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| Wine & Dine 01 - 06 - 2004 |
| Choicepans |
You will be seduced by the variety of food in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, charmed by its helpful inhabitants and fuelled by its contradictions. Here glamour and poverty do a macabre waltz, local street foods bustle with gusto and world-class restaurants keep opening with amazing regularity. This is even more evident in the last few years, where more and more classy restaurants have opened their swanky doors to serve up increasingly exotic cuisines.
All I can say is, once you get a taste of Mumbai, you'll definitely come back for more, be it for the colourful local vendor or the granite-and-glass international restaurant—the hottest new arrival to the evermore-vibrant dining scene?
It is a one-stop destination for lovers of Asian food. This 5,900 square feet split-level restaurant features Oriental flavours prepared by master chefs in a lively and interactive environment. Panasian is my favourite Oriental restaurant, as much for the food it serves as its vibrant decor.
Walk into this sprawling restaurant with its Oriental-influenced walls and pillars, Chinese paper lamps, urns and bamboos and you'll feel the buzz in the air. A display of Thai carvings and salads, the bar and wine cellar-cum-showcase add to the charm of the restaurant.
Study the menu carefully: Korean, Japanese, Mongolian, Chinese, Burmese, Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese fare is on offer. You can choose to sit at the interactive kitchens or at a cosy private table.
Under the eagle eye of Chef Gev Desai, eminent foreign chefs like Chef Liang from China and Chef Pudipong from Phuket create an unusual and memorable experience. Partake of the excitement and drama at your table with the many do-it-yourself meals-in-built Korean barbecue (cooking different meats and veggies along with tangy dips and sauces), the soupy hotpot and the Mongolian brazier offering a choice of meats, veggies and sauces, which the chef cooks up.
I would recommend the dishes made in the Shinjiang roaster from China; using it, Chef Liang recreates specialities from his homeland, like the barbecued spare ribs and the crispy
chicken Cantonese-style. Check out the teppanyaki grills; even the yakitori styles are rendered widi great panache—their tsukume, chicken ball yakitori is definitely worth trying.
Mumbaikars are still in throes of delight, checking out their first-time introduction to the Korean barbecue in-built grill tables. Grill the meats at your table (the fish is especially delectable) to have with your choice of kimchi, sticky rice and dipping sauces. The grill also facilitates the hotpot to which one adds sliced meats, seafood and vegetables and eats them with dipping sauces. The unique offering from Chef Liang is the pungent and fiery Sichuan hotpot, there is also the option of a milder Korean hotpot.
I love the superb attention to details from the selection of crockery to the sesame garlic oil and tofu kimchi. My favourite dishes are crispy chicken Cantonese-style, chicken teriyaki, garlic yakitori, chicken and leek starters, and the Chinese options from the woks and stir-fries.
Panasian is the perfect dining destination should you happen to be near the International airport, as it can be a longish drive from the city centre. And while the choice of dishes and cuisines can be bewildering to the uninitiated, Oriental food buffs please note: no sake or Korean shoju, sushi and sashimi either, though there are plans to introduce these. On the whole it's a world-class restaurant and definitely worth visiting should you be longing for authentic true blue Oriental fare. Of course, if it is authentic Indian delights you crave, then the city brims over with regional cuisines in charming tucked-away eateries, which take you off the eaten track. But that's a whole different story.
Panasian, ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Sahar, Mumbai.
Tel: (91) 2830-3030.
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