Ziya restaurant in Mumbai is a modern Indian restaurant, with menus by the Michelin star chef Vineet Bhatia. The restaurant is located in the elegant Oberoi hotel in Mumbai with breathtaking panoramic views of the Mumbai bay and the Arabian sea.

Ziya got great reviews in the press everywhere in India and we had high expectations when we went there for dinner on Sunday November 3rd 2019. Probably too high in respect to the reputation of Vineet Bhatia, but our dinner fell a little bit short: every bite was good, tasty but compared to our lunch earlier at Ishaara, the cooking was less refined and one notch below. Our Ziya Tasting menu was not well balanced and a little too copious to our taste.

The wine list was excellent, especially for Indian wines. All fifteen French guests at our dinner were amazed and greatly surprised by the quality and finesse of the Indian wines we drank, be it white or red.

The service was top notch as expected in such a high-end venue.

Dining at Ziya was a nice experience, but somehow it left us a little bit frustrated probably because we had too great expectation from Vineet Bhata.

Ziya

The Oberoi, Mumbai,

Nariman Point, Mumbai,

Maharashtra 400021, India

Tel : +91 22 6632 6210

www.oberoihotels.com/hotels-in-mumbai/restaurants/ziya/

Initially, we wanted to lunch at the Sant Anton market in Madrid, but by the time we got there on Saturday November 9^th 2019 at 2pm all the restaurants and Tapas bars were full, so we had to improvise and find a place to eat for the seven of us.

By chance after walking five minutes away from the market and turning onto the Calle de Pelayo at number 4, we found Gastronomaquia, The name and the look of the restaurant appealed to us and by checking the menu all of us wanted to taste their cooking.

It was our lucky day as they had one big table left, near the kitchen, that could sit our party of seven. Everything on the menu looked good, so we decided to order several entrées to share such as mushroom croquettes, tuna tartar, grilled goat cheese and tiradito Gastronomaquia. These entrées confirmed our first impression: they were all tasty and pretty good, but the best was yet to come with their “A Banda” rice, their own version of the paella with mussels, clams and gambas. To conclude this very nice lunch, we had a Mojito sorbet and chocolate cake, both delicious.

The wine list was very interesting, the white wines particularly caught our attention and we selected a dry white wine from the island of Lanzarote in the Canaries called Bermejo Seco. This too was a lucky and amazing find.

The service was very nice and welcoming.

Gastronomaquia was a genuine serendipity and a good alternative from the eateries at Sant Anton mercado. It deserves to be discovered when you travel to Madrid.

Gastronomaquia

Calle de Pelayo, 4,

28004 Madrid, Espagne

Tel:  +34 915 22 64 13

www.gastromaquia.es