17 April,2011 08:33 AM IST | | Anjana Vaswani
They can prop you up on the 30th floor for a solitary terrace meal and anchor you in the middle of the Arabian Sea for a cruise dinner. Musicians, butlers and exotic blossoms keep you company, and your wish is their command. Presenting a round-up of the city's most expensive meals that money can buy. Mumbai, as they say, is not cheap to live in
Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant made hopping over fences seem like the ideal way to fall in love, while most of us have hitherto thought of candlelight dinners as the pinnacle of romance. Well, all that's changed now.u00a0If the way to your date's heart is through their belly, spare no expense to treat them to a meal that can cost anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh. Of course, when you are digging that deep into your pockets, you are not just paying for rich food, but an exclusive experience fit for a king.
Khojesteh Kathawala rents out his Motor Yacht Sea Ray 330 Sundancer
for Rs 25,000 for three hours. Food on board (not included in this price)
includes stuffed squid, grilled prawns and exotic mushrooms.
Pic/shadab khan
Imagine just the two of you, sailing on the Arabian Sea, your favourite numbers playing on the boat so it stays just as romantic inside the air-conditioned bedroom as it is on the deck. You have the wind in your hair, a butler at your call and your favourite brand of bubbly chilled and ready to sip on. If yacht-owner Khojesteh Kathawala is to be believed, it doesn't get more romantic than this. The 31 year-old MBA rents out a 61-foot luxury yacht through his company Yacht Charters India. The Motor Yacht Princess 61 costs Rs 30,000 an hour for cruising, and Rs 25,000 for an hour of anchorage.
So, let's say you choose to take your date for a two-hour cruise and drop the anchor for another three hours to enjoy a quiet dinner, you are looking at a meal worth well over a lakh. This price doesn't include food.
The menu can serve up Stuffed Squid, Grilled Prawns, prime cuts of meat cooked to your preference, zucchini, and exotic mushrooms. You can also order champagne and wine or, and if it's a particularly exclusive brand that you're determined to sip on, he'll allow you to bring your own bottle too. Kathawala also rents out his own Motor Yacht Sea Ray 330 Sundancer, a 33-foot yacht, for Rs 25,000 for three hours (which includes one hour of cruising and two hours of anchorage). The base charge does not include food and beverages.
Cost: A smaller yacht is available at Rs 25,000 for three hours with an additional 10.3 per cent service tax (Rs 2,575); food and beverages cost extra.who's going? "Just a few years ago, only 40 year-olds had the cash to enjoy something as exclusive as this, but now, we get a lot of young couples booking our yachts," says Kathawala.
Book it: Call Khojesteh Kathawala at 9870549414
Log onto: https://www.yachtchartersindia.in/
Never terrace apart You pay: Rs 1.5 lakh
Parel's five-star hotel ITC Grand Central has the newly-devised Night to Remember offer, says food and beverage manager Sumeet Suri. "It's the element of surprise that makes it so exciting."u00a0 Meant solely for couples, the date begins with a pick up in a Mercedes Benz from your home, with chilled champagne awaiting you in the car.
At Point of View, a terrace on the 30th floor of the hotel reserved exclusively for the date, the couple enjoy personalised butler service, a specially prepared meal, and a live performance by musicians. The menu can be customised to include a variety of dishes including Norwegian Salmon Steaks and Fine Herbs Crusted New Zealand Lamb Chops. Champagne will flow and the stars will shine bright while a designer cake prepared by a dessert chef may fight for your date's attention, but we think you can handle that.
The exclusivity of the property means that you can design your date. From the cuisine you'd like to savour to the liquour you'd want to guzzle and the flowers you want to have dress up the walls with ufffd all, as they say, can be arranged. All the staff ask for is an advance notice of two days.
Cost: Rs 1.5 lakh includes customised menu and the live band (exceptional dishes like top of the line Cristal champagne or Beluga caviar would be charged as add-ons) Who's going? "CEOs, MDs and well-known celebrities," says Suri.
Book it: Call 24101010
Villa marry me
You pay: Rs 20,000+
We have had a lot of requests to decorate the place a certain way for a couple's special occasion," says self-taught culinary-whiz Nitin Mongia, who has converted his ancestral home in Alibaug into a boutique villa, now christened Ccaza Ccomodore. Mongia is especially targeting guests who crave that "not-so-distant weekend getaway that city life makes you want to run to." At this Alibaug retreat, you can do up the place as you want, choose the menu, liquour and entertainmentu00a0-- decorate the place with lilies, light it up with candles or ask for a pianist to play anything from Lady Gaga to Edith Piaf.
For dinner too, (which can be arranged by the poolside) "anything can be arranged". You can choose anything from Baked Brie with Strawberry Compote to Barbeque Lobster with Basil Butter, all prepared by Mongia and his 14-people strong staff.
Cost: Rs 20,000 base charge (food, beverages, liquour charged extra, and prices subject to change depending on season)
Who's going? Honeymooners, young dating couples, senior citizens celebrating wedding anniversaries, and top executives favour the place.
Book it: Call 9820132158u00a0
Log on to: www.ccazaccomodore.com
Set the mood with food You pay: Rs 40,000+
If you know how food can make or break a date, this may be your venue of choice. With a couple of days notice and a wad of cash amounting to Rs 40,000, you can have the Black Lounge at Indigo, Colaba all to yourself. The owners are even willing to let you hire the terrace for an entire evening, for the princely sum of Rs 1,60,000. Malini Akerkar co-owner of Indigo, who set up the fine dining restaurant with chef husband Rahul a decade ago, says the terrace has not been let out before, but the price is justified since it involves taking 80 tables out of use.
"A gentleman had booked the Black Lounge once to propose to his girlfriend ufffd we re-arranged the space with a beautiful long-dining table at the centre. The place was candle-lit and we had soft music playing," she remembers. Divine meals, a trademark of Indigo, are part of the package, of course, but so are specially created floral arrangements, music, champagne and wine.
Cost: Rs 40,000 for exclusive use of the Black Lounge and Rs 1,60,000 for the terrace at Indigo, Colaba
Who's going? Couples across age groups
Book it: Call 66368999
Sicily and Afghanistan come to Mumbai
Keen to taste the flavours of Sicilian and Sardinian sea food just the way the Italians like it? Chef Alessandro Persico is visiting Celini, the Italian restaurant of Grand Hyatt till April 20, where he'll be preparing lip smacking dishes like Pan-Seared Shrimp in Lemon-Ginger Broth, Green Pea and Calamari Soup with Black Pepper Toasted Bread, Oven-Baked Lobster Tail with Saffron Cream and Balsamic Onion Mash, and Black Squid Ink Risotto with Shrimp and White Wine.
Call: 022-66761234
Meanwhile, 'kabob' lovers can head to the Renaissance Hotel for the Afghan food festival that will be on from April 18 to 30. Newly appointed chef at Nawab Saheb, Ajay Mishra, will prepare Borsht Shorwa (soup), Kuftah Kabob (Mince lamb balls, stuffed and baked), Chapli Kebob (Pan fried mince meat gallets with onion and fried hamburgers) among other dishes.
Call: 022-66927558
