Sitting in SDA market, surrounded by cafés, What a Comic Show is making its presence felt. HowIJ Unnati Joshi explains
The café is in the second level of a two- storeyed building. Beautiful lanterns guided us on our climb. Stepping in, the walls were bedecked with cartoons, taking us back to kindergarten. Beautiful lights with sketch books and pens, tables with comic stories and colourful chairs. Worth mentioning is the comic library, housing all your favourite characters and their exploits.
With a smile on each face they welcomed us with red wine. Red wine never disappoints! With Akon’s Hold My Hand playing in the background, they presented their comic menu card. We generally don’t talk about menu cards but this one was a Batman. “Cause I have been there before and you have been there before but together we can be alright,” the music continued. How apt.
We began with starters, the first of which is highly recommended, the ubiquitious fish finger. Very few places in the city get the bitterness of beer in the batter or the consistency of tartar sauce right and this one scored on both fronts. Next on our plate was Mushroom Triangle Toast. Topped with a heavy dollop of cheese, this toast had ordinary pizza flavours. Not much to talk about.
Next we were served Jalapeno popper cheese garlic bread, a cheesy piece of crap if you ask us tasting nothing like garlic bread. Then came Smoked lamb basil, the flavour swinging a bit wildly between sweet, strong and spicy. A steady dish, we are not recommending. Next was chicken dumpling, plated with red chilli dip. The dumplings were a tad oily but we were impressed with its taste and ginger flavour. Next they served us with Pasta arabiatta and crispy corn. With a strong oregano tang, the pasta was nicely done but our personal favourite was the crispy corn, with each granule popping in its turgidity.
The song changed to Complicated Heart by Michael learns to Rock. With a bottle of beer came cottage cheese peri peri and vegetable fried rice with Kung pao chicken. Cottage cheese peri peri was no good though, the plate looked colourful with cheese on one side, vegetables on the other and mashed potato on another, the peri peri sauce sitting in the middle. Vegetables had oil dipping out of it. The vegetable fried rice was tolerable and the kung pao chicken is something we would recommend, the chicken succulent and wholesome.
The café is a no-smoke zone and has a small balcony for it, which again has a comic touch. With comfortable chairs and plants around, we sat there enjoying the rainy day. They brought brain freezer for us outside. The hookah was as a brain freezer should be. But we enjoyed the smoke there.
For the last course, we had chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and brownie with vanilla ice cream. Usual. But the star of their kitchen was Brownie with vanilla ice cream, a pair made in heaven. The brownie was divinely fluffy and melting while the vanilla ice cream gave it an amazing essence. Writing about it makes us want to have it again. Not very expensive, it is a must-try there.
Overall, What a Comic Show offers some respectable choice of starters. The vibe is fun and light and we had some good service.