This new party place has one of the biggest and the most stunning bar

Riddhi Doshi

Extremely tired and a little dazed, I entered Dragonfly Experience with some resistance. I hadn’t been to a party place in ages and, in general, avoid places that play loud music. For the first few minutes, Dragonfly can be overwhelming with its massive, ceiling to roof, a circular bar in the centre of the 6,000-sq-ft space. The walls display video graphics of dragonflies and the funky furniture pieces in yellow and red and gold scream out party time.

And party mood it puts you in. After a while of just taking in the music and the eclectic, yet, warm ambience I felt a lot relaxed. After a couple of dishes and drinks (non-alcoholic), I was actually swaying and didn’t want to leave until the party started, which they say is usually around 11 pm. It’s one of those few places in the city that entertains dancing, drinking and unwinding guests until 3 am. And thankfully, aptly located near the newly opened mall, Orb, near the Sahar airport in Andheri, the party-goers are not really disturbing anybody and not being disturbed by, hopefully, anyone, here.

Most surprisingly, the food served here – a mix of starters, finger foods, main course and desserts – is absolutely delicious. The menu is varied. Its eight pages has everything from Edamame Shimizu-Truffle Pate-Japanese Rice to Egg Fried Rice and Butter Garlic Mud Crab with Crispy Garlic and Fried Chili. If you’d want to, you couldn’t sample everything. But from whatever I had, I can only fathom that all their dishes would be as good.

I started with K-Pop (a strawberry mojito) and Final Fantasy (a concussion of fresh blackberry, raspberry, rosemary, mint, lime and caramel dust), two mocktails with funky names and funky taste. I liked the berry drink slightly more because the combination of sweet and super sour made for a Vitamin C booster shot that awakened me.

Ready to eat, we went for the very unusual in a setting like this – asparagus and water chestnut bao. Hands down, softer and luscious and creamy. Better than many I have had. Edamame and pecorino barley risotto is not overwhelmingly cheesy, not the kinds that leaves a layer of thick grease on your tongue, but yummy enough to gobble down an entire plate. Next up was Avocado and Cucumber, which was fresh and the mild tastes were perfectly balanced. We, obviously ended with a dessert, the light and soft cheese cake, making a mental note that we will surely come back here.

Another highlight of the place is its extensive drinks, almost ten-page long, drinks menu that offers everything from whiskey, cognac, wine, beer and signature mocktails. Ginko is matcha tea whisked with London Dry gin, Amaretto, pistachio cordial, fresh lime, cream, a few drops of eucalyptus tincture. Shinigami has London Dry gin infused with passion fruit, Japanese Schochu and plum wine. Major Motoko mixes Absolut infused with vanilla and passion fruit, then blended with homemade passion fruit sorbet, fresh lime and homemade vanilla sugar.

The Orb, IA Project Road, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Marol, Mumbai.
Average price – Rs 2,000 per person with drinks