We’d rather perch elsewhere: Raul Dias reviews new eatery, The Finch

Go for the live music, and the mudslide pastry dessert; be prepared for a very mixed menu and a mixed meal.

If The Finch were a person, it would be accused of being moody, unpredictable and inconsistent. Past its grungy, industrial-looking façade (including a laser projection of a finch ‘flitting’ all over the external wall) is a whole other world.

The retro-chic lounge bar pays rich homage to the nightclubs of the 1970s. There are faux-leather booths, velvet drapes, bird’s nest-shaped pendant lights over the bar and a stage at one end for live music.

The menu is similarly all over the place – with Thai, Korean, Mediterranean and European, and smatterings of Indian food.

Our meal started off well, with a mezze platter of silken hummus, moutabal and baba ganoush, falafel and pita bread.

We opted for the marhabba mezzeh sampler to begin. Silken hummus, moutabal and baba ganoush came accompanied by falafel and pita bread.

An amuse bouche of Korean spinach soup was the perfect spicy foil, with its gochujang sauce and kimchi bits hitting the back of the throat.

The Korean spinach soup was perfectly spiced with gochujang sauce.

Our server insisted we try the house’s signature saffrontini cocktail. It looked like liquid sunshine, but that’s perhaps the only thing good about it. Its off-putting synthetic saffron taste prevented a second sip.

The criminally overpriced pork belly with sorpotel curry sauce consisted of stringy slices of overcooked meat, drowned in a sickly sweet syrup!

At a whopping Rs 875 per serving, the criminally overpriced pork belly with sorpotel curry sauce was the night’s biggest letdown. Its stringy slices of overcooked meat came coated in a sickly sweet syrup that had nothing in common with Goan sorpotel.

Our Shanghai-style street noodles were a far sight better, with juicy bits of chicken and umami-rich shiitake mushroom.

The chocolate mudslide pastries that we got as compensation for the Oreo cheesecake we couldn’t eat, were the best part of the meal.

Suffering from a severe lack of imagination was the crumbly, tasteless Oreo cheesecake. Its gloopy, salted-caramel topping did little to help. The restaurant replaced it with a moist, superbly composed trio of chocolate mudslide pastries with a hint of salt. We demolished them in one fell swoop.

We’d probably go back to The Finch just for the live music. But as far as the food and drink are concerned, we’d rather perch elsewhere!

(HT pays for all meals and reviews anonymously)