A sailing feast

If you are someone who enjoys a quiet meal far away from the concrete jungle, then your first stop should be  amidst the waves, at the Queensline Neverland and Queensline Sea YAH — the two largest sailing restaurants in the city. Touted to be the first largest sailing restaurants, they are designed to give diners an enviable experience of having an opulent meal in middle of the Arabian Ocean while catching on the city’s iconic skyline.

“The idea is to open up city’s eastern sea front and turn it into riviera similar to the Mediterranean or western countries,” says Delhi based entrepreneur Shripriya Dalmia Thirani and the owner of the ships. Parked at a few miles in the sea, off the city’s Gateway of India, passengers will be picked up from designated points across Mumbai’s coastline.

The restaurants, a joint venture with Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), can accommodate 470 people including crew and the serving staff. The ships hailing from Istanbul has hosted several royalties, dignitaries and prominent people around the world and is well equipped with around 500 life jackets and 24x7 live security cameras.

Starting at approximately Rs 2,500 per person for three hours including meal,  cruisers don’t have to leave cuisine choices behind on dry land when they sail, as these floating restaurants are upping the ante with South Asian, American and many international dishes. As Shripriya assures that the food served will be the best of the global flavours one must have come across, “and with this Indians don’t have to travel abroad to savour such flavours anymore.”

Apart from serving authentic cuisines from different parts of the world, these sailing restaurants also have a DJ and an in house music band. Shripriya confirms that very soon the ships will have artists from different parts of the world entertaining the guests, “however we’ll follow the music rules and keep the volume down.” She further adds that the ship will soon witness some pop-up shows and exhibitions.

While this is a perfect restaurant to enjoy a meal far away from the chaos of the city, the owners also plan to open the cruise for seaside destination weddings. And as Shripriya views this venture, a foodie, a couple looking for a romantic celebration for a special occasion will relish the experience. With increasing inclination towards seaside destination weddings, she also intends to open the ships for fairytale destination weddings. “Now people don’t have to travel too far, these ships will be a perfect host,” she gushes.

Other features of the cruise include on-deck barbeques, telescope to gaze at the sky on a starry night and LED screens for movies and sports. “This vessel will have an international feel to it from the outside and the warmth of an Indian embrace from the inside,” smiles the entrepreneur.

Though this sea-friend has no rooms available for spending a night due to overnight staying restrictions, it will be functional through out the day. “The ship is equipped with state of the art equipment for navigation, safety and pollution prevention. It will be operated throughout the day till wee hours and under complete security,” she concludes.