It is not very often that one comes across a restaurant that you wished you had known earlier about.
I wonder how restaurants get across the word that they are open for business and that they represent a certain level of quality etc.
I read about Mugen a long time ago and assumed it was another one of the restaurants....and slowly I started hearing about it again and again through friends and acquaintances till I could ignore it no further.
Last Thursday the 15th the visit finally happened. A few friends of mine were getting together and we agreed to meet at Mugen.
The entrance is unprepossessing and you can almost miss the restaurant being located on the 3rd floor. We reserved a table and landed up on time. The greeting was smooth and before we knew we were seated at a table.
We decided to order for a round of drinks and that is where the first surprise happened. The beer was chilled and surprise...surprise so were the glasses. Not often do you see such attention to detail. Even the beaker in which they served mixers for rum and vodka were chilled. Well that was a pleasant start...not something you would associate with a restaurant out of a 5 star.
We ordered for starters and one of the gang wanted vegetarian as he had turned vegetarian a day ago . We tried to cajole him into postponing the veggie turning day and try non-veg as veggie in an oriental restaurant was not so appealing. We ordered a chicken starter and a prawn starter for the non veggies and a mushroom starter and a baby corn starter for the veggie. The starters were excellent. The prawns were fresh and succulent and the grilled chicken starter was excellent and the flavours were totally fresh. The big surprise however were the veg starters. I have never had such great veg starters in an oriental restaurant ever.The omnipresent corn flour and MSG seemed to have gone on a holiday and the flavours and textures were mind boggling.
We ordered the main course and the food kept us pleasantly surprised and happy. The vegetable Thai green curry was the best vegetarian Thai curry I have ever had....and so was the Non veg yellow curry. There was an Indonesian stir fried beans which was just heavenly. The food was just too good and conversation died a natural death as we were busy stuffing ourselves.
Post the starters and the main course the desserts were something I was keen to check on. The others agreed although reluctantly predicting that desserts in an oriental restaurants could be skipped. We ordered desserts with the conditionality that they be light to prevent us further distress from over eating. The dessert made with coconut milk and chestnuts was very light and had just about the right amount of sweetness. There was a pumpkin custard that I thought was so so( A personal prejudice- I hate pumpkin) but other enjoyed it. And of course the classical oriental restaurant dessert- Date Pancake with Ice cream. The only thing to fault with this was with the ice cream. The ice cream was a little too frozen for my taste and took effort to slice through with a spoon.
Over all a very delightful experience. The food was superb, the service just right, the attention to detail pleasing and the ambiance was nice and made the restaurant feel very oriental .
I would recommend this place very strongly. It seems to have the ingredients of success just right. Hoping it remains that way.
foodyfoodpecker
