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Monday 26 September 2011

Spencer's Bakery @ Pulse mall Nagar road.

Pulse mall on Nagar road has a Spencer's outlet, which as far as I know, is the largest Spencer's outlet yet.
This Spencer's also has a "built-in" bakery.
When you reach the end of the store, the amazing aroma of freshly baked items cannot be missed.
The sheer variety of breads i.e. masala bread, plain bread, whole wheat bread, multi-grain bread, Foccacia bread, buns, french loaves etc. is amazing, all freshly baked!

I picked up a few amazingly round, soft, shapely buns, and had a amazing feeling while gently squeezing them (no double entendres here!).

Also the snack items, like the chicken salsa, beg rolls, biscuits are also worth a try.

Next time I shall try the pastries.

I highly recommend the Foccacia bread. It is soft bread which is topped with tomato, olives, herbs and some onions, kind of like a pizza, only softer (and in some cases better).
I generally end up finishing a pack all be myself while waiting in line at the billing counter and then have to make them run the empty plastic cover for it for billing with an explanation that I ate it!

This outlet is awesome for imported items also. So, if you like your Post breakfast cereals, imported HP sauce, Ragu sauces, Coco pops etc. head on over to here to find your favourite exclusive food, spices and additives (they also have the original Kraft food's Macaroni and Cheese! Yum!).


Spencer's bakery items are a must try. Go on over. I hope Spencer's maintains the quality for years to come unlike the general case where things start to degrade after a few years/months.




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Sunday 11 September 2011

ZK's @ Lullanagar Chowk.

Cricket is like religion in India. I think I am the odd man out whenever it comes to Cricket, as I do not like Cricket at all. Anyway, the cricketer Zaheer Khan has a restaurant chain called ZK's, and I visited the one in Lullanagar with a few friends for drinks.
So, this will be a drinks and starters review, rather than full blown dinner review.

ZK's has multiple levels, the ground floor is restaurant only, the first floor is a banquet hall available for rent for parties/events, the second floor is a lounge bar area with t.v. screens and also an open terrace area.

We sat in the open terrace area.

The lounge bar and open terrace area is rather nice.

1) Barman's Pitcher - Rs. 800. We had a diferent version of this since most people in the group did not like beer or want beer as part of the mix. So, we had the beer replaced with Beezers instead.
These guys make a nice Barman's pitcher.

2) Bisleri Water (Rs. 50) - No review here. Just listed for price.

3) Masala Papad (Rs. 40) -  Nice. Not much can go wrong here!
4) Murgh Malai Kali Mirch Tikka (Rs. 215) - The tikka needed alot more kali mirch for it to be there in the taste. Overall it was a little blandish.
5) Murgh Chatpata Tikka (Rs. 195) -  Nice and spicy. The taste is as per standard; basically how it is prepared in general.
6) Fruit Punch (Rs. 140) -  Nice mixed fruit cocktail.
7) Tandoori Jhinga (Rs. 495) - The Tandoori Jhinga was rather spicy and was not great. The prawns had the "prawny smell" which I do not like much. I would not recommend this really. The prawns were a little hard/chewy
9) Grilled Veg. Chimmi Changa (Rs. 165) - YUCK. This was the worst Chimmi Changa that I have ever had. For some reason it even tasted a bit like sand! What I  mean by that is, in the rainy season just before it rains, you can smell the sand in the air, that is what I am talking about. It looked like vegetables stuffed in a roll, a lot like a spring roll.

10) Thums up (Rs. 45) - No review here. Just listed for price.

11) Dal Khichadi (Rs. 135) - Horrible, absolutely horrible. DO NOT HAVE THIS. The best Khichadi I have had is at Hotel Green Park.


All prices exclusive of taxes.

An interesting thing happened that night. Captain Morgan India was having a promotional event at ZK's. A guy dressed up as a pirate i.e. Captain Morgan, and a few pretty ladies dressed up in skirts and corsets came to every table with samples of the Captain Morgan spicy rum with coke. The only issue was that the rum was a little too diluted with coke, so you could hardly taste it.
Then the captain went around to each table had a small peppy talk with them, of course to promote Captain Morgan rum, and then took pictures with each. They put the pictures up on facebook. (I will not tag myself since I look a little too fat and unflattering in the photos).

 A nice way to promote a new product in India, a slight personal touch  too.


ZK's website




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The Village @ Amanora Park town, Hadapsar, opposite Magarpatta

Pune city is now flourishing with malls, with a new one opening almost every 2 weeks, or at least one in a month. Recently opened are Inorbit mall, Phoenix Market City and Amanora Town Center.

In every mall there usually are many international chains of restaurants, such as Nandos, Chillis' (don't worry, I will review them soon enough!), but this time I reviewed an Indian chain of restaurants called 'The Village'.

[ Ambience / Experience ]
The entire restaurant is made out to be in a village setting. If you have been to Sanskruti in Hadapsar, then "The Village" can be imagined as a shrunk down version of it.

As you enter, there is a ticket counter where you  have to buy a ticket before you can enter. You even get  a stamp on the hand for re-entry! Ticket cost is Rs. 300.

The main entrance area has small chaat counters with village style baithak / cots and chairs around a table. The drinking glasses on the table are of steel and made out to be the kind you get in the villages.
Triangular streamers line the entire ceiling of the restaurant.

Near the entrance, there is a small open space which usually saw people dancing / doing the garba or dandia depending on the kind of music played. Music ranged from Bollywood to traditional Gujarati or Rajasthani. There are one or two small Rajasthani performances such as Kachchi Ghodi.

There is a tree like setting next to the dance floor where there is a sketch artist who draws your sketch for Rs. 50, a girl doing mehendi for about Rs. 40 per hand (from what I hear she did not do a very good job of it), a Palmist who tells you your future for about Rs. 51 and for the kiddies a tattoo artist.

Decorations include electric light bulbs put inside old-style kerosene lantern, which add a nice touch. There is a small section where you can climb up to, which houses the D.J. console and two carom boards for playing. At regular intervals and spaced throughout the restaurant are village artefacts like a bel gadi(bullock-cart) with figures of cows around, mock water wells, mock open back auto-rickshaws which has a table and benches inside to sit, a seating area where a t.v. is mounted on the wall (or was it with a projector with images projected on a wall?), movie  posters to make it look like a cinema etc. All waiters / staff are dressed in traditional dresses too. Even the ice-cream was served from a large steel dubba containing ice cream, hung on bicycle.
The baithaks are not very comfortable and give you "that sinking feeling", also making a bit difficult to eat.
Generally speaking, the place is slightly chaotic. This is because people are dancing, there is alot of music, people walking around, kids running around and you have to move from one counter to another counter to pick up your bite sized "starters" and you sit at one table, then go pick up another starter and then sit at another table.

There really is no fixed table concept; not required either.

It is an experience I must say. Not a place to go for a quiet evening or on dates. Should go with a few friends or family and family-friends. Best part is the whole place is air-conditioned. Hows that for a high tech village!

[ The tummy's yummies, the Food ]

Well here comes the important bit.
The food overall was rather disappointing. All veg. by the way.

--> Choice of drink - Orange sherbet (like an orange squash) or chaas. Since I don't like chaas I had the Orange sherbet. It was okay, not great and could have been better.


--> Chana Chor bhel -  This was a mixture of tomato, peanuts, and a couple of other things I could not identify. It had a little too much lemon in it but was not bad. Unfortunately, the server did not give me a spoon to eat this, and when I asked him for one he said "Aap gaon me aye hon"(you have come to a village) which I found rather amusing.

--> Paani puri - I have had better paani puri. A little more sweetness would have been better too, but the taste of the paani was not comparable to what you get at Kalyan Bhel or even Om Jai shankar.

--> SBDP & Papdi chaat- The SBDP was also "so-so" (read while imagining a hand gesture which you use when saying this to someone). The papdi chat was better than the SBDP.

--> Chinese noodles and Veg. Chilli gravy -  The chinese noodles were stritly tolerable but the veg chilli gravy was atrocious.


That takes care of of the "small chop"(basically your bite sized eatables).

Now for the main course dinner. Dinner was a buffet.

--> Gulab Jamun - Not great. Just a tad bit more sweet than it should have been.

--> Rajma - The Rajma was tolerable. Nothng to sing about

--> Veg. Punjabi curry - A regular mix veg. dish. Not bad.

--> Chapatis - For some reason the chapatis were hard and chewy . Very Very disappointing.

--> Bhakri made from Jowari - The jowari bhakris were very good. They were made right in frontof you on order and an old lady was sitting and making live for you. Quite nice


--> Dal Bati - The Dal Bati was pretty good, the flavour of the Dal was correct, however it need to be a little stronger. The Batis were put in a container and were completely immersed in ghee, the way they should be. Yum!

--> Cheese Masala Dosa- I did not particularly like the Masala Dosa, mainly because I could only taste the cheese, a few friends of mine did like it though. Other Dosa options were also available.

--> Baingan bharta- The Baingan Bharta was atrocious. Avoid this one as far as possible.

--> Khichadi -  There was Khichadi also available. I generally do not like Khichadis, and I believe that Khichadi should be had by people when they are ill. This khichadi was different. It is the worst Khichadi I have ad in my entire life! (Incidentally, I thought I should mention, the best Khichadi I have had so far has been at Hotel Green Park in Baner. Try not to visit their website. It iritated me in like 10 seconds flat!).

--> Kadhi - I did not try the Kadhi as I am not a Kadhi fan.

-->Jalebi and Moong dal halwa - These two were the best items in the entire restaurant. The jalebi was nice and crispy and juicy inside with the right amount of sweetness. The Moong Dal Halwa was PERFECT. It was had the exactly rightamount of ghee and sugar. It was not dry or too loose. The Moong Dal halwa was the best item that night.

For Rs. 300 I guess one should not complain too much, but none the less, good food is expected no matter what the cost.

For the experience, a nice outing with the family or friends, The Village is a good place to go , if you can ignore the disappointing food that is.

They have huge scope for a great restaurant conceptually and if they improve the food they have a great potential to run well.

The Village has been highly praised and appreciated in other cities, too bad the Pune branch has disappointing food.

This is their website.

Please feel free to leave a comment or share your own experience.


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