Launched three years ago, Madeira and Mime is based on a similar concept as its sister restaurant Mirchi and Mime -- it is run entirely by hearing and speech impaired waitstaff. The place operates as a cafe during the day and turns into a gastropub once the sun sets and the booze and music dominate the space.
The manner to order the food continues to be the same: The moment you enter, you are introduced to the fact that it is run by differently-abled staff, you are assigned a staff member to take your orders and taught their sign-name and how to say thank you in sign language by their head of operations who is speech and hearing abled. You are then handed over a menu that comes with a sign for each section and a number against every dish.
We were handed over their new menu, which has an addition of about 30 news dishes including Prawns Alla Piastra, Laksa Curry, Nasi Goreng, Oven Roasted Gol Mirchi Tikka, Exotic Vegetable Risotto among others.
We started with Pillow Talk, a concoction made from Gin, Orange and Rosemary, as we waited for our order and loved every sip we had. The first two items we tried were Potato Cheese Roll and Crackling Spinach Cottage Cheese. While the potato rolls, with a filling of jalapenos, mozzarella cheese, garlic pepper mayo and potato mixed together, were crispy and tasty, we were sold on their cottage cheese. Tossed in Schezwan chilli sauce, the paneer was delicious and adding a cherry on the top was the crackling spinach served on its side.
We then moved on to try their all-time favourite Vada Pav (miniatures) and Dilli Chole Dabbal Roti. While Vada Pao was bland and nowhere near the authentic vada-pav options that this city is filled with, Dilli Chole Dabbal Roti was an interesting attempt. They had taken a thick and extremely soft white bread and had put chole on it with onions on the top. While it is no match to Delhi's Chole-Kulche as it lacked the spices, it can be given a shot. Meanwhile, we ordered another drink, this time Muchadwala which had vodka, paan, clove and apple juice and were pleasantly surprised.
Our take: Try their drinks, they are interesting and so are their starters. The main course is a mixed bag of hits and misses.
Price for two: Rs 1500