Bloggers' Meet at Corniche, Bandra

Since past couple of times the idea of meeting my Blogger friends excites me more than experiencing or eating at a new place. The food adds to the great conversations. Something similar happened when we all received an invitation from Corniche in Bandra. Tweets and mail were exchanged asking about who will and wouldn't be coming. The timing was a little odd, 5.30 in the evening and this was the first meet which had an end time to it, 7.30pm. But the pleasure of meeting friends is so big that one tends to ignore such crucial details, so did I. So on a working Saturday I left work a little early and reached Corniche which wasn't too difficult to locate given that it's adjacent to the famous CCD at Carter Road.

The usually open-air restaurant was covered due to the monsoons and was practically on the sea-side. Although once seated the sea was hardly visible. Ashrita was already there and as we sat and chatted Gaurav, Shivani, Reema, Amrita and Sunayan also came in. Once we were all there the PR team at Corniche introduced us to the Chef who was going to LIVE cook a couple of dishes for us. We were given a list of ingredients (note: just ingredients and not the recipes). The idea was to cook with fresh ingredients using less oil and make the food more easy to digest.

The Chef started with a Wild Mushroom Soup which filled the air with a beautiful aroma. so much so that we couldn't wait to taste it. He then followed it with a Greek Salad, Tangerine Chicken, Risotto and Bacon Pasta. We also kept asking questions while he taught us those recipes.

Once the dishes were made and we clicked enough pictures to fill our posts it was time to taste the food. The wild mushroom soup was creamy and yet light. I am not too fond of creamy soups but I wipe the bowl clean and could have happily gone for a second serving. The salad too was fresh with crunchy lettuce and tangy dressing. Only issue was that none of us got even a single piece of feta cheese in it.

Next came Tangerine Chicken which despite being marinated in orange juice was not juicy enough. While there was enough flavour outside there was hardly any when we bit into it. Risotto was good but had too big chunks of chicken. To make the matter worse they were also under-cooked. The bacon pasta which I was looking forward to turned out great. Sweet and tangy tomato sauce with a mild garlic flavour; just how I like my pasta. But the bacon too like feta cheese was barely there.

While the food was okay it was the organization that was more disappointing. The four vegetarian bloggers weren't given a choice of ordering from their regular menu. Hence they survived on soup and a small bowl of salad. The portions we were served were also measly. The unceremonious end to the meet left us feeling odd and unwanted. And, to our surprise the meet ended at 7.30pm sharp (how accurate). Realizing that there will not be an offer to try the desserts we moved towards Out Of The Blue to have their famous Peanut Butter Chocolate Fondue and give a perfect ending to the not so perfect evening.