The unassuming doorway leads to an intimate room with a large bar on one side and ten tables seating two to six people each facing it. Drinks and wine here are indeed special and they have a wine or cocktail pairing, but we chose to order two bottles of fabulous Indian wine for much less with Ishaan's gracious assistance and lots of extra tastes, too. Will started with a drink called the "Gamble" mad of pisco, mezcal, pink guava, celery leaf, sea buckthorn and mango ginger which he loved, but I preferred my stronger "Grassroot" of tequila, raw ambada, wild thyme, sichuan pepper and pear with a sated rim that was really wonderfully earthy.
Masque takes two seatings at 7pm and 945pm, so if your dinner runs long, they kindly escort you upstairs to their "living room" where you cozy down with an after-dinner drink and dessert. We were thrilled we did not have to rush and loved the idea. The room is stark with limited decor, dark brown wood tables and a slate floor, so the food is truly center stage, not like some crazy design-centered gimmicky Michelin star spots we have been to.
Ishaan wanted us to try an Indian Riesling, but we were leaning towards Sauvingnon Blanc so he brought out three tastes. We did not care for the "orange-style" wine which was a salty weird Chenin Blanc from Kustavaan. The Charosa Sauvignon Blanc from nashik was great, but Ishaan was correct as we adored the Vallonne 2022 Riesling also from Nashik (in Mumbai's Maharastra state) that Will noted had a briny-ness that paired so well with the food and the spices.
The first course was Starfruit Kanji(
Makai Mathri was a play on chips and dip offering corn chips with hemp seeds and Bhautta chaat, a Kashmiri chili dip with a corn base. We loved the dip and the chips, but there was so much dip, we had to slather tons on the 4 chips we got!!
I guess we could say there were favorite courses, but they were all so different and unique, but Seaweed/Ponkh stood out in that the seaweed from Goa was fried like cracklings and the Ponkh is an amazing green sorghum that was steamed, dehydrated and then fried with a green apple chutney! Need I say more.
Fourth was BBQ Pork/Pea Patra/Saffron which was a pork that was served in a chorizo sauce(yes, sauce!) that was as smoky as you could wish with crunchy morel mushrooms(again from Kashmir) that were also dehydrated and fried, and a parsley chutney(read, puree). Green Pea Patra is simply peas wrapped in chickpea flour and looked like a small sushi roll! We have adored the green peas found almost everywhere in india, only the okra was a more favorite veggie!
Xacuti/Poached Egg/Ladi Pao is a play on a Goan omelet with xacuti curry of chewy carrots, clams and rat tail radish(yes!!) with a poached egg atop and served with Ladi Pao, which are really Portuguese-Indian Parkerhouse rolls which are used to mop up the egg and curry. Egg curry was one of my favorite dishes for breakfast in India, but I could have easily switched to this divine preparation any morning (or evening).
I have to also say that at Masque the servers work in teams, so Mirelle also gets great credit along with Ishaan for explaining everything so clearly, patiently and precisely as I wrote it all down!
Ishaan arrived with several tastes of red wine and while we have loved the Grover Shiraz/Cab blend everywhere, the Grover 2019 Zampa Chene Grand Reserve of Tempranillo and Shiraz was a letdown, so we immediately went with a new choice also from Vallone which was a fabulous full bodied 2017 Merlot Reserve. We wrote all the names down hoping to grab several bottles at the duty free when we departed Mumbai early this morning, but alas they sell NO Indian wine in the monstrous duty free shop; what a disappointment! I also have to mention that Ishaan studied at the C.I.A. in Hyde Park, NY and hence knows a tons of chefs in DC and elsewhere, so we have some great future contacts that are his buddies from school (we promise to mention you so highly, Ishaan)!
We were nest escorted into the large airy, modern kitchen (see video) where one of the chefs prepared our next course, a fabulous palate cleanser: Red Tamarind sorbet/Rose Apple.
The main meat course was, of course, Lamb/Ambemohar/Black Garlic which was served with rice with black garlic. The lamb was prepared with kohlrabi leaves, cherry tomatoes, green lentils or toor dahl and a sundried tomato chutney(mixed with something that I cannot decipher in my notes), hemp & Murg Dahl, "Habanero" Chutney fermented for Masque by a local farmer that was easily the spiciest chutney on the entire trip and puri kaththi. The red wine was divine with the lamb and all the spices and it was tons of fun to take the different chutneys or dips for each bite of lamb or food and mix different ones, which is truly the essence of Indian food from breakfast on!
There were three dessert courses of which the first was Nolen Gur/Gondhoraj or simply a wonderful lemongrass granita palate cleanser served with Jaggheri, the date palm sweet but here turned in a Bengali-style yogurt, which was a pulpy lemony treat that really made your mouth forget the spices before and get ready to move on.
Second was Chocolate/Passion Fruit, a fudgy treat served in a caramel crust that we both adored.
At this point our 2-1/2 hour slot was approaching, and we were escorted upstairs where we ordered a glass of Indian dessert wine to share from Vallone(again) 2018 Vin de Passerillage that was intensely viscous, super sweet and highly acidic, so I let Will enjoy it as it just reminded me of the Indian sweets that are SOOOO sweet, I just cannot fathom them. Our final dessert was the only course we were not blown away with and I think it is largely because the Paan or betel nut leaf is an acquired taste, Strawberry/Fennel/Paan was the leaf wrapped around pickled strawberry and fennel and beautifully presented, n=but as you know while I love pickles of all kind, and India truly wins the pickle variety competition, I am not a fennel fan at all.
So one course out of ten was simply not to our liking, but that was really a personal taste issue. Check out the photos and video on Facebook and please realize this was one of the most wonderful meals we have ever had ANYWHERE, not to mention the wonderful service, kindness of the staff, generosity with their time and also just a fully fun night out in Mumbai!
