If you’re a regular patron of the Woodside Inn at Colaba this festival is legendary. You wait all year and every year, to make a minimum of 3 – 4 visit so you can sample all the burgers! This year the enthusiasm was the same if not more but the experience greatly different.
I decided to wait and see other people’s reaction before I burgered out and sadly everyone came back saying this year was a letdown. The chatter on twitter was mixed, people who are relatively new to this concept thought it brilliant but the wise old regulars who’ve been frequenting it for so long were disappointed.
I decided to make my own judgment and my birthday was brought in at Woodside Inn last week. This seems to have become a tradition with me as this was the third birthday in a row I brought in at Woodside Inn. As luck would have it I felt gravely ill with a viral fever and upset stomach and I could just about take a few bites of everyone else’s burgers. Sad to say the bread was terribly hard, the patty flavourless and over the experience such a letdown, not just for me but for my entire table of 12. With much disappointment I took to their twitter and facebook pages to vent my frustration and was pleasantly surprised when they responded and asked for feedback and what went wrong. I have to say the promptness in their response and their willingness to accept that there could have been something wrong is such a refreshing change from restaurants that just blatantly turn a blind eye. I gave them my feedback and didn’t think much post that. A day or two later I received an email urging me to come back and saying that they had rectified things and promised I’d have an enjoyable meal. I didn’t really care – to me the damage was done and I just wasn’t interested. However, another friend wanted to go so we ended up there for an early dinner over the week end.
This time I was pleased that I was actually able eat a whole burger and was looking forward to it. I got the Belgium inspired Beef pancake burger with cheese and onion rings. I was very sceptical because I wasn’t so sure how a beef patty between sweet pancakes would be but let me tell you it was one of the best burgers I’ve had. I LOVE the pancake idea as its not so heavy to eatand were beautifully made pancakes, the beef was flavourful and the onion rings with cheese gave it a superb filling.
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| Beef Pancake Burger with Onion Rings and Cheese |
My friend ordered a Mexican burger ( which we had ordered previously and didn’t like) this time the waiter informed me that I could have my choice of bread as the menu only states ciabatta bread we opted for a softer brioche. The burger I have to say came stuffed with cheese ,onion, a generous topping of jalapeno peppers which made all the difference and crisp tortilla chips which gave it a super crunch.. Last time apart from the superbly hard bread (have a feeling they toasted it further) there was hardly any peppers so it tasted rather bland and the tortilla was soggy.
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| Mexican Burger with Tortilla Jalapenos and Cheese |
Each burger is accompanied with truffle fries and coleslaw salad. The fries have thin cheese shavings but I felt that’s a bit of a waste and doesn’t do much to enhance the fries.Though in theory the truffle fries sound great and pouring truffle oil over the fries for flavour certainly gives it a flavour, they still leave the fries superbly oily which I just didn’t like. I ended up opting for their potato skins which btw were yum. I have no place for a drink with my meal and rarely order one but my friend made the most of the festival and opted for an international beer called Viru to help her wash it all down.
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| Potato Skins with Wasabi Mayo |
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| Viru Beer |
This meal was definitely enjoyable and I’m glad they responded to specific feedback. I’m honestly so impressed because this is such a first for me, when a restaurant actually bothers with feedback and is confident enough to rectify it and say please come again we fixed teh problem. I’m always going to visit Woodside Inn because its an old favourite but this just makes me feel like atleast some people still care about customer service.
I’m told the three most popular burgers are going to feature on their regular menu and I can only hope the pancake one makes an appearance as it really is something different. Sadly I’m writing this towards the end of the festival but it’s still on for a couple of days. If you’re lucky enough to catch it make the most and try at least two burgers and a range of different beers!
I’m told the three most popular burgers are going to feature on their regular menu and I can only hope the pancake one makes an appearance as it really is something different. Sadly I’m writing this towards the end of the festival but it’s still on for a couple of days. If you’re lucky enough to catch it make the most and try at least two burgers and a range of different beers!
great to hear about the response of the restaurant!n i wanna taste the potato skins asap.. :)n am glad that u were able to enjoy the burgers finally!