Now, a restaurant on wheels on Mumbai streets!

If you39re in the habit of taking a stroll down Marine Drive one of these days yoursquore bound to spot a bright red double decker bus trudging along at 10kmhour No wersquore not announcing the comeback of BESTrsquos muchmissed 123 This is Chennairsquos The Moving Cart mdash which serves food to patrons on board mdash making its way along South Mumbairsquos coastline Cofounders John Dias and Hardik Shah stand on the upper deck of The Moving Cart as it makes its way along Marine Drive The Moving Cart founded in Chennai in 2011 by Hardik Shah and his wife Ami began operations in the city about 10 days ago Cofounder John Dias boards the bus with us at Marine Driversquos Marine Plaza hotel where the food is loaded onto the bus ldquoMarine Plazarsquos Chef Rishi Kapoor helped us work out the menu We spoke to him about the disadvantages we would face while serving food on the move The fact that we would reheat the food onboard meant that we couldnrsquot serve anything that would toughen on heating nor something crunchyrdquo says Dias Tying up with Marine Plaza made sense to the duo who had their hearts set on plying their first bus along Marine Drive ldquoThe hotel is conveniently located and serves good foodrdquo says Shah Their pantry is equipped with a bainmarie which uses steam to heat the food and a microwave ldquoIn a few days our electric cooler will also be in place We will then begin serving soft drinks toordquo says Shah who is surprised at Mumbaiitesrsquo affinity to aerated drinks ldquoNo one in Chennai ever asked us for cold drinks But here the requests are coming in so wersquore making arrangementsrdquo he laughs The bus which takes diners from Marine Plaza to Wilson College and back has already proven to be quite the hit with people throwing childrenrsquos birthday parties and kitty parties on board says Dias And by the end of May the duo hopes a second bus will start plying on the BandraWorli Sea Link route ldquoPeople will have to hop on from Bandra reclamationrdquo adds Dias The lower deck which is airconditioned and equipped with a music player seats 20 people PicsBipin Kokate The bus they use currently ldquoa custommade combination of a Tata Mercedes and Volvo bus which took months to buildrdquo will get a plastic covering on the upper deck in time for the monsoon But Dias and Shah have bigger plans for their Bandra ride While the lower deck which Shah claims has a ldquolimousinelike feelrdquo will remain largely the same the upper deck on the second route will get a toughened glass roof ldquoWhat a view you will get if you reserve a table on the upper deck with the rain beating down on the roof during the monsoonrdquo exclaims Dias Over the coming months The Moving Cart is hoping to take on three other routes including Navi Mumbairsquos Palm Beach Road ldquoWhile the view may not be great the idea is to get families to enjoy themselves and offer them a new experiencerdquo claims Shah ldquoAnd by December wersquore off to Dubairdquo he concludes excitedly Reserve a spot The Moving Cart offers lunch at 1 pm and dinner at 8 and 10 pm Booking closes three hours prior to the meal Log on to their website to reserve a table and choose between their Indian and Continental vegetarian Rs 1200 and nonvegetarian Rs 1400 threecourse meal options ldquoWe plan to change our fixed menu every 15 days so that patrons donrsquot get bored of eating the same food every time they come on boardrdquo says Dias Log onto wwwthemovingcartcomu00a0