MUMBAI TRIP : DAY 1

The best time to be in Delhi is December and January. The winter chill brings in a tangy sense of adventure , leading to cozy terrace bars, bonfires and lots of nights out.

So when work gets me to leave the city for a day or two, its sometime feels like missing out on a lot. However this time, when a mumbai trip was to happen, i was pretty excited as some friends had promised a great time.

So an afternoon flight with goibibo, which got rescheduled from lunch time to evening tea, i flew down to mumbai

Two things greeted me when I reached the parking lot at the mumbai airport.

A>> The human tsunami everywhere

B>> The sudden realisation that you are wearing a jacket in 30degrees ‘cos its no more Delhi and its not cold

I can safely summarise this trip into the restaurants/bars I visited and the beers I drank..makes it a whole lot simpler to catalogue!!

Evening 1 : Doolally and Sammy Sosa's

Post work, I hit our favourite Doolally in Andheri West with my old beer bud Ankit Dand. Ankit is traditionally a rum drinker, but this trip he had promised to introduce me to some great beer places in Andheri West. Doolally was not new, i had been here a couple of months back, and since it was next to where we had work, it was a good "start the evening" place !

The word “Doolally” has two dictionary meanings if I google it

1)temporarily deranged or feeble-minded !

2)transported with excitement or pleasure !

I am assuming the owners planned the second one. And the vibe of the place is so right for a casual night out in this city. Its bright, its fervent and it allows pets (!!!) , yup, it was weird to see dogs sitting on the opposite table. My neighbour was a bit camera shy so I couldn’t capture that little Labrador pup.

Normally this would be strange, but as the mood here goes, it was just as normal as watching fish swim in water.

Moving to the beer, doolally always has 5-6 beers on tap. The friendly waiters get you the testers and you can make a choice easily. When you possess a lifetime crush on begin wit, you always tend to sway in that direction; yet I tasted all. I have to say, on any other day the “oatmeal stout” would be a great choice, but today had to wash off some mind numbing work and so Belgian wit it was.

The good thing about their brew is the lightheadedness it brings about. The right temperature and the full glass gives you just the right taste in the mouth, and precedes great conversations.

They pride in serving probably the best fries in the area and a bowl of fries comes with 6 dips, including the "mango chutney". This was apt and a good start to the proceedings of the evening.

Soon it was time to round this up and move to another location as promised, so i could just sum up an evening at Doolally in a very simple way

"Get your friends (and pets, not necessarily the same breed) together and head out here. Theres good beer, good food and a great vibe."

And yes there is some kind of a reward in place here. If you are a regular guzzling quite a bit, you earn a mug. For us once in a while walk-ins, there is a tall glass.

So my mumbaikar friends..aim for the mug!!!!

Post our two mugs of Doolally beer, it was time for Ankit to show me a new place for dinner. Usually and there would be a general consensus on this as well, the food quality in mumbai is not a patch on what delhi offers, so Ankit was hellbent on taking me to a place which prides in good food. His choice was a small tex-mex restaurant called "Sammy Sosa" . Strange as it might have looked from outside, it was a shocker for me.

Sammy Sosa is popular for its mexican food, but what was a great surprise was the interest in beer.

Yes! this place loves serving international beer

They have their menu labelled as "Hall of Foam" and has a decent collection of beers from all over the world. Sadly and thats not the restaurants fault at all, 30% of the printed beers were not available. That probably depends on whats being imported these days. Like i was happy to see that they have VIRU beer from Estonia printed in the menu, but wasnt available, but again, not at all the restaurants fault. The waiters were very helpful, and knew their suggestions well. First up, the place had "Duvel", one of my favourite beers. After one bottle, the server suggested that they had a new launch called "Happy Bear" . A curious yellow can and a good deal of 1+1 helped us make this the second beer of the night. The food also came along with and it was the best mexican i have had in a long while. The rice was distinctly tomato flavoured and the chicken strips were delicious. But moving to Happy beer, the can is an eye catcher, with the big bold lettering "A Big can of yellow", looks like the makers love the colour.

Researching a bit on the beer, it was interesting to know, that this was an indian brewery called Thirsty. They were brewing in Bosnia, and importing this yellow can back to India.

But most importantly, to the taste, Happy is a relaxed fresh-tasting pilsner lager. It's crisp and has a distinct sting when u taste it for the first time. It was good with the food that we were eating but since i favour wheat beers over pilsner lager, one can was all we had.

Tech Specs

http://www.thirstybeer.com/home.html

Overall Taste : 3/5

Can design : 3.5/5

Aftertaste : 2/5