Restaurant Review: The Bagel Shop, Bandra

Hi!
So today, I will review The Bagel Shop, which is located in Pali Mala Road, Pali Hill, Bandra.

And here's what it looks like:

It looks like The 'Oagel' shop in this, but the 'B' is behind the pretty silver decoration. 

Tucked away behind myriads of potted plants in the slopes of Pali Hill, The Bagel Shop is the perfect place for a late afternoon rendezvous. The plants all around the cafe keep the air cool, which makes sitting outside without the air-conditioning extremely pleasant. The ambience is dominated by the warm colours on the walls and comfy chairs and couches to lounge in. Once you settle into your seat, you will immediately feel the leisure and quiet wash over you. I noticed that people frequent this place for informal meetings or to work peacefully (free WiFi yo!).

What I found a little disappointing was the service. You have to wait around for the waiter for 10 minutes and then ultimately give him a shout out to come and attend to you. Apart from that, the food takes about 10-15 minutes to arrive after you've placed your order. I ordered a Grilled Beef Bagel with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard and cream cheese, and a Strawberry Smoothie. My friend ordered a Bagel with Nutella. My beef bagel wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The beef was overcooked and chewy (not tender and juicy like I expected), and honestly, it wouldn't have harmed to have more cream cheese. But the bagel was delicious in all sense of the word. The crust was crunchy and the herbs just added to the overall flavour. The smoothie was nice and fresh, but a little less on sugar, which I didn't mind in the least. My friend's Nutella bagel was intensely gratifying.

Grilled beef bagel with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard and cream cheese. 

The strawberry smoothie was fresh and yummy. 

You can't really go wrong with a Nutella Bagel. 

This place will leave a slight pinch in your pocket. The bagels itself aren't all that pricey, (unless you order something fancy like Tuna which is for Rs. 400), but the taxes make the bill quite a burden on your pocket money. But if you're looking for a New York-kiosk-style bagel, then you should definitely drop by. Just follow these guidelines:

1. Keep it simple. Order something like a Nutella bagel, or a Cinnamon Bagel, which they serve with butter, so that you can enjoy the taste and flavour of the bread. 
2. Spend a good hour and a half: To get the full worth of your money, I think you should stay for an hour and a half or so. Just sit back in your chair, take occasional bites of your bagel and participate in conversation with your friends.
3. Carry some work along: If you want to work or write, this place is perfect. Sit back with your laptop, a bagel and a coffee, and the words will just come to you. 
4. Use their free WiFi: Even after spending 2 hours at The Bagel Shop you still feel like you haven't gotten your money's worth, just ask them for their WiFi password and download your time away!

My overall impression of The Bagel Shop is favourable. If you have an exotic taste, then you should try their chorizo bagel, which is beautifully smoky and oozy! Or just stick to their Bagel with butter, because you can never go wrong with that! 

Bon Appetit! 

This movie is funny funny funny funny funny funny!

As I was involuntarily bobbing my head to "Aaj blue hai paani paani paani paani.." (Though I have to tip my hat off to Yo Yo Honey Singh for refreshing his vocabulary for this one), I knew that life, as I knew it, was soon coming to an end. Yaariyan is a movie about five, for want of a better word, horny college students with no other ambition in life apart from kissing members from the opposite sex. The movie begins with a slow-mo shot of Lakshay, the not-so-charming protagonist, chasing after a girl to get his first kiss, who for some reason is barely clothed despite living in the cold temperatures of Sikkim. The guiding motive in this entire movie is to protect the college campus from an Australian takeover which would convert the campus to a casino. In order to win the premises, college students from India and Australia would compete in a 5-round competition. The rest of the movie is a blur, to be honest. Since the movie is targeted to the youth, who according to the makers of the film are interested in nothing but sex and booze, the music composers put together 2 party tracks - Yo Yo Honey Singh's "Aaj blue hai paani paani.." and ABCD for the pyjama party, which was nothing short of an orgy. 

There were so many moments which left me completely baffled. Like how Saloni, the archetypal scholar’s winning chess move miraculously brought Debu (Lakshay's childhood best-friend) back to life only to kill him in a few minutes just to give the Indian team enough motivation to win, and was actually ruthless to the poor boy who had tried to protect the Indian team’s honour. Or how Saloni, went from being the shy, reserved, fully-clothed Indian girl to naval-showing, asymmetrical skirt wearing bimbo in just seconds, and for what? To win the playboy’s heart. Or what TVS scooters were doing in Australia? Or what a homosexual was doing at a girl’s Swayamvar. Mind-boggling, I tell you. But the worst bit was to see Debu die to arouse patriotic feelings in Lakshay long enough to win the competition.

Yaariyan has got to be one of the worst movies I have seen in my lifetime. The shoddy plotline, mediocre acting, unrealistic dialogues, ridiculous costumes, horrible music and atrocious direction did not add to its likability. Hey, but don’t let me stop you from watching it! 

Until then, enjoy the foot-tapping beats of Mr. Yo Yo here. 

Um.. I created this blog because...

Hi!

I am Roshni Sridhar. Mass Media student. I thought it sounded funny in my head thinking that , but it sounds funnier saying it out loud. 

So lets get right to it then, shall we? I created this blog as an assignment. A Journalism assignment. And what am I going to post here, you shall ask? Its simple. Weekly assignments given by my professor. So this week it is a review piece for a recent Bollywood film. I haven't started working on it yet, let alone watch the film, or even pick one for that matter. As a student of BMM (Bachelors of Mass Media, i.e.), I solemnly swore in the first year that I would never ever start working on an assignment before hand. EVER. This report is due on Saturday, so I'll start watching the film Friday midnight, fall asleep during the movie, down a few coffees, tape my eyelids open, somehow manage to watch the film, and finally, after all this ordeal, get to know that the due date for submission has been postponed a week. That moment will be so glorious, that I will shove my laptop aside, and sleep the best sleep ever. With snores and all. Then the entire week shall pass, and I will be staring at the film again, because I will have forgotten in all my earlier excitement what the film actually was all about. So this process will be repeated dutifully till the end of the semester and the professor will be forced to grade us for our assignments based on our final exams. HURRAH! 

I am kidding though. I will post stuff weekly. I don't know what stuff. But 'stuff'. So await my awesome review for some film I will pick last minute! 

I don't even know who I am writing for, except for my professor, who will probably give me a horrible grade for this post. But whatever. I just needed to post a sort of intro to this blog. And here it is! 

Happy reading! :)