A new restaurant at Fort offers Plenty to like

Expect hearty comfort food, such as hot and cold meals in a bowl, and treats with a twist like avocado toast with toppings.

PLENTY

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Where: 3-B, Raja Bahadur Mansion, 24-A, Mumbai Samachar Marg, Fort

When: Noon to 10.30 pm

Cost: About Rs 1,800 for a meal for two. No alcohol served.

Call: 2262-2020

We wouldn’t recommend a first date at Plenty. Don’t bring a client here either. Not even that friend you want to impress. Or a relative who’s just come into town.

Plenty is fine when you’re in the mood for something familiar. It’s for showing up, in pyjamas, with a long-standing love, an old colleague, besties from school, parents, or all of them at the same time. The offerings are indeed plentiful; there is something for everyone.

If the menu were a playlist, it would be called Best of the Millennials, or something like that. There are sharing plates, large plates, all day-breakfast, cold bowls and hot bowls. They feature favourites from everywhere: ramen, flatbreads, avocado toast, kale Caesar salad, Liège waffles, regional Indian curries, burgers, burritos and pavlova.

Plenty understands that huevos rancheros only works if each layer – scrambled eggs, salsa, cheese, beans and greens on a crisp tortilla – is delicious. And each one was. (Aalok Soni / HT Photo)

The two-level room features décor from across two decades – pendant Edison bulbs, painted tiles, exposed brick, wooden chairs with solid yellow and grey upholstery. On the walls and shelves, there’s enough quirk too: worn titles, a little postbox, mini brass kitchen sets.

On the day we visited, Plenty’s Instagram account featured a plate of good-looking huevos rancheros. A glance around the lively (and occasionally raucous) room indicated that the post had worked, many tables had ordered it. We did too.

The avocado toast comes topped with alfalfa sprouts and triangles of red radish. Underneath, the toast is lined with pickled beetroot and tangy goat cheese. It’s creamy and tart, crunchy and crusty. (Aalok Soni / HT Photo)

The kitchen understands that the Mexican breakfast’s play on texture and temperature only works if each layer – scrambled eggs, salsa, cheese, beans and greens on a crisp tortilla – is delicious. And each one was.

The Korean chicken wings, the day’s special, were plump. A glaze of sticky sweet-spicy, sesame-flecked sauce clung to the light coat of batter.

Plenty is owned by the family that runs Kitab Khana’s Food for Thought. The food has a similar sense of unsophisticated sincerity with a fun in-house twist.

The Korean chicken wings were plump and coated in a sweet-spicy, sesame-flecked glaze over a light coat of batter. (Aalok Soni / HT Photo)

FFT has an excellent bhel puri sandwich; Plenty has the avocado toast topped with alfalfa sprouts and triangles of red radish. Underneath, the toast is lined with pickled beetroot and tangy goat cheese. It’s creamy and tart, crunchy and crusty.

Our mushroom ramen had chewy wheat noodles swirling around a head-filling mushroom broth, with chunks of seared tofu and pickled shiitake. But the cold Vietnamese rice noodle salad isn’t quite what we expected – the noodles were perfectly cooked, there were crunchy julienned veggies, and peanuts, but the dressing lacked brightness. Not much fun either, were the prawns in over-processed sambal, on soggy basil fried rice.

The cold Vietnamese rice noodle salad wasn’t quite what we expected – the noodles were fine, as were the crunchy veggies and peanuts, but the dressing lacked brightness. (Aalok Soni / HT Photo)

For dessert, revani, a Turkish semolina cake soaked in orange syrup, arrived as a loose misshapen granular sponge with a pour of syrup and a blob of whipped cream. It was strong on sweetness and tang.

It was not posh or pretty, but it was to dessert what pyjamas are to outerwear.

(HT reviews anonymously and pays for all meals)