Why this so-called gourmet cafe in Thane fails to impress

Coffee Tree at a leading multiplex chain in Thane calls itself a gourmet café but doesn’t do justice to the tag

Coffee Tree
Food: Average
Service: Slow
Value-for-money: No

The memories of dropping by the cinema hall would be incomplete without popcorn or A-1 samosas. So when we heard that Cinepolis multiplex in Thane has a gourmet café that not only serves food inside the theatre but is also open to outsiders, we were really excited.

The Paneer Tikka Pizza was the best pick of the day with generous pieces of paneer and loads of cheese

En route to the café, our mind was already imagining eating burgers made of multigrain buns and pasta served with bacon and sea salt, as that is what one would associate with gourmet to an extent. The café is a part of the multiplex’s property and you very much feel like you are out for grub during the interval. But a look at the menu dampened our expectations.

Coffee Tree is housed inside Cinepolis and delivers food in the auditoriums too

On offer were simple vegetarian and chicken burgers, sandwiches, boring pasta options and a few beverages. We ordered a Paneer Tikka Pizza (Rs 170, all prices exclusive of taxes) a Chocolate Shake (Rs 120) and a vegetarian Cream Cheese Pasta (Rs 170). Our order was ready after half-an-hour (we were told 15 minutes at the beginning of our wait). Worse, the order wasn’t entirely worth the wait. The Shake was a disaster; the consistency was thin, and it contained very little chocolate.

The pasta was your average white sauce pasta, though not bad to taste. We are not too fond of paneer on our pizza, but the spicy tomato sauce made The Paneer Tikka Pizza worth it. The toppings were generous too.

For some carnivorous craving, we opted for a Chicken Burger (Rs 120) and Grilled Chicken Sandwich (Rs 170). This again took another 30 minutes. The burger and the sandwich were good to taste — the sandwich, in particular was quite filling. But the ingredients and the flavours were regular (two slices of tomato in the burger). Paying '140 (after the added taxes) for the burger was too steep.

Coffee Tree serves regular whole-in-the-wall eatery fare, which is pricey but not unpalatable. However, they need to shake off their gourmet tag.

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