A big part of Bandra’s lure is that it has more restaurants and bars to suit every taste and budget than any other neighbourhood in the city. Depending on your mood and bank balance, you can safely down multiple rounds of Kingfisher at a dive like Yacht or Janata, attend an indie gig at Bonobo, rub shoulders with celebrities at Olive or Escobar, or boogie the night away in shorts and chappals at The Big Nasty.

Its newest bar joins the handful of misfits that exist only because of their extended happy hours. Like Bora Bora on Waterfield Road, that has a Pirates Of the Caribbean sort of theme going on and a waitstaff that looks like a b-boying crew, Gangsta’s suffers from an identity crisis. But it has reasonably priced drinks, decent bar snacks and a top spot overlooking Linking Road’s hustle and bustle.

The good stuff

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Peshawari Paneer Tikka

There are gothic gates and vault-shaped doors, baroque chairs and chandeliers as well as more slick metal and plastic tables and bar stools plastered in kitschy pop art. The walls are covered with Al Pacino and Marlon Brando murals, black and white graffiti and botched-up portraits of the Mona Lisa with her legs up on an office desk, behind bars and smoking a cigarette.

Gangsta’s follows a more-or-less flexible door policy. The top floor is a VIP section called “Up Yours", but it was open to everyone when we paid a visit. After a full tour of the space, soaking in the strange sights and sounds, we settled down at a window-facing table with a Pomegranate Martini ( ₹ 400) and a Sexy Bull ( ₹ 400), made with vodka, Red Bull, pineapple, raspberry and lemon juice.

Though both drinks were well-balanced, they were slightly syrupy and made using artificial mixers, so we soon ditched them for the much nicer Long Island Iced Tea ( ₹ 550) and Mojito ( ₹ 360). The menu is mostly Indian and West-Asian. We tried the Manakish Taftoon ( ₹ 290), a pizza-like flatbread with a masala-loaded mushroom and cheese topping and the mint-flavoured Batata Harra ( ₹ 290), a spicy Lebanese dish made with crunchy, thin slices of potatoes—both were polished off within minutes. The Moroccan-style Chermoula Fish ( ₹ 390) is mildly-spiced cubes of basa on miniature savoury pancakes, and Mandi ( ₹ 610) is a one-pot meal of masala lamb chops and pulao.

The not-so-good

Gangsta’s positioning as an all-day café and bar is confusing since it is decked out like a Las Vegas-style nightclub. We simply can’t imagine anyone enjoying meals here in the daytime.

The bar is better equipped to service classic cocktails and the “specials" listed on the menus don’t go beyond fruit-flavoured variations of the classics. Nearly all the dishes we tried were heavy on Indian masalas and therefore tasted more like Indian bar food than Lebanese, Arabic or Persian specialities, as many of them were described on the menu.

Talk plastic

Classic cocktails and specials are priced at ₹ 360-550, a pint of Kishfisher costs ₹ 200 and 30ml pours of Smirnoff vodka and Bacardi rum cost ₹ 300. Salads, appetizers and pizza-like flatbreads are priced from ₹ 290-360, while mains range between ₹ 320 for a Penne Paprika to ₹ 1,200 for a Spanish-style lobster dish.

Gangsta’s, New Kamal Housing Society, Plot No. 248, opposite R.D. National College, Linking Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai. For reservations, call 9870676645.

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