Bandra gets a new dinner cocktail lounge, and here's all you need to know about it

The Pink Phoenix

By the time the first cocktails arrive, the evening has found its rhythm. The room is dim and intimate, the music has a pulse, and the table is filling with plates that refuse to stay within a single culinary geography. A Japanese ingredient turns up in a Mediterranean dish; a familiar flavour takes an unexpected detour. There is no hurry to get through the courses. The idea is to settle in.

This is The Powder Room, a new 45-seater in Bandra created by Avik Chatterjee, Director and CEO of Speciality Restaurants Limited. Drawing on his travels across Africa, it is conceived less as a formal restaurant than as a dinner party with friends, where food, cocktails, music and conversation unfold at their own pace, with a few surprises along the way.

The Afro-jazz room interiors at the Powder room are a visual treat. Pics/The Powder Room

The menu, by Chef Sahil Singh, is MediterrAsian, bringing together Mediterranean cooking with Asian ingredients and techniques. The kitchen moves between the two without making a show of explaining every connection.

The meal begins with the cool, silky Avocado Tartare, followed by Sichuan Burrata, where aromatic spice cuts through the cheese's richness. Hamachi Tiradito brings delicate fish and citrus to the table, while Tuna Loin keeps things clean and understated. The small plates become more playful. Croquettes de Champignons crackle before giving way to an earthy mushroom centre, while the Truffle Potato Mille-Feuille moves from crisp potato to buttery softness. The Truffle Corn Pot Pie hides creamy, truffle-scented corn beneath golden pastry. Warm Powder Bread and tender Lobster Rolls keep disappearing between courses.

SICHUAN BURRATA

Then come the unexpected combinations: Lamb Cheese Burger Taquitos with juicy lamb and molten cheese; Sesame Prawn Croissant, where flaky pastry meets succulent prawn and toasted sesame; and Chicken Parma Okonomiyaki, a playful collision of chicken parm and Japanese street food. Harissa-Miso Chicken Skewers bring char and savoury heat, while the Baked Chilean Seabass is delicate and buttery. Truffle Mushroom Rice brings the savoury courses to a comforting close, followed by a playful Berry Taco and a Valrhona Chocolate Fondant with a molten centre.

TRUFFLE POTATO MILLE-FEUILLE AND BERRY TACOS

"The menu at The Powder Room explores the natural relationship between Mediterranean and Asian cuisine," says Singh. "We combine the character of Mediterranean cooking with the precision, techniques and bold flavours of Asia. Africa becomes the bridge between the two, bringing an additional layer of spice, fire and earthiness to the experience."

The drinks take a similarly wandering route. Anonymous Food Labs, the team behind The Lair and AABBCC in New Delhi, has created the bar programme, using ingredients such as clarified cherry tomato, toasted shiitake whisky, flower pepper mezcal, pandan, cacao butter and citrus.

CROQUETAS DE CHAMPIGNONS

The whisky-based cocktail is remarkably restrained, with herbal liqueurs quietly sitting beneath the spirit rather than allowing it to dominate. The Coiba takes a bolder route, with tequila at its centre and a dark chocolate-coated rim to nibble between sips. The Pink Phoenix is built around guava liqueur, an unusual pairing that gives the tequila a fruity, robust counterpoint without overwhelming it.

The evening ends with an Espresso Martini that feels almost like dessert: rich with coffee and liqueur, but without the heaviness. A dusting of Royce chocolate adds the finishing touch. There is a zero-proof selection too, for those who want to stay with the evening without the alcohol. And then there are the diversions. Our server challenges us to Achi, a traditional strategy game, with a Zaatar Picante shot for the winner. We win, and happily collect our prize.

The room provides its own visual journey. Designed by Sumessh Menon Associates, it draws from Sub-Saharan art and craftsmanship, layering earthy textures, bouclé and suede upholstery, Red Levanto and Georgia marble, timber and handcrafted artwork. A 12-by-5-foot flowing chandelier runs through the centre, while a kinetic wall sculpture by ZA Works brings movement to the space. At the bar, ripple-like lighting and timber battens create a livelier mood. An Afro-jazz and global music programme completes the setting.

The Powder Room works best when you stop treating it like a restaurant you have to get through. The lounge seating encourages lingering, the food is designed to be passed around, and the cocktails are made for a second round. It is dinner, certainly, but it is also what happens afterwards: another drink, another conversation, another plate arriving at the table. The evening, rather deliberately, has nowhere else to be.

Where: The Powder Room, 8th floor, Mansionz One, Linking Road, Bandra