Restaurant Review: Exotic rotis at Café@JIWA

Rotis used for wraps, stuffed rotis, rotis for dessert…perusing Café@JIWA's menu of exotic sounding preparations with the simple roti as the base, Avril and I were drawn to its experience centre in Bandra for our Saturday lunch. The setting turned out to be as unusual as its menu–the inside area, which was already occupied, has an open kitchen and only one table that can accomodate about five people. The outside area, separated from the main with a glass partition, has six chairs divided into three pairs. We sat across each other, but there was no table between us; low tables were placed to our left and right, such that we'd be sharing them with others sitting by our sides.

The Good
The small green wall, hanging plants and wooden seating all made for a relaxed ambience and water served in earthenware glasses tasted even better. We were discussing the place's home-like feel, when the lady attending to us laid down three magazines. Instead of a typical menu card, we were given a sheet to tick our order on–wraps were available with a choice of rotis, filling (butter beans and feta, tandoori bhindi aloo etc.) and sauces (Asian wasabi, pesto etc.), but the Gourmet Rotis appealed to us more. We narrowed down on Sri Lankan Pol Roti with multigrain roti and Mauritian Dholl Roti with missi roti.

The Bad
Though the roof covered the top, rains threatened to drench us from the sides and mosquitoes fed on us as we ate our meal. Flies joined us too. The table placement and height made the experience uncomfortable and though the staff was friendly, the overall set-up was unprofessional. Our attendant didn't understand most queries, wasn't aware of what's available and messily cleaned the table with tissue paper.

The Tasty

White Chocolate Mocha served in a winnowing sieve

Interestingly our rotis came in winnowing sieves–eight triangular pieces accompanied by greek yogurt and nutty peanut chutney. The lentil-filled pol roti and crisp, spicy dhol roti reminded me of homemade dal paratha and onion paratha respectively, but I loved the balance of flavours. Even Avril, who usually avoids dal took to the pol roti. She liked the latter even more and felt the condiments (especially the desi chutney) went better with it. The White Chocolate Mocha with multigrain roti is filled with dark chocolate; white chocolate and dry-fruit powder are only for garnish. What left us most delighted was the spiced Apple Cinammon cooler (sprinkled with jeera), that they managed to restock just before we left. JIWA has different rotis–diabetic care, glutten free, slimming,  and others–for different health benefits. But we were there for for good food, and that's what we got.