26.02.2016
After a hard week at work, its finally that moment of Friday eve when your heart craves for some fun time and stomach screaming for good food. That's when we thought why not unwind at Versova beach witnessing beautiful sunset followed by a quaint evening at a quirky place.
Ask me and I am always up for a new place and why not, there are so many places to check out and life is too short to visit the same place again.
Searching, searching and we finally zeroed on a playful cafe with a clever menu and patio, plus a library of comic books, graphic novels and manga. Well, it's not very accessible, in terms of the distance from the main area. But if you are in the neighbourhood of Versova, I would suggest you too go there.
Why Leaping Windows?
Source: Leaping Windows
We asked at the cafe for the story behind the name but answer wasn't satisfactory so I googled and went on to its site. Herein, the owner goes on to say,
"Leaping Windows was born of countless hours spent pouring over manga on the internet and hovering in the aisles of bookstores reading graphic novels we couldn't afford to buy.
The idea behind Leaping Windows is not really about us, so we reasoned that our identities are irrelevant. We love comics. We want to share comics. We want to connect with other people who love comics. Like the Leaping Windows boy who remains faceless, is nobody and can be anybody. For those of you who don't already know, we leave it to your imagination."
Imagination!? Huh!
Then according to me, the kid in the picture is us who go there, have a connection with the comics, read it and build big, beautiful castles of their imagination climbing one window and jumping on to the other.
What's Leaping Windows?
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| Photography by Stuti © 2016 |
A kick-ass comic cafe, where one side its music and food while the other, in the basement is a library housing over 2000 comics, manga and graphic novels. You can choose a book you wanna read at mere rent of Rs.50 per hour. Food is not allowed inside, barring drinks. Sip that coffee and be embraced by some real cool comics. You can order them online too and it will come to your doorstep. You can even buy the membership.
Our Evening?
Post versova beach escapade, I with my girlies came to Leaping Windows. Standing tall at one corner, the address rightly defines the cafe's location; it's 3 Corner View (Off Yari Road, Opp. Bianca Towers, Versova, Andheri West).
A patio with seating arrangement and the rest indoors on ground and first floor. We were invited through a narrow door followed by narrow circular staircase to the first floor. We were given the corner seats and we were glad for that place to ourselves, we were laughing, chatting, clicking. Bean bags and a two seater sofa (without legs) on the floor with low lying table.
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| Photography by Stuti © 2016 |
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| Photography by Stuti © 2016 |
Music was cool and not only paintings on walls were quirky but also the menu card. Menu card indeed looked like a graphic novel.
Menu was pretty okay in terms of choices, I mean the ratio of veg to non veg dishes is 35:65. Nonetheless, our server did help us in choosing the dishes as per our taste and they were patient enough to deal with our confusions. We ordered veg dishes viz. Roasted vegetable tart in starter and Alabama Jambalaya, M C Hammer in main course. Dessert took us a lot of time to decide and that less time we took to finish our chocolate hazelnut decade and banana split waffles as soon as they arrived.
Roasted Vegetable Tart
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| Photography by Stuti © 2016 |
Well it came, the presentation was neat. The Roasted vegetable tarts' basically oven roasted vegetables in a flakey tart with smoked cheese. Apart from the tart which was crunchy, the vegetable portion was soft and cheesy and Delicious. We finished our starters in no time and craved for more but it wasn't wise to order same thing again so we moved to our main course.
M C Hammer
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| Photography by Stuti © 2016 |
A smokey and cheesy affair of macaroni with mushrooms, jalapenos and capers. It looked like mac and cheese and I was a kid again. Couldn't stop myself from getting excited. A beautiful blend of all the ingredient, I loved this chewy delight.
Alabama Jambalaya
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| Photography by Stuti © 2016 |
Sounded more like something from Africa, it was again a cheesy affair. Sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, button and portobello mushrooms in a red rice jambalaya with parmesan made one plate of Alabama Jambalaya. The presentation was about okay, it in fact looked more like laapsi / khichdi but tasted nothing near that. This was a little bland for a spicy food lover like me so I did sprinkle chilli dust and few drops of Tabasco on it.
Banana Split Waffles
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| Photography by Stuti © 2016 |
Little warm chocolate waffles top with two scoops of vanilla icecream and one chocolate icecream, salted caramel & chocolate sauce and looped in or rather say protected with boundary of two bananas. It was so yum that we all literally were fighting with our spoons. No sharing, no caring when it comes to desserts. We finished it in no time before leaping over Chocolate Hazelnut Decade.
Chocolate Hazelnut Decade
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| Photography by Stuti © 2016 |
Hot chocolate which just melted in the mouth. Hazelnut was crunchy. The dessert was just too chocolatey and yummy.
We were quite satisfied and full with the food.
The bill came in a comic book again and it wasn't much as we were expecting before, considering the area and the kind of place it is.
A Quickie by FoodieJunkkDNA
Cuisines: American, Continental, European, Cafe, Salad, Healthy Food
Highlight: A comic cafe. Read as you drink.
Opening Hours: Around 10 am to 00:00 hrs
Cost: INR 1000 for two. (app)
Rating: 4 / 5
Rating: 4 / 5
Worth: A must visit
This looks alluring. Reminds me of Kunzum Travel Cafe in Delhi- they have a huge comics collection as well. Chalna padega ab yahan bhi ek din..nice post Stuti :)
ReplyDeleteDhanyawaad bandhu.
DeleteVersova Beach bhi Jaake aao :)