A Fashionable Mess
So I've been curious about Cha Shi for a while. Again located in the atrium of Emporio Mall on the other side of Cafe E. I have given it a 3.0, which means average. I guess its more of a 3.25 but lets not split hairs. Small portions I can deal with, an attempt to serve healthy food I applaud, Asian always works for me, but mediocre is unforgivable. Four dishes and Rs.2000 down and still starving? Unforgivable again! We contemplated ordering more but it was all so blah that it just wasn't worth a couple of Gs more. I appreciate the creative enterprise but that alone just isn't going to cut it. Believe it or not our meal at Cafe E was straight after this one, granted we were disgustingly full after that!
On top of it all the staff is just a bit over eager, in other words IRRITATING! I am so happy to see enthusiastic and informed service. Its great servers finally seem to know their menu but don't assume your customers don't know a thing. I made the mistake of asking what a certain drink was. ONE drink, she then went on to explain to me that white tea, green tea are types of teas (I had not even asked about the teas), oh and that they are very good for you. Thank you but absolutely irrelevant. I asked her which out of two particular noodle dishes she recommends, she picked a third I had not cared for in the first place. I'm clearly a sucker for punishment because after our fourth dish, we still contemplated getting another, and I made the mistake of mentioning this to the server who came by. The next 30 seconds were painful as she stood over my head (I don't know why) and one by one recited EACH dish of the mains section that I was already reading (again I don't know why)! An absolutely pointless exercise. I guess that what happens when they have all the time in the world because there were 5 servers and 4 occupied tables. As usual our restaurants are overstaffed and inefficient.
- Menus - You tick whatever you want and hand it to them.
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| Drinks Menu and Food Menu |
- Guava Berry Cooler - Not guavaberry the fruit but guava and berry the TWO fruits. Ok i'm behaving as bad as our servers now. The guava was more prominent than the berry which I preferred. It had black salt in it too, which at first was strange but became refreshingly hydrating. Long Kong - Health Drink - we had another little communication problem here and I ordered it thinking it was a cold drink. Turns out all Health Drinks are hot (remember that). Barely had a sip so can't comment.
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| Guava Berry Cooler and Long Kong |
- Salad - Snow Peas, Enoki and Sesame Dressing - If the entire meal continued in this direction it may have been a better afternoon. I loved the julienned Snow Peas, crunchy, fresh. It was health in a bowl you didn't mind. The delicate Enoki was a bit lost amongst the dominating texture of the Snow Peas, but the sesame dressing did more than pair well.
- Szechuan Prawn Wrap - So they had a moment of genius here. Dim sum for the skinny minnies. With all those "no-carb" diets out there, that I myself have miserably failed on a number of occasions to futile to count. What they have is a handful of dim sum options where they have scrapped the gluten skin and replaced it with a variety of options such as lettuce, spinach, so on. We ordered just this one. So after all that what do I have to say for it? Well it wasn't bad but... The seasoning inside was a bit grainy, powdery chilly, felt a bit blah. I didn't mind eating it but I don't know if I'd be drawn to it again. I wasn't a big fan of the two pieces either. Lets face it you don't even feel likes anythings gone in after just one of these. It seemed even more meager after the elaborate basket-in-a-basket that it came in!
- Ebi Tempura Sushi - Yes of course I had to get my ebi tempura maki. I can't recall if it mentioned the cream cheese but Grrrrr! I absolutely ABHOR cream cheese in my sushi! I would say -50 points but this had so much wrong with it that it wouldn't even matter. Some of the worst sushi I have eaten and they have the nerve to charge for it forget about how much! If any of you have tried cold storage sushi in America, well this tastes even worse! The rice was the biggest disaster, overly sticky, hard, and just some how took over everything else. Ugh! The Tempura?? Way too much batter that was cold and soggy, the prawn itself had no lively spring to it! Yuck! Sushi is trendy. It can be some what healthy. Which means every Tom, Dick and Harry is putting it on their menu. "How hard can it be to roll rice with some stuff in the middle?" Answer : Not hard but if its actually going to be good then its HARD! There's a science to it, certain technicalities that must be followed. Just boiling the rice is an art. Cha-Shi clearly flunked the class, and fooled everybody because otherwise why would this abomination be sitting on my plate?
- Thai Seafood Noodles - Included one Shrimp and some scallop. At least that's all I got. The quantity of seafood was just fine for such a small bowl. Unless there is something I missed, the variety could have been better. The thick flat noodles were over cooked and too mushy (amateur mistake). The seasoning was a bit bland but a dash of soy sauce went a long way.
I don't know if I'd be ordering this dish again because to be quite honest I seriously doubt visiting Cha Shi again. Especially, when I can get much better pan-Asian food at Setz (Zest) upstairs. However, I have been hearing things about their steam-boat, maybe on a cold, lonely, desperate day I may return for it...
Alcohol: No
Budget: Mid Range
Contact:
011- 43119909
152 Ground Floor,
DLF Emporio Mall,
Nelson Mandela Marg,
Vasant Kunj