Barring the buffet breakfast which I had tried at the Bayview a long time back, I had never had a proper dining experience here. The breakfast, I remember, had been good - especially the live dosa counter and the muffins.The Bayview offers a beautiful view of the sea and the city and is one of my favourite places when it comes to location.

A few days back, we celebrated my parent's wedding anniversary and I was given the responsibility of choosing an apt place for dinner for 6 of us. A special occasion like this called for a special, peaceful place with good food and The Bayview seemed to fit the bill perfectly. It was a weekday and we walked in around 8pm without any reservations and found a good place to sit, almost overlooking the sea. Of all the restaurants at Hotel Marine Plaza, it is certain, without an iota of doubt, that Bayview takes the cake when it comes to ambience and location. A sea side dinner (lunch /breakfast too) just could not be any more gorgeous from any other place!

We decided to go a la carte as my parents are not very heavy eaters. They handed us the menu cards quite promptly but did not come for a long time after that to take our order. In fact, throughout our dinner, I found the overall service to be sincere but quite laid back and slow. Since we were waiting for a couple of guests to come, we decided to call for a couple of starters primarily, assuming that it would come in 15-20 mins. However, they came back in 10 mins to inform us that the kitchen had run out of Jalapenos and hence the Jalapeno Cheese starter could not be provided to us. So we called for another entree dish, which arrived after our guest. We were completely famished by now and gobbled up both the starters, both of which were made quite well.

By now I had an understanding of the slow service and decided to order for the rest of my dinner immediately, to avoid any further delay and starving. A detailed account of my dinner that evening is given below:

Starters: We had Kathi Kabab Roll served with green chutney (thoughtfully cut into 6 pieces) & some Corn fritters (sorry, I forget the exact name) which was served with a curd based mayo dip. Both were good but I preferred the corn fritters more.

Soups - Tried the Roasted Tomato, Cream of Spinach and Mulligatawny soup - The winner here was clearly the very South Indian flavour-packed Mulligatawny soup which was thick and had a lovely mustard colour. Of course, I loved my Cream of spinach too. The soups were served with good complementary portions of bread rolls and butter.

Rotis - Had the Naans and the Rotis which we asked to make with less butter and they certainly were careful in making sure that the rotis were not buttery.

Main Course - They have extremely limited varieties in Indian vegetarian food out of which we choose the Dum Aloo Kashmiri and the Subji Makhanwala. Good portions, not greasy and excellently made. Both the vegetables had vividly differently tastes with the Dum Aloo Kashmiri being slightly more spicy than the Subji Makhanwala.
The Veg Biryani was served with Raita and was nicely made too. Not too much of masala and not at all heavy.

The desserts did not seem very interesting, so we decided to end our meal with coffee. Even here, our server goofed up a bit by getting a larger coffee pot than what we had asked. But was quick enough to admit that it was his mistake and we would not be charged for the same. And indeed we were not. So no trouble at all there.

It was a wonderful dinner which averaged out to around Rs.700 per head. But nothing made us more happy than the smiles on my parents' faces which said that they had enjoyed every moment of this celebration with us. And I thank Bayview for the same!

Had been there on my birthday eve and it was absolutely beautiful. Liked everything about this place. Best time to visit is post midnight!