Methinks that this is one Café which should be renamed Café Quirky! There are quirky little touches throughout the café ranging from the scooters and motorcycle which form part of the décor to the feather boas decorating the merchandise on sale. Even the restroom signs are kind of idiosyncratic with a beguiling Venus adorning the Men’s Room door while an Adonis welcomes the ladies to the powder room…….interesting once you get over the initial shock. Overall the place has the casually comfortable décor appropriate for a café. However the sun-lit ground floor with its glass walls and open kitchen is definitely more cheery and inviting while the first floor is rather dimly lit, dark and depressing.
The USP of the place is that it doubles up as a fashion boutique hence upping the ‘style’ quotient and one can pick up interesting clothes and footwear while one waits to be served. The menu is very extensive culling dishes from across the glove. Apart from the luncheon and dining options they also offer a breakfast menu till 11 am. The fare on offer here ranges from the run of mill English and American (or Obama style as they prefer to call it!) breakfast to aloo (potato) parathas and pao bhaji. As far as the regular dining options are concerned, they have some rather interesting soups including the beer and cheese soup with “serious beer”. However since I was lunching there on a hot summer afternoon I decided to skip the soup and move on directly to the main course. This as it turned out, was a wise decision since the helpings here are generous enough to merit a statutory warning “Monster helpings for monster appetites” (if the promoters are reading this……guys you should definitely warn patrons about the huge helpings!). Not that I am complaining the food was almost uniformly good.
They do a very good cottage cheese shawarma sandwich but what got me really excited was seeing ‘bunny chow’ on the menu. This concoction developed by Indian immigrants to South Africa essentially comprises curry stuffed into hollowed out bread. Though not as good as the Bunny Chow I snacked upon on the streets of Durban, the Café Style version definitely makes a valiant attempt at authenticity and was quite good. However the star amongst the dishes I tried during my visit was definitely the mushroom pot pie. I am not a huge fan of pot pies on the whole but this one was absolutely divine and head and shoulders above the vegetarian pot pies available elsewhere in the city. They have an interesting selection of desserts as well but my vote would definitely go to the ice cream mezze platter which is made up of generous scoops of various ice creams and is a dessert to be shared and enjoyed. While the ice cream was uniformly creamy and tasty, the coffee and cinnamon flavours deserve special mention for their scrumptiousness.
Overall Café Style is definitely worth a visit if you live in Noida or happen to be visiting. With good and reasonably priced food, friendly service and cheerful interiors (not to mention the happy marriage between two of my passions food and fashion) it is definitely one of the better dining options in the Sector 18 Market
Food: 3.5/5
Service:3/5
Interiors:3.5/5
Average Cost for a Meal for Two:Rs. 800
