Shirley Mistry pays Out Of The Blue a visit and samples dishes from their special Swiss Food Festival Menu
What is red and white and oozes cheese all over? Out Of The Blue’s Swiss Food Festival. Decked in red and white banners, streamers and flags, the restaurant drives the point home as soon as you set foot in the premises. Swiss flags, decorative red aprons with caricatured Swiss cows on them and Swiss bells adorned the restaurant. They even had a kiosk where customers could purchase Swiss themed t-shirts, cow-shaped piggy banks, bells and fondue pots, among other knick-knacks. One look at the menu and we were pleasantly surprised to find that the special menu for the Swiss Food Festival was quite comprehensive. It is disappointing when restaurants have such a limited menu, that it is almost unfair to call the affair a food festival. However, here you find several options depending on what you’re in the mood to eat.
We started off with the Potatoes Emmental Baked Cheese Fondue Soup (Rs 250), served in a small ceramic bowl with a burner underneath. The soup had a crusty cheese covering, which when cracked open, revealed a pool of mildly flavoured potato soup. Next was the Racklet Fondue (Rs 745), with a blend of cheese including cheddar, raclette and emmental along with white wine. Served with assorted vegetables and croutons, this fondue is extremely rich.
We followed this with the Chicken & Spinach Corn Quiche (Rs 275) which was light, airy and flavoured just right, letting the taste of the ingredients shine through. Served with a house salad, this was a much lighter appetiser as compared to the decadent fondue.
We then moved on to the rosti, which comes with a variety of sauces. We tried the rosti with Turkey Meatballs and a Tomato Chilli Sauce (Rs 395). It came with a portion of roasted vegetables and cream cheese sauce. The meatballs were a tad dry and the sauce too sour. The rosti however, had a perfectly crispy texture and paired well with the vegetables. Another winner was the Rost Al Lasagne (Rs 375) a cross between a lasagne and a rosti. The sauce was light, the cheese well portioned and the texture of the vegetables, rosti and pasta were a complete joy. We also tried the Chicken Cordon Bleu with Swiss style rosti and grilled vegetables (Rs 385), served with a cheese sauce. This dish was rather disappointing, with no distinctive flavour coming through.
To finish off our meal, we chose the Lindt Chocolate Fondue (Rs 795), which was a pool of melted Lindt Dark Chocolate, served with fresh fruit and cake. While the chocolate itself was heavenly to say the least, we were definitely missing strawberries in their selection of fruit. Having said that, the incredible fondue made me want to go back in time and skip the other dishes so I could feast solely on this dessert.
Not for the faint hearted, the Swiss Festival is rich, cheesy and high on calories. Despite a few slip ups, the festival is worth a visit. Although it is no longer running at their Khar outlet, head to the Powai outlet which will serve this delicious menu up to February 9.