Going out with friends is not just a stress buster but also a luxury. And grateful for this luxury, I with four of my friends visited Woodside in Oshiwara, Andheri West last weekend. It was a Sunday night and we were apprehensive that we might not get a table for 5 at 8pm. But to our delight we got the table right away. Luckily one got vacated just when we arrived. decor

The place has good ambience with walls covered with the framed black and white artsy pictures. Certain pictures with quotes also lined the wall. The black board announcing the specials for the day in the mix of colourful chalks is sure to grab your attention. There is also a peculiar picture on a wall of framed pictures on a wall! They play a good selection of music but it’s not loud to be a nuisance while talking. Major points for that. The Sunday night crowd was much more polished and the entire place had a sophisticated look about it.

The drink menu is extensive and we were happy with the plethora of choices it offered us. We ordered the different variety of Sangria – Rossa Sangria (Red wine) and Melon Sangria (white wine). On the recommendation of our server, we ordered a beer called Viru, imported from Peru. The Sangria was good and the beer of premium quality. Out of the specials of the day we ordered Raw mango mojito which was the only disappointment. The mojito had lots of mint flavour to it but no essence of raw mangoes. But the server and staff was quick to address our disappointment and added raw mango flavour to the drink. The result turned out to be OK. We decided to avoid the specials completely post this. Fries

In starters, we ordered Smoked prawns & calamari ajillo with salsa tapenade, Baked chicken wings glazed in Jim Beam barbeque sauce, baked goat cheese bruschetta with tomato basil confit. I don’t think any dinner/ meal could be completed without French fries! So we ordered French fries with wasabi mayo and peanut butter. Smoked prawns was a tasty affair but there was less of prawns and more of squids, which I mostly left untouched. Baked chicken wings had sweet undertone due to the Jim Bean BBQ sauce but nevertheless it was tasty and was rather good in quantity. Bruschetta was good, but being a pure non vegetarian I just had a bite of that. French fries as usual was the best. Though I stirred clear of the wasabi mayo as it tasted a bit off and minty. Nevertheless, we ended up ordering for more fries and the next variety was Cajun spiced potato fries with roasted garlic, wasabi mayo & paprika aioli, it was a lil spicy but definitely tasted better. burger

By the time we moved to the main course our appetite had almost been sated. We ended up ordering BBQ chicken burger with English cheddar. It was a huge burger with the side of fries and coleslaw. Didn’t manage to finish it between the 3 of us! The two vegetarians had called for thin crust pizza with toppings of Artichokes, oven dried tomatoes & roquet with Pndicherry gruyere. My friends really liked it I never gotten around to taste it. The Arrabiata Penne Chicken pasta with spicy ripe tomato, fresh basil and olives was a good choice and we finished all of it. It was cooked perfectly and you could taste the different flavours in it.

Post dinner we called in our friends’ birthday, cut the cake, and had the lovely chocolate cake as dessert. The staff was cordial and attentive. Overall we liked the place and intend to visit again.

Food: 3.5/5  |  Ambience: 4/5  |  Service: 3.5/5  |  Drinks: 4/5  |

Overall rating: 3.5/5