Once an Irani joint, Cafe Royal has kept up with the times by holding on to its quality fare
We walk into Cafe Royal on a weekday evening to find a group of elderly Parsis discussing community politics over sizzlers. Interestingly, the Parsi connection runs deep. Originally an Irani café, the restaurant has come a long way from its tea and bun-muska selling days. And by long, we mean a century. Established in 1919, there are no tell tale signs of its age, except the fact that it's housed in yet another relic, the Oriental Mansion building. "It was a bustling Irani café back in the day because of its strategic location. Later, it changed hands and became a modern fine dine," says city historian Deepak Rao, who surprisingly hasn't dropped by at the restaurant since it became Cafe Royal.
The café's painfully media-shy proprietor, Manpreet Singh, admits that the modernisation was their way of keeping up with the times. "Before we came into the picture, which is about 20 years ago, it was a quaint space that offered tea, kharis and samosas. After the renovation, we decided to broaden our menu and offer a host of cuisines based on public demand. The idea was to offer everything under one roof," he says. But it is sizzlers that the café became synonymous with, and continues to be. "We still specialise and invest in it because it is part of our identity," he adds.
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Chicken Sizzler. Pics/Suresh Karkera
There was a time, he recalls, when Bollywood actors like Salman Khan and Aditya Pancholi would regularly drop by for a meal but with the rise of new fine-dine hubs like BKC and the rest of the suburbs, it has reduced to a trickle. "If there's a shoot in the area, the same actors order food from here," he says.
The Last Supper reworked by Hetal Shukla at Cafe Royal
The most visible change in the last decade, though, has been the sprawling hand-painted mural that hangs on the wall. Artist Hetal Shukla was commissioned to rework The Last Supper, that featured Biblical figures at the supper-table, and instead include Indian and American movie stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Angelina Jolie at a bar. "We wanted to give it a contemporary feel because a lot of our guests are actors, and foreign tourists who are enamoured by Bollywood. Shukla took a month and a half to prepare it. But people remember the paintings as much as the sizzlers," he smiles.
When Clinton came
During his India visit in 2000, US President Bill Clinton dropped by at Cafe Royal to try the sizzler steak. Due to security reasons, regular patrons were denied entry. The Regal Theatre, opposite the café, too, had to cancel its booking for the evening show due to this.
Time: 11 am to 1 am
At: Oriental Mansion Building, 166, SP Mukherjee Chowk, Colaba.
Call: 22883985
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