Banyan Tree Cafe, Fort, Mumbai

Restaurant Name: Banyan Tree Cafe, Fort, Mumbai
Phone: +919619033000
Address: 7 – 9 Calicut Street, Ballard Estate, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400013 India
Time: 08:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 600
Cuisines: Salad, Sandwich, Cafe
Facilities: Breakfast, Home Delivery, Takeaway Available, Indoor Seating, All Day Breakfast

Banyan Tree Café Multi Cuisine:

Please read very slowly. Enjoy the number crunching. This brand new café is housed in a 10,000 sq ft, 143-year-old abandoned ice-factory, which has a 147-year-old banyan tree inside it. This café is located in and is only a small part of IF. BE (acronym for Ice factory, Ballard estate) multidisciplinary space where art shows, exhibitions, talks et al are held.

The Ballad Of Ballard Estate:

Banyan Tree Café is brand new! Located in my favourite office district of Ballard Estate, with its tree lined avenues and European Renaissance façade buildings. Ballard estate holds a very special place in my heart, I worked here for two years in my IAS deputation posting as Dep Director General of Shipping. Reclaimed between 1914 and 1918, this office district’s historic Irani Café Brittania and Rishad and Prriya Nathani’s award winning and upscale The Clearing House are the most prominent ones and now The Banyan Tree Café joins the league.

I dine here with a duo of chefs. A chef by profession, Brinda Begmohamed, who was hugely successful in Toronto for two decades and is now in Mumbai, professionally cooks and home delivers chicken liver pate to payaraan to lamb stroganoff, dips, khichda to her bestseller caramel custard.

Capital project advisor and chef by passion Shamit Vasa won the regional Master chef at the Hyatt Regency and represented Mumbai in the National finals. He’s a specialist in European cooking. His affable father PK vasa’s Achari Gosht is hugely appreciated at the dining table where his wife Nina ensures the most tasty and gracious dinner parties. On an earlier day, they requested Brinda to serve them her earthen bowl, slow cooked Muslim Raan, Paya, Daal Gosht and all agreed that they enjoyed her cooking as they did the restaurant fare and the ambiance here.

Banyan Tree Cafe, Fort, Mumbai: Ambiance

Original stone walls of the ice factory, an ice-cooling coil sits under a glass floor at the entrance, an ice-making unit stands in one corner keep the history alive. We love the natural light through full-length windows, overhead skylights, and the open-to-sky courtyard in the middle. And of course the Banyan Tree. An open kitchen, few tables, including a long community table, two high tables make up the cozy 45-seater cafe.

Salads To Kheema Pao Salads:

Must trys include a range of salads. Ask for them as main courses. Especially the Trip to Chinatown which is crisp, crunchy, drizzled with a coriander root dressing and garnished with crushed peanuts. Also try their When in Italy burrata salad and many more. Make your own salad, choose your own toppings and dressings from a big choice. Soups like the Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup and Cauliflower Soup (recommended) are well made and tasty. Also try their Eggs Akuri and Shakshuka. Chef Ravi Shankar Sharma ensures there is plenty for those looking for healthy, clean eating like The NoMeat Cheat of Grilled Tofu, freshly squeezed juices and smoothies. Sandwiches ( classic ham and cheese worth trying) and all-day breakfast menu like “pancakes and waffles are superb,” says Shamit Vasa who went back for a 3 pm coffee date with his daughters Diya and Disha.

Minus Points:

Slow and confused service mars our meal. Avoidable mushy Chicken Pop eye, soggy Kheema Toastie, some of the dishes are undersalted, some overcooked ( pulled pork slides). Oversweet Mud Pie. Square pies not available.

Banyan Tree Cafe, Fort, Mumbai: My Point:

It’s brand new and I get to know of it only thanks to Abha Charanjiva, former Regional Manager of an internationally renowned Travel agency. She had visited both the café and IF. BE the new experimental space that melds art, architecture and culture in this refashioned and conserved ice factory. IF.BE hosts complex high-end exhibitions.

‘Cryofonicx’, an immersive audiovisual, ‘Opium of Time’, an analog photo-exhibition and others. Banyan Tree Café serves a very simple, comforting fare. Kudos to hoteliers Amardeep ‘Tony’ Singh, Abhayraj ( of the Pritam da Dhaba, Pritam, Granmama’s Café, Tori, MRP fame) and consultant, Abhijeet Mehta. Though it has its share of flaws, the open through the day, casual-dining Banyan Tree Café serves comfort food at comforting prices too!