Everyone’s favourite gastrobar, Woodside Inn has made its way into the Mills of Mumbai. Boasting of over 25 beers on tap, including brews by Barking Deer, White Owl, Independence Brewing, Doolally, Brewbot and Gateway, to name a few—this is any beer lover’s paradise. You’d think this would be the highlight, but it’s not. The star of the show at this outlet is in fact, a prawn roll.
This is no ordinary prawn roll, mind you. Some have gone so far as to call it an aphrodisiac. So what’s so special about this one, you ask? Inspired by the traditional New England Lobster Roll, the Woodside Inn’s version uses fresh prawn poached at a low temperature in butter, so as to retain its juiciness. It is then delicately bound within the buttery confines of a Brioche bun made specially for Woodside Inn by the Mag Street Bread Co. This bread was conceptualised based on the hot dog buns from New England. Split on top, the butter-poached prawns are layered within, coated with homemade aioli, rocquet lettuce and a delicious red cabbage slaw.
We spoke to Pankil, one of the founders of the Woodside Inn, about this new outlet, and what helped determine the ethos of this menu. He told us, “Our vision has always been to provide comfort food in a casual, non intimidating environment.” From pizzas, burgers and grills - the menu has always had a modern european ethos to it but in the most unintimidating manner. With the new outlet, they decided it was time to refine and elevate the taste of their food. This meant using better techniques and fresher ingredients. “The idea was never to not have a burger, for example. There will always be a burger - but now it will be the best damn burger there ever was.” Amen, to that. Thus, the new Woodside Inn at Todi Mill is sort of a twilight zone where haute cuisine meets a casual, chappal-wearing crowd.
Refined taste is the most important distinction between this outlet and the ones in Colaba and Andheri. Given that it’s a completely different neighbourhood, there is no point in copy-pasting a format that has worked elsewhere. What’s interesting, however, is their location in an area filled with restaurants that are far from casual. “We encourage shorts and chappals, and even pajamas. We wanted a space in this neighbourhood that offers a casual ambience at any time of the day,” says Pankil. So much for standing out!
One thing we know for sure is apart from the menu, these boys take their beer super seriously. They have a whole temperature room dedicated to maintaining temperature of craft beer. This is really important because microbreweries prefer to provide non-pasturized beer - beer in the most natural form possible. Maintaing temperatures for an extended amount of time is crucial to the quality of the beer - there’s no fooling around with this one. Their cooling room allows for backup kegs to be cooled at low temperatures, ready to be served at a moment’s notice. There’s no other spot in the city taking care of their beer the way these guys do.
The folks at Woodside understand that pasterized beer, which is essentially beer in its purest form, needs to be properly stored in order to mantain the refreshing taste and quality that we’ve come to love. On site is a cooling room dedicated to controlling the beer’s temperature and housing backup kegs, ready to be served at a moments noticed.
We asked Pankil to recommend the top dish at all three of Woodside Inn’s outlets and he recommends, “The Goan Pork Chorizo Pizza at Colaba, The Grilled Chicken Breast with Massaman Curry and Spaghetti on the side at Andheri, and of course, the OG Prawn Roll at Lower Parel.” So what are you waiting for? A chilled pint, delicious prawn roll and casual environment sounds like a pretty good day to us.
Where: Woodside Inn, Mathuradas Mills Compound, next to The Barking Deer and Saffron, Lower Parel
All Images Courtesy Woodside Inn
Words: Tansha Vohra