The most rightly rated restaurants of recent times, Gymkhana 91 has managed to make it to the list of best restaurants merely on word-of-mouth publicity as opposed to paid reviews, publicity stunts and advertising.
A restaurant with a very unique name resonates old world charm in it's decor and ambiance. Music is good but is lost amid the noise of patrons so it's really not the restaurant's mistake. We wondered why 'Gymkhana 9' and the mystery, we think, we have managed to decipher but for that fellow-zomatians will have to read until the end.
We ordered Mekong, Last Viceroy, Peach Spice and Be the Monroe from the Bar section to go with Patatas Bravas, Rati Aunty's Edu Pattice and Prawn Curry Tart.
Nothing great about Mekong, Be the Monroe and Last Viceroy were superb and strong. A cute little gimmicky Monroe card accompanied 'Be the Monroe'. Peach Spice was a perfectly made Granita.
Prawn Curry Tart, Patata Brawas (even when the dip was regular) and Rati Aunty's Edu Pattice were clearly the winning dishes of the day, which, in our entire history of dinning, is a rarity for so many dishes to make to the top. Tarts were perfectly thin, crunchy and filled with insane amount of yummy prawns with a delectable curry fused with cheese. Bravas were so freaking crispy and not too greasy......and remained so until the last bite (which is a rarity). Edu Pattice (more like Scotch eggs except the meat part) with the regular green chutney had a very nice flavorful crust outside. For Mains we ordered Garlic Nan, Srilankan Sambal Chicken Curry and Thai Chilly Egg Fried Rice. Thai Chilly Egg Fried Rice was a meal in Itself with flavors. Srilankan Sambal Curry was awesome and full of meat (and not just two or three pieces, same goes for other dishes too), only wish being that they should have let the chilly, curry leaves and tamarind paste be the face of the dish without fusing too much of coconut milk. We had asked them to make our garlic nan thin and crispy. Usually, either we are served burnt nan or we are told that it's impossible to make a Thin Nan, but places like Gymkhana 91 spoil us by delivering what we need (as opposed to other restaurants who fail miserably).
For desserts we ordered Custard Caramel and Chocolate Volcano with Orange Zest. It's so very easy to go wrong with the caramel custard, but Gymkhana is bang-on....light and melt-in-your-mouth against heavy and too creamy. We were little worried about the Chocolate Volcano as it's same as Chocolate Lava cake, but the Orange zest took this dish to a completely different level. With even slightest modification to the original dishes, Gymkhana 91 succeeds what lot of restaurants (who charge bomb) have failed to deliver in departments namely: quality, quantity, and taste at a very reasonable pricing.
Two things that we really think they should work on is the service (which we think they will knowing that it's just one month old). There is too much of commotion, confusion and impatience from the time you order until you are done with your food. At times, it becomes difficult to grab an attendant's attention. Other time, servers have no idea what they are serving or mispronounce the dishes and rest of the time they either are in too much hurry to clear the plates or serve us for e.g. since the menu says Chocolate Volcano takes Half an hour to prepare, we ordered it together with our Mains, and instructed the attendant to get it only after we are done with the meal but half way through our meal, a new attendant brought our dessert. Thankfully, good food and courteous owner managed to distract us from such incidences, we really would like to see a stronger team the next time we visit to try their oriental cuisine (which they are known for as well)
Coming to the name part for the inquisitive souls, we have known (though not personally) the owner who is the man behind Chembur Gymkhana's catering, and we recognized him instantaneously. Probably, restaurant's name was his ode to the journey that began from Chembur Gymkhana (now that we are talking about it, we feel we should have asked him :P ).
Gymkhana 91 is definitely here to stay and is the dark horse that could change the face of the restaurant industry with inexpensive fine dinning experience / offering.
Disclaimer: We booked our own table like regular patrons, paid our bill (sans the discount) and our review is unbiased, & devoid of any influence of any means.