#Blahvsfood goes to Motodo and comes back disappointed

I was excited about Motodo but it ended up being a bit anti climatic. To be fair I only had the pizzas because it’s a classic pizzeria but I ended up being very underwhelmed. It’s not because I thought it was under seasoned like others say. In fact I have a problem with how over seasoned most things in India are and I appreciate the effort to use a lighter hand and let the ingredients shine. It’s just that the produce you get in Mumbai is very different from the produce you get in Italy so the pizza requires more effort in the actual preparation process to really wring out flavour.

I’m sure it will do very well in Mumbai but I come from Bangalore, the land of Brik Oven and Pizza Bakery, and I just feel that whether it’s these places or Ciros or Leos or the fabulous pizza places in North Goa there are many better pizzas to be had. In Mumbai itself, if you go and eat Aabhas Mehrotra’s pizzas at Sorrentina at Food Hall, you’ll taste what an exceptional pizza can be and it’s not what you get at Motodo.

To be honest I don’t usually post when I don’t like the food. I pay, I smile and leave because I don’t like saying negative things about anyone. The time I make an exception is if I feel a place gets it wrong at a human and experience level. I had a 930 reservation (they have two seatings so I took the second one) and got there at 9:44. I was told then that my reservation was canceled because they only hold a table for 10 mins.

At which point I asked (a) why no one had told me that when I made the reservation (b) why no one called to inform me if I was a few minutes late (c) the idea behind doing the second seating was that there is less time pressure for table turnarounds so you can be 10-15 minutes late.

Eventually the lady suggested we place an order and walk around the mall and she would call us so we ended up getting a table at around 10:10 but the whole customer experience was shoddy, condescending and out of touch with what food is meant to be and eating out is meant to be in this post pandemic age. 

I may still go back and try the pastas. But I doubt it. I didn’t create a scene. I smiled and was polite. And I’ve reached a general zen state in life where I don’t get hassled but I still had to write about it because if there is one thing that I expect from restaurants at a certain price point, it is that they treat their guests with respect unless the guests are rude or disrespectful. When you sell small plates for 600 rupees and pizzas for close to a thousand, you have to treat the customer as a guest. It’s him who is doing you a favour with his patronage. Not the other way around.