Getting to the meat of it. Veronica’s Bandra
We wanted to go to Veronica’s for a while. This was ever since Kainaz’s friend Zenobia sang rhapsodies of the pastrami sandwich there to K.
Apparently Zen, a townie, would stop on her way back from work (in Andheri E), stand in what seemed like an endless queue, pick her sandwich and head back to Colaba.
Another Parsi, Freddy Birdy, waxed eloquently about Veronica’s on Instagram in his inimitable lyrical style. A number of food lovers whom I know, profusely praised it.
Plus it breached the top 10 of Conde Naste top 50 restaurant list within less than a year of its opening.
My curiosity was piqued.
Veronica’s is located in our backyard in Veronica Lane at Bandra. It gets its name from this and not the Archie’s comics character of the same name.
It opened to huge queues and social media and influencer buzz. This was no surprise given its pedigree. The first Bandra (west) opening from the folks behind The Bombay Canteen and O’Pedro (they now have a Bombay Sweet House outlet down our road).
You could compare this with the frenzy that followed the opening of Pathan, metaphorically of course. The first SRK movie after a long break.
We decided to go there after the buzz cooled down. I checked with friends who had visited it recently and they said the wait was more manageable now. Weekday 1230 is the sweet spot said another (!) Parsi, Zubin.
K & I went to Veronica’s late last evening. I was a bit apprehensive about getting a place as it was a Saturday. We did have to wait for half an hour or so but we were fine with it.
There is a computerised metre system near the door where you punch in your details. You are informed of your wait status on WhatsApp and called in once the table was ready. There is a waiting area just inside the door and we were quite comfortable in the AC (and if you needed, the toilet was located there). We got chatting with a couple who had just set up an Instagram page called The Fat Habit, and time just flew. K was hungry and might have a different view on this!
The tables were packed beside each other and resembled the population density of Dhaka…or Mumbai. Yet, the buzz was cheerful. The tables were managed competently with no frazzled nerves in sight.
The cheerful graffiti and colours inside provided a bright feel to the place and ensured that you did not feel boxed in. There was a framed sketch of the Veronica logo with a cat sitting by it. No, it wasn’t their mascot, I was told. It was a tribute to the many cats that hung in the lanes of Bandra. With that, they had our hearts. The cat reminded me of Scooby, my plus sized community cat friend.
We were escorted to our table by the young and cheerful stewardess who was very happy to know that we knew what we wanted.
There was a young gentleman taking the orders in the table adjacent to us who described each dish with deep rooted love. It almost seemed as if he’d join the guests once the order was ready. I mean this in a good way. It’s always
good to be in a restaurants where the folks working there are passionate about their job.
good to be in a restaurants where the folks working there are passionate about their job.
What did you eat, you ask? What was your order? Cut to the chase!
Well, it was the pastrami sandwich (Pass the Pastrami) of course. And the Veronica’s smash burger which I’d spotted on the menu before coming and checked with a couple of friends who had eaten here and who gave a thumbs up to it.
The pastrami sandwich turned out to be a wild ride down the path of temptation. It was everything that your mother, or dietician, had warned you about. Maddeningly sensuous and unforgettable.
The meat was supremely juicy. The buttered milk toast, chubby delicious. The stone ground marble in the filling adding just the requisite amount of wickedness.
It was possibly one of the most decadent dishes that we have both had in a long, long time.
The Veronica’s smash burger? Very, very competent. The short rib and bone marrow patty, a ridiculously inspired combination, was juicy and had a deep meaty undertone to it. The milk bun was a cheerful contrast to the very intense patty. The crisp bacon and the melted cheddar added to the joy. A rare burger,
which even though fully loaded, was easy to cut into two halves without it disintegrating. This is not an easy task to achieve. We have even seen gourmet burger restaurants abroad falter on this.
The burger was akin to Dravid in a team that had Tendulkar, Sehwag and Ganguly. A dish whose individual brilliance was unfortunately eclipsed by the flair and panache of the pastrami sandwich.
I wanted something to fizzy to drink at the start as I felt a bit full. This is because we had just shared the lamb puff at Cou Cou by Oberoi at Jio World Drive, where we had gone to shop before coming to Veronica’s. The puff was a veritable work of art with its buttery and flaky puff pastry and the most delectable, moist pulled lamb filling. It was rather large though and I was quite full after having my half of it.
The stewardess suggested ordering a kombucha as they had no aerated drinks. We settled for the Zen… green tea and lemon grass …after trying that and the hibiscus. It was bubbly and had an electric zing to it. Just what I needed. Both of us enjoyed our initiation into the world of kombucha though a glass shared between us was enough.
We made a bad choice at the end. The gluten free dark chocolate sea salt cookie. It turned out to be a reminder that life is not all ha ha hee hee ho ho. That it could be rather dry, as the cookie was. It was inexplicably and cloyingly sweet for a dark chocolate cookie.
You could argue that expecting a gluten free cookie to be tasty can be compared with expecting Boom Boom (Boris) Becker to win the French open.
(Sorry for the dated sports analogies. Becker was a 3 time Wimbledon winner and a grass court specialist while the French Open is a clay court tournament. He was quite the icon when I was in school and I was a big fan. This was way way before he was jailed for being a tax defaulter.
Is Veronica’s deserving of the top 10 rank list in less than a year?
That’s all that matters to us!
Ps| Oh, and K thanks you for the tip, Zenobia. She says we owe you a pastrami sandwich treat. I agree!
I am a part of the 100 member strong Conde Nast awards jury of the and I believe that the list is largely representative of the upper end restaurants-cape of India.)
