With 125 games to pick from, Pair A Dice Cafe is for avid boardgamers if they are willing to overlook the long wait for all-veggie eats
A caricature of Crime Master Gogo at the entrance of the café
'GOGO naam hai mera…' Sure, most fans of the 1990s hit Andaz Apna Apna will be able to complete this phrase by Shakti Kapoor. We are greeted with its tweaked version: 'Aaya hoon toh kuch toh khelke hi jaunga' mouthed by his caricature at the entrance of Pair A Dice Café in Oshiwara.
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Four black-and-white checkered Sunmica tables and a sit-down divan make for a cosy atmosphere, or a war zone if a game gets too intense. From Catan, Battleship, Terra to award-winning games like Eclipse, Small City, Tokaido and Linkee, you can choose from 125 options that cover party games, strategy, abstract, word building, team building as well as role-play.
In a corner, a giant shelf is filled with board games for age groups starting five. Owner Garima Bagrecha quit her finance job to start the month-old board game café because she wasn't happy that her four-year-old daughter was hooked to the iPad. "People have stopped rolling a dice. They only click," she rues.
Flux Out with Hummus
Settling at a table, we browse through the all-veggie menu. Each dish here has been given a name twist based on a game. We order a Mexican Bhel! Utter Nonsense (Rs 150) and Flux Out with Hummus (Rs 150). Prabhat, our steward and game guide, sets us up to play Splendour, a strategy game for two players or more. It takes him two minutes to explain the game and leave us excited to try it out. We munch on a buttery, toasted pita and cold hummus, both tangy and creamy. The Mexican Bhel has the crunch of tortilla chips, but the chilli sauce induces a coughing fit, making us lose round one.
We order the Godfather Nutella (Rs 295) for some energy. We like the fact that it is not overtly heavy like a freakshake, but certainly wish it was served chilled.
Godfather Nutella
To take us through the next round of play, we order a Garlicky Green Veggie Pizza (Rs 250) and Costa Rica Rice with Chilly Paneer (Rs 150). Prabhat introduces us to the next game: Pylos, where each player attempts to be the one who places the final ball on top of a pyramid. It's a fun game. We cheat, we fight, we scream, we laugh.
After four rounds of play, there's still no sign of our pizza. When it does arrive, it isn't the one we ordered. There's no garlic or pesto, but a cheesy bell pepper one. We don't mind — it is piping hot, juicy and has a crisp base.
Out last order takes over 40 minutes to arrive, and the rice is too sour with vinegar. Extra points for the fact that a non-hospitality team has conceived an offbeat concept.
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