F Lounge Diner Bar - Luscious Fashion


The trend of brands extending their portfolio is common place today, but fusing fashion and food is unique. Case in point? The F Lounge.Diner.Bar. Following footsteps anyone?

By: Karishma Suri

Posted on: August 23, 2012

The trend of brands extending their portfolio is common place today, but fusing fashion and food is unique. Case in point? The F Lounge.Diner.Bar. Following footsteps anyone?

Clicking heels, confident struts, delectable aromas and the echo of pleasurable dining. An alliance between fashion and food can elicit responses as high as a model’s heels, but with big time branding like FTV in the mix, your hearts can only but skip a beat. As the night gets younger, so does the place which we often refer to as F Bar, but in reality, is called F Lounge.Diner.Bar. Applauding the multi-faceted character of F Lounge.Diner.Bar, know that it is positioned as a restaurant just before the bubbly is poured.

Recognising Mumbai’s truly cosmopolitan nature, this place is an answer to the varied tastes and characteristics that define the tasteful socials. “F Lounge.Diner.Bar is not only a night club like the one in Delhi, but also provides a wonderful dining experience with the help of Michelin Star Chef Vineet Bhatia. Also, being an exclusive lounge experience for those who are very selective and enjoy premium places at an affordable price, Mumbai can now add a feather into its lifestyle cap,” said Mr Rajan Madhu, Director, F Lounge.Diner.Bar.

Trying to muffle out the sounds of your heels in the very corporate looking building (the IndiaBulls Centre), you can breathe a sigh of relief as you stop at a reception desk and flick that final strand of hair into place as the hostess greets you and ushers you into a dramatic looking area. With a lounge and bar as you enter and a full-fledged restaurant on the top floor, it will take you a second to decide that maybe you would want to fill your tummy a bit before dancing the night away. Good call! With popular music and alluring cocktails, be assured that you’ll bid an adieu to this place with a heady feeling.

Fashion TV screens are a key element, innovatively positioned across the various areas of the restaurant, but of course, can get distracting most of the times. Other than that, F Lounge.Diner.Bar pretty much sums up as a live fashion magazine. With food. And drinks.

Fashion footsteps
If you thought that the ramp was only for models, think again. This place seamlessly bridges the gap between the famed ‘f’ world and the tasteful. Mumbaites, in fact, have received the ‘F hospitality’ very well since F Lounge.Diner.Bar aptly recreates fashion, lifestyle and glamour. “The concept and décor of F Lounge.Diner.Bar has been designed in a manner that gives each customer its own option of choosing the experience. The 1st level has a vast bar with choices of liquor, music and lounge experience. The 2nd level provides an international dining experience, exclusive Dom Perignon Champagne lounge and a private area for parties,” shared the excited Mr Madhu.

With a menu consisting of ample drinks and food, one is not left confined to the boundaries of conventional dining (with starters and a main course). Instead, sift through a variety of characteristically different dishes that could complement the Indian palate and satiate any mood. ‘Indian Food with a Global Influence’, as they call it, is like looking at our ever popular Indian cuisine from a different lens. True to his style, Chef Vineet has amalgamated Indian cooking with global influences, which give another boost to the fashionable F Lounge.Diner.Bar.

A take on the traditional
The team is friendly and hospitable with great emphasis on attention to details. Start your night (or day) with cocktails like the Whisky Sour, which was as smooth as single malt, striking the right notes between sweet and sour. The Peach Martini, on the other hand, was quite potent (one drink may cause you to try and balance a book on your head in a pair of heels), but nevertheless enjoyable. From the martini world, the strawberry and kiwi ones hit the right spots on the palate and succeed in bringing out the fruitiness without diluting the spirit. The food offerings are widespread for lunch and dinner with an a la carte menu, a world menu and an all day dining menu, with a brilliant pairing of cocktails to compliment them, created by renowned mixologist Shatbi Basu. “The inspiration behind food was to also change people’s perception that F is only for night-clubbing and partying. We wanted to give our clients an experience of international cuisine also,” said Mr Madhu.

If you can hear the tummy growling, try the goat cheese smoked cashew cigar roll. One bite and you’ll have an irresistible urge to quickly chow it down! The cashew offsets the flavour of the goat cheese and one cigar roll will barely be enough. The cracked wheat and raw mango puchkas are the ideal westernised version of our popular paani puri – pop them in your mouth and have a shot of the pudina flavoured water. The aloo chaat martini is literally aloo chaat served in a martini glass. Maybe one would have expected a little something innovative, but that thought is quite promptly washed away as the pungent flavours of tamarind and Indian spices get your eyes to shut and lips to smile. The blue cheese chicken, which was grilled to perfection, had just the right amount of blue cheese. Juicy and tender, it will negate any guilt of all the calories consumed whatsoever. If pizza gets your insides churning, you will love the paneer makhni ‘pizzan’ which is, again, an unconventional take on the pizza and hits the bull’s eye for a dish that spells Indian, but tastes western.

Satiating the appetite
The element of fashion is resplendent in the menu right from the names given to the signature creations to the actual execution of the dish. The mains course included the potato rosti with a blend of three mushroom sauces. Creamy, but lacking that zing of right flavours, reach out for some herbs to spice up the otherwise bland dish. If brownie points were to be given for innovation, the marinated cottage cheese, asparagus, broccoli cooked en papillote (food enclosed in a packet of parchment paper or foil and cooked in the oven) deserves every bit of praise. Served in paper, shut your eyes, and enjoy the perfect blend of spices and herbs that tickle the palate, but watch out for the cottage cheese that is more on the salty side due to the lemon they add to it.

A non-vegetarian option of the famed ‘dress me down’ as they call it, fish (rawas) marinated with olives and capers, again cooked en papillote, is a good option for those who like to please their olfactory senses before their taste. The conventional smoked salmon carpaccio was enhanced with a caper olive sauce and will please those who like to play it safe when it comes to their flavours.

The innovative dishes, more than filling you up, excite you about the next course. This held true for the upcoming desserts course as well. The dessert menu comprises an unusual selection of Indian sweets and baked products, with special sugar free options for the health conscious, so you have no excuse not to please that sweet tooth. Again, innovation is key and one cannot wait to get their hands on Baileys Kulfi or the gooey chocolate brownie with kesar pista along with Oreo ice cream! They chilled our senses and melted in the mouth. In short, they intrigued and delighted us!

F Lounge.Diner.Bar truly gives competition to its existing branch in New Delhi, and has reached miles ahead of them. Few months into the opening, Mr Madhu is quick to notice that unlike Delhi, Mumbaikars are very selective, move in groups and require a lot of individual attention. True, but our attention now is on this new lifestyle spot, and nothing seems to deter today’s young (and old). The place welcomes an audience in any form. So if you wish to experience a truly international combination of dining, lounging, music and partying, you now know where to go. With no two thoughts about it, it is food fashioned for the Indians in an ‘F’ way. Absolutely fabulous!

Coordinates: One IndiaBulls Centre, 3rd Floor, Next to Gold's Gym, Senapati Bapat Marg, Elphinstone Road, Mumbai
Ph: +91-22-66505820

Post your comment


    We encourage thoughtful discussion, debate and differing viewpoints, with the understanding that all comments must be civil and respectful. We encourage you to remain on topic and to be mindful that the comments are public. We do not permit messages selling products or promoting commercial or other ventures. Upon request of individuals named in comments, some comments may also be removed. We reserve the right—but assume no obligation—to delete comments, and report offenders who do not follow the code.

Recommended Articles

No Recommended Articles