It looks like Greek

White chocolate confetti. Pics/Sneha Kharabe

FOOD: Good
AMBIENCE: Basic
SERVICE: No-fuss
COST: Competent
VERDICT: 1/4

It's fascinating how flour works. Subtle, simple changes, be it in the technique of kneading, or the resting time; the amount of water used; and how it is fried or baked can result in dishes that are polar opposites of each other. For example, Americans fry dough to make doughnuts, Indians fry dough to make jalebis or gulab jamuns, and the Greeks make a crispy dessert from doughballs known as loukoumades (the Turks call it lokma).

Patatas

What makes loukoumade hard to resist is its crispy exterior, which gives a good bite despite being dunked in honey. Of late, Mumbai restaurateurs seem to have been piqued by this dessert since we noticed at least three joints serving it on their menu.

The newest eatery to join the bandwagon is Lokomades in Bandra. On the menu are weighing scale-crashing, ganache-stuffed options that come loaded with chocolate sauce, Nutella, sprinkles, whatever your poison. And if it's the traditional honey version that you crave, they serve that too. In case you are looking for a healthy option, this is just not the place for it.

Marshmallow blueberry

They also offer a ‘make-your-own patatas' (Rs181) option to meet your salt craving after the sugar overdose. We start with the patatas, which is a giant baked potato that you can top with veggies and sauces (including cheese, chipotle and Southwest, barbeque), Subway-style. The potato is baked to perfection and we can't help but lick our fingers while spooning through this savoury treat. They offer six pieces of loukoumades per plate, and you can also go for the family pack where you get four pieces of three variations (Rs529); which is what we call for. Our box includes marshmallow blueberry cheesecake, hula hoop and white chocolate funfetti (Rs238, Rs238 and Rs190 are their prices if you wish to buy them individually).

What follows is an hour of regretting the inches we are adding to our waist, as the loukoumades are difficult to put down. Perfectly crisp despite the heavy pouring of sauces, they win half their brownie points because the texture is done right. The blueberry cheesecake variant is filled with white chocolate ganache and poured over with a blueberry cream cheese sauce, which thankfully is not cloyingly sweet.

White chocolate funfetti is also injected with a white chocolate ganache and is poured over with both white and dark chocolate sauce and sprinklers. The chocolate lover that we are has a foodporn moment with hula hoop, injected with chocolate ganache, and poured over with
a mix of white, milk and dark chocolate sauce, and a sprinkle of almonds. By now we have had enough loukoumades for a quarter of a year but can't stop ourselves from making a plan for our next trip.

At Lokomades, ground floor, Silver Croft, Pali Hill, Bandra West.
Time 11 am to 11 pm
Call 8454025012

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