The Table: Community Class

After Belgian bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien got Mumbai?s hip set to break bread together ? everyone wants a chair at their community tables ? a new restaurant/bar found a way to get us to have a collective chardonnay.  

At The Table, you can sit at a long two-sided bar to get appetisers (try the chicken wings with chilli garlic sauce), gemstone-coloured wine cocktails (we liked the honeydew and rose sangria) and eavesdrop on interesting conversation.  With little elbow room to spare, you can?t help but make friends with those by your side and in front of you. Sharing space with this ?table? are absinthe green sofas that sit on black-and-white tiles, holding pretty Mumbai people who tap their feet to the sound of jazz.

Upstairs, the mood is less festive, as diners eat quietly at tables laid out with everything from baba ghanoush to risotto. We recommend you dress your table with the gruyere gougere, spinach and ricotta cannelloni and lamb shanks. The rich chocolate tart is a spectacular way to end. This delicious world cuisine is whipped up by San Francisco chef Alex Sanchez, whose food blog chronicling his experiences in Mumbai, is stirring up many a heated debates about the Indian hospitality industry.

Still have reservations? That?s a good thing, because this Table fills up fast.

The Table, ground floor, Hotel Suba Palace, next to Indigo Deli, Colaba, call +91 22825002, open from 7 pm onwards, USD 100 for a meal for two with alcohol.