Lose yourself to Hard Rock Café’s Frutilicious Mojitos at The Summer of Legends Festival

We’ve seen some heavy rain over the last couple of days, but it’s not time to pull out the gumboots and shawls yet. As the experienced Mumbaikar knows, it’s going to get hotter than hell over the next few days until the monsoon truly graces us with its presence. On Saturday night we set out to explore yet another way to beat the heat. This time, we traversed to Worli’s Hard Rock Café which is currently holding its first Summer of the Legends Festival. 

Who are the legends? Well, through the festival there will be live screenings of concerts by worldwide musical legends like Bob Marley and Guns N Roses. However, the true star of the festival is the legendary mojito, which we discovered is an excellent way to beat the heat. 

The traditional mojito is made from white rum, sugar, lime juice, sparkling water and mint. However, Hard Rock shook things up in their mojito mixers and have used the bounty of fruits that summer has given us to make seven delicious fruit mojitos including a tender coconut mojito, a malta orange and vanilla mojito and a kiwi mojito. 

Nestled in one of Hard Rock’s comfortable booths, we chatted with kitchen manager, Anuj Agarwal about the special menu that accompanies the Summer of Legends festival. Conceptualised by Hard Rock’s executive chef, Cyrus Irani, this menu encompasses flavours from all over the world with dishes like a Lebanese falafel wrap and an Italian chicken sandwich on offer. When we questioned the lack of desserts on the menu, Agarwal explained that the mojito would provide the refreshing sweetness that the dessert normally does. Right on cue, our cue a funky pink strawberry mojito materialised along with our food. Here’s what we thought:

Strawberry Mojito 

Presented in a stout mason jar, this mojito was all that we hoped it would be. Sweet and cold, the strawberry flavour shone through, along with a touch of zing, thanks to the mint leaves, lime and Bacardi rum mixed in. Poured over a bed of crushed ice, this was a heavenly way to forget about the furnace outside. 

Red Hot Chilli Fries & Soul Burger

Hard Rock Café is world famous for its burgers, so it seemed only fair that we sample their burger. Out of the two burger options; the Tunisian Shrimp burger and the Soul burger we opted for the latter. And – cheesy pun alert – this was truly a burger for the meat lover’s soul and heart. The cheesy pun works well here, because the creole spiced beef patty was enveloped in oodles of delicious Swiss cheese and slices of pepperoni. Along with the potato wedges that came with the burger, we got our carbohydrate quota from the basket red hot chilli fries which came with an indulgent cheese sauce. 

As we savoured our meal and mojito, we contemplated the fact that we were surrounded by memorabilia from musical legends like Elvis Presley, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen. Adding to the aura were the LED televisions that adorned every wall playing classics like The La’s ‘There She Goes.’

The impressive aura, however, permeates Hard Rock Café all year long. Throughout their Summer of the Legends Festival, specialities at Hard Rock Café include the special food menu, the live screening of musical legends every Tuesday night and the extensive list of mojitos. A customer can even try his hand at making his own mojitos, with the recipe, fresh ingredients and expert advice provided by the enthusiastic Hard Rock Café staff. 

So, don’t bemoan the heat of the summer, or the delay of the monsoon – simply head to Hard Rock Café and lose yourself in a mojito-infused, music-enhanced heavenly stupor. 

What we had:

Strawberry Mojito 

Red Hot Chilli Fries

Soul Burger