Dining at Trendz

Trendz at the Intercontinental Grand, Mumbai, serves contemporary western cuisine. I had a midnight flight to catch, which left me with just enough time for a leisurely dinner before driving to the international airport. Earlier, I (and my bags!) had survived the madness in Pune airport - Jet Airways' computers were down and they had to manually check everyone in.

Trendz has a distinctive, modern decor and interesting touches: check out the glasses on the table in the picture. Grilled meats, fresh seafood, and pastas make up it's menu. I was the only Indian in the restaurant; this place seems to be mostly popular with visiting westerners. The hostess took her time in seating me, even though the place was only half full and the service that followed was a little slow too.

However, the food was pretty good. I ordered the Bombay rock lobster with lemon-butter sauce and baked potatoes on the side. While my entree was being prepared, they brought me a complimentary shrimp starter. I had chosen the Sula Satory Merlot with my meal, and it went well with the spicy shrimp starter.

The lobster came impressibly plated and was fresh and tasty. The lemon-butter sauce complimented it and the baked potato cooked in it's jacket was good too.

For dessert, I had ordered an Old English custard tart with stewed fruit and clotted cream. While the fruits were good and fresh, the tart itself was only ok. I would have prefered some more clotted cream with it!

All in all, other than for the unfriendly hostess, the experience at Trendz was a good one. By the time I got done, I just had time to take the car to the airport. Thankfully, check-in was fast as was immigration. BTW, there is finally a decent-enough duty-free shop (run by DFS Singapore) in Mumbai International, but they are still awaiting their liquor license from the government (!).

Singapore Airlines and the Singapore girls continue to be their impeccable selves. I watched two movies during the flight: National Treasure-Book of Secrets (not as good as the first one), and The Kite Runner (very well made movie with awesome backdrops of Afghanistan).

They also serve the best airline food. During this flight, starters included Prawns with Nicoise salad - sauteed prawns with potato, green beans, olives, quail eggs, tomatoes, and mache lettuce served with citrus vinaigrette. Another time it was 'hot' smoked salmon with mesclun, cherry tomatoes and ranch dressing.

For lunch, my entree was sirloin steak, horseradish butter, bordelaise sauce, celeriac dauphinoise, green beans. For dinner, I had Oven-baked Salmon fillet with rice flakes in cauliflower cream and black olive oil.

Desserts? How about Japanese red bean ice-cream with green tea sauce, and Rum & Raisin ice-cream wth chocolate sauce and roasted almonds. Difficult to imagine you are eating this on a flight, eh? I guess the American and European airlines have a lot of catching up to do before they get anywhere close to Singapore Airlines.

Related post: Kababs at the Baluchi