‘Yummy’ Just Got Redefined at Alfa Shawarma Centre

Staying in Vasai, part of suburban region of Mumbai, sometimes makes me miss the variety of brands that South Mumbai, or so called SoBo, offers. This happens especially when the foodie within me wants to eat authentic cuisine of any kind, and I have to catch the next train to Churchgate.

But off late, Vasai is slowly becoming a hotspot for foodies and I recently chanced upon a hidden gem in Vasai East called Alfa Shawarma Centre. My sister and I just finished watching a movie in Carnival Cinemas in Evershine City, Vasai, and decided to eat out after a pretty decent movie.

My sister wanted to eat Chinese while I wanted to eat something else. Thanks to Google and Zomato, we found Alfa which was just a 2-3 minutes walk from the theatre. And boy, did we have great time!? A modest eatery greeted us when we reached Alfa. A young server came with a smile on his face and a menu in his hand as we sat down in their outside seating section.

My sister was in the mood to have Chinese but when she saw her favourite Green Thai Curry on the menu she decided to order it with some steam rice. I remember seeing Alfa Shawarma Centre quite a lot on Swiggy/Zomato but never knew they served Chinese, Tandoor and Arabic dishes apart from Shawarmas. Everything on the menu seemed reasonably priced, rather a little cheaper than usual even for Vasai standards. I asked my server to recommend any Arabic specialty of theirs and ended up ordering the Shish Taouk, a Lebanese/Arabic Kebab delicacy.

The Shish Taouk arrived shortly after and it looked unlike any tandoori kebab I have ever had and was beautifully plated. I just hoped the taste would match up to the plating. I was blown away by the taste of it and my sister also quite enjoyed it – though unfortunately I had to then share it with her 🙁

Now the appetizer was a hit but we were curious if Alfa could also match up to the taste of Thai Curry that me and my sister often travel to Mumbai to especially have. I mean, we have a Wok Express in Vasai which serves it but we have had much better Chinese food. Next thing we know, the Green Thai Curry turned up on our table and let me tell you we were in for a pleasant surprise!

While it looked every bit good as good as you would get in a decent Chinese restaurant I couldn’t wait to take the first bite and see if it passed our test. As soon as I took the first bite of the steam rice soaked in Thai curry with exotic veggies, I knew we had a winner of a dish. Wow! I was just in love with the thickness of the gravy and the great coconuty flavour of the curry as well as the fact that it had all sorts of exotic veggies like zucchini, broccoli, which a proper Thai curry would feature. I couldn’t believe that it just costed us 170 Rupees! We literally scraped our plate clean; that’s how much we loved it.

I am just amazed that a restaurant in Vasai East, in my neighborhood of Evershine City could produce such delicious authentic cuisine and I didn’t even know about it until now. We not only generously tipped the server in appreciation for such tasty food, but also grabbed their menu and confirmed with him that they do delivery to our address in Evershine City. I think now, why go to Mumbai and spend a bomb on food when places like Alfa serve such delicious authentic fare in our own backyard in Vasai East.