One Degree Above

Two One Two
Hornby Vellard Estate, Worli, Mumbai
Tel: 24901994
Meal for two: Rs 3,500
Rating: ****

sure sign of a great Mumbai restaurant is spotting that dedicated foodie, Adi Dubash, tucking away in a corner. And Two One Two is evidently one of his current favourites. The restaurant takes its name not from its address, as we’d naturally assumed, but from the boiling point of water: at 211 degrees F, the water is merely hot; at 212, it boils; it’s that one degree that makes all the difference. And it’s just that small, but telling, difference that this restaurant claims to work towards.

In most joints this would all be just meaningless blah but, in this case, you quickly realise that it rings true: we had one of the best meals we’ve eaten in a long time, and, as Mies van der Rohe would have said, ‘God was in the details’. We began with a silky, yet earthy, mushroom cappuccino, and a starter of carpaccio’d and seared tuna, humming with the flavour of galangal and avocado. We then proceeded to a rich, fragrant goat-cheese-and-mushroom strudel, and a lamb chop that gave a whole new meaning to the term ‘melt in the mouth’. And we ended our meal with a panna cotta trilogy—raspberry, chocolate and toffee—the last of which, especially, regressed us back to memories of childhood. The portions were just right, and everything was presented with consummate simplicity and elegance. We have only one complaint: if we ate here too often it would spoil us for other, more commonplace restaurants.