This yellow cafe will drive away your blues

With a comfy ambience, cookbooks to keep you company and comfort cuisine, The Yellow Tree cafe is one happy place

At the week-old Yellow Tree Cafe, there's a series of mini paintings adorning the whitewashed walls.

In one, a rainbow springs out from a girl's paintbrush while in another, she dangles from a balloon amidst marshmallow clouds.

Happiness runs as a central motif through the entire series, merrily coinciding to how we felt after our dinner here.

Serving Mediterranean cuisine, the cafe thankfully replaces the unimpressive North Indian fine dining restaurant Clove Bar and Grill.

Above the ground level cozy cafe, lies a formal sit-down dinner section on the first level and a red-tinged, glamorous party hall on the second.



When we walked in on Friday night, there was just one other group happily drinking away at the cafe. The delightful play of yellow and aqua perked us up while we skimmed through the menu.

And as we waited a good half hour for the meals to arrive, Anthony Bourdain and Jamie Oliver entertained us, as we leafed through their books.

The Bengali-styled grilled Kasundi Marinated Rawas (Rs 315) seemed bizarre on a menu filled with sandwiches, burgers, crepes and lasagnas.

Though the fish was quite well done, it was a let down and an accompaniment of mashed potatoes made the bland dish seem even more monotonous.

The Chicken Stroganoff (Rs 295) brought back the joy, with perfectly-flavoured herb rice.

But the best dish on our table was undoubtedly the Ratatouille Risotto (Rs 255) with fantastically smoked scarmoza cheese. Our suggestion: give the sandwiches a miss and opt for a meal.

The sandwich we tried with sundried tomato pesto, arugula and smoked scarmoza (Rs 215) was dry and over-priced.

With just five desserts to choose from, you can't have a better ending to a meal than with the Gooey Chocolate Fudge (Rs 125), beautifully blended with Kahlua Sauce and Bailey's Cream.

Though we wouldn't call the Cru00e8me Brulee (Rs 125) disappointing, it just paled in comparison to that fabulous piece of chocolate.

For those who appreciate good coffee, there's Colombian, Costa Rican and Jamaican (Rs 125 to Rs 225) among other flavours.

AT: 33rd and Ambedkar Road Junction, near Funky shop, Bandra (W). Call: 65287800

Yellow Tree Cafe didn't know we were there. The Guide reviews anonymously and pays for meals.