melt in your mouth raspberry mousse in the middle, topped with chocolate ganache. Wow! is what you say when you take the first bite. Utterly delicious, this is a must have.
Second was the Caramel Custard, though soft and nice I wasn’t a fan of this, cause I felt it was a little less sweet and more on the bland side.
So hence came the super fun night to an end, but not before we were gifted with a huge baked goods basket from the bakery. And the bakery was like huge and filled with almost all the desserts out there. I would just love to go in the bakery kitchen and see how they bake and probably also bake with them, if I could.
My experience at Gaylord was fantastic. I loved everything there from the vintage furniture to the humble and passionate hospitality. This place rocks not just because of it’s history or it’s great food. It rocks because of the wonderful people who have been the spine of Gaylord for all these years.
toxicbaker 