Chili's @ Phoenix Market City

Chili's is an American restaurant chain operating since the year 1975 in America. They recently opened an outlet in Pune, in Phoenix market city mall, and of course, duty called and I reviewed Chili's... just for you :).

[Ambience]
The restaurant has a very "American diner" style look and feel. High-back benches to sit on, tables with a mosaic of ceramic tiles on top, poster's and car licence plates like decorations lining the wall, complete the look and feel of the restaurant. Seating is quite comfortable.

The restaurant is well lit, not too bright to make you squint. Every table has a steel lamp over-hanging the table (can be seen in the photo). Nice, but may be a little irritating for very tall people.

A view of the restaurant

The seating arrangement

There are a couple of t.v. screens present. The bar has a very nice look and feel, with bright blue/turquoise neon lights. The staff is quite nice. When they take your order, they kneel down to table height, and then jot down your order. I found that to be a little...odd.

The restaurant is pretty new and opened recently, which is why I found it very unsettling to see the menu cards look very old, a little "damaged" at the corners and edges, and looking a little "brown".

The bar

[Dinner] 

Their menu largely consists of American and Mexican fast food. Supposedly, the Margaritas at Chili's are world famous and they do boast about it.

Margaritas :-
There were quite a few flavours of Margaritas available. I tried the Tropical Sunrise flavoured Margarita. It was a somewhat orange flavoured Margarita. I quite liked it and do recommend you try it. Unfortunately, I do not have a proper reference of a good Margarita to tell you if they got it right or not.

However, each Margarita is Rs. 525 + taxes! That is really very expensive in my opinion.
They usually have happy hours ending at 20:00. During happy hours, you get any drink on a buy one get one free offer, the free drink is the exact same drink, mind you. This offer definitely should be taken else it would be way too expensive overall.

The famous Chilijs Margarita

Another view of the Margarita

Chicken Platter :-
The chicken platter was really awesome. It came with a piece of grilled chicken, sauteed vegetables in garlic butter and flavoured rice. The chicken piece was grilled to perfection. It was soft well cooked, the marinade was proper, the way you get it outside of India in Europe or US (bland of course, not masaledaar at all but still nice), and the chicken was grilled just right; by this I mean that it was not dry and chewy like over-grilled chicken can be. The vegetables were simply amazing. The rice served with this dish did not really impress me and seemed a little bit tasteless.

The rice was common to both dishes which also disappointed me as I usually like variety in dishes and less "re-use".

The Chicken Platter

Chicken Quesadillia Fajita-
I totally loved the Quesadillias. The best part was that it was nice a filling too. The triangular pieces of Quessadillias were filled with large, soft, brown slices of caramelised onions and cheese. Delicious! You should like slightly sweet food to enjoy this one.
The rice was the same as the rice that came with the chicken platter, and it was rather tasteless. The back beans were okay, not great or noteworthy. The beans do get boring to chew after a while, however, the Quesadillias totally make up for it.

Chicken Quesadillia Fajita

The Guacamole that came with the dishes were...well...in a word...terrible.


[Pricing]

Total bill was Rs. 1838 (including a buy one get one free Margarita for Rs. 525 each + taxes).
The above meal was shared by two, and we were really quite full. At Rs. 919 per head I would say it was rather expensive, considering that there were no starters. I would definitely go back though to check out the remaining items so see how the other items on the menu are.

Chilli's is a must visit.

Chilis Pune

UG-49, Phoenix Market City, Viman Nagar, Nagar Road, Pune
Tel:- 020 - 30950400, 30950401, 30950402, 30950404, 30950405

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Diamond Kathi roll @ Kalyani Nagar [Thela/Hand cart]

I have mentioned that the best Kathi rolls in Pune are found at Kapila Kathi Kebab, however, I think I may just have found the second best Kathi Kebabs in Pune.

In Kalyani nagar, on the road between Gold BIG Cinemas and Ram wadi naka, opp. Bank of Maharashtra is Diamond Kathi roll.

They have a huge menu of Kathi variations, and I definitely think they are worth trying.


I had their Chicken hara bhara kebab (Rs. 75) roll and Chicken Tikka kebab roll (Rs. 65). They are pretty good. The Kathis had different tastes and not like they are passing off similar tasting rolls with a very small variation.

The Kebabs are not very masaledar (like the ones you get at Kapila), so you don't end up feeling heavy or a little uncomfortable in the stomach after eating it (which may happen to you at Kapila since it has a very, very strong masala).

The kathis have a slightly sweetish taste because of the mayo-based white sauce that they use.

Overall, I would recommend that you try out Diamond Kathi roll next time you are in Kalyani Nagar.

Each roll is in the Rs. 65-75 vicinity so not really cheaper than the competition.

Diamond Kathi roll delivers in and around the Kalyani nagar area only.

Do leave your feedback if you try it out.

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Terttullia [Breakfast] @ South Main road, Koregaon Park.

After a good round of badminton in the morning, the stomach craves very much for wholesome filling and very heavy (read eggs and cheese) breakfast.

After failing for the third time to have a breakfast at Zamu's (I reached at 10:45 am and they open at 11:00 a.m. and had no patience to wait, not a good thing for business and the starving early birds, in my opinion.) I went to Terttulia for breakfast.

[Ambience]

The restaurant has two sections; an inner section which is enclosed with air-conditioning and outside section which is next to the road but separated by a high fence.
Tables and chairs are all wooden and the place is not cramped. Not write to write home about here.
Service is a little slow as well.


[Breakfast]

*[Note: Most of the eggs have a serving of ham/bacon in them. You have the option to have them removed, so be careful when ordering and check all ingredients.]


All eggs are served with a small mix of cheese and caramelised onions on the side.

Breakfast Bagel : This was the best dish in my opinions. Looked very nice. The bagel had lettuce tomatoes chicken (we had asked to minus the ham from this order). A nice sauce. The bagel had the highest value for money in all the orders.

The Bagel

Cafe Latte : Good latte coffee but! ... it was served luke-warm and not piping hot. That was disappointing.

Eggs Benedict : Terttullia has no idea what hash browns are. Hash browns are made from Potatoes and are nicely fried and very yummy. These guys referred to two small pieces of bread, on which the eggs were put, as hash browns!!
Overall this is a good dish. my third favourite. It's got alot of butter. Slightly blandish taste. Poached eggs with some strips of bacon and placed on top of pieces of bread... oh and did I mention a nice helping of butter.

Edd Benedict

Ham and Cheese Omelette :  My second favourite dish. The ham and bacon flavour was awesome. a must have.

Ham and cheese Omelette

Mushroom and Peppers Omelette : Very nice omelette. I quite liked it in taste although the stuffing/filling of mushrooms was rather less, almost kanjoos like, and needed to be more.


Masala Tea : These guys do not know what Masala chai is. It is definitely not made form tea bags! I did not like this at all and also it was served luke warm and not hot at all. Give this a miss.

Mushroom and Peppers Omelette :

Pancake : The pancakes were a bit disappointing. They were a little too thick to be called pancakes and thus were not very soft. The McDonald's breakfast pan cakes are better and the Zamu's ones are even better, so I've heard. The maple syrup was nice thought but that is usually a bottled maple syrup brand.

[Pricing]

Breakfast Bagel : Rs. 175
Cafe Latte : Rs. 125
Eggs Benedict : Rs. 195
Fresh Juices : Rs. 95
Ham and Cheese Omelette : Rs. 155
Masala Tea : Rs. 60


Mushroom and Peppers Omelette: Rs. 145
Pancake : Rs. 125
Regular Coffee : Rs. 55.
Side order of toast : Rs. 15

Total Rs. 1385 between 5 people so approx Rs. 27, so lets say Rs. 300 per head.
NOT CHEAP AT ALL!!!
To me this is not cheap at all and usually breakfast out can be done in around Rs. 100-150 per head. At any Udipi it can be done for about Rs. 50-80 per head and Zamu's charges Rs. 120.

 I would think twice before going back here. It is expensive with low value for money and the tea really sucked. I will go some time in the future but only to try out and properly review more of their menu items... an occupational hazard I guess. :)

Let me know our thought!

[Contact]

Address: 393, Sanas Corner, South Main Road, Koregaon Park, Pune
Phone : (020) 30570533.

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Prego @ The Westin Hotel, Koregaon Park Pune.

Prego is an Italian restaurant in The Westin Hotel in Pune.
Quite a fancy place, and definitely  not cheap.

[Ambience / Experience]
The place is fairly large and spacious. All tables have a pair of floating candles placed at the center of the table in a bowl. All tables were of heavy wood and quite large, which is very good so that you can sit comfortably and also when the dinner plates and large serving plates are put on the dining table, the table is not congested. The place is very quiet. Perfect for romantic dinner dates.
One of the walls has a broken Grey stone texture and on this wall were placed a lot of photo frames. Photos which I forgot to have a look at, so I presume they were photos of celebrity visits.
(Something which is very trivial but still sprung to my mind was that the photos were not aligned in a straight line! something for some reason I would expect from the restaurant guys to take care of. Maybe the stoney wall made it difficult.)
At the center of the restaurant is a sofa seating arrangement, around a rather unusual "artistic figure" (I don't have a better way to describe this).
The kitchen is a completely visible, open kitchen.
There is a huge floor to ceiling wine shelf with bottles of wine stocked. Nice.
The entire restaurant is well lit.
The waiters are very courteous and nice.

On a side note, I happened to notice that the place was rather ... empty and most of the guests were foreigners; residents of the hotel of course and the prices I think would keep other than elite of Pune from visiting, but that is just my opinion, hardly a fact.

A glimpse of the ambience. The stoney wall with photos.

[Dinner]
The variety and number of options in the menu is fairly large ans sometimes a bit confusing. Below are some of the items that I tried.
Before being served, a plate of breads and two dishes of sauces are placed. One of the sauces, the fresh tomato sauce, which is made in house by the way, was amazing.
-- Calzone Bomba - Awesome. Very large and filling. Tasty as well. I ordered this with replacement of ham and turkey with chicken instead. This dish was placed under the pizza list of the menu, so I was a bit surprised to see a Calzone come.When I asked about the unusual shape pizza, I was told that it was a "folded pizza" like a Calzone. This dish is fairly large so sharing it would be a good idea.I definitely recommend trying this.
 -- Herbed Mushrooms - A side order dish of mushrooms and herbs tossed in butter.
 -- Risotto Chicken  - Also again very nicely made. Risotto rice was perfectly cooked. The chicken pieces were soft and the dish in entirety was very tasty.

The Calzone Bomba

[Pricing]
Risotto Chicken - Rs. 680
Calzone Bomba (Folded Pizza as they also call it - Rs. 590
1 Side dish of Mushrooms - Rs. 200
1 Fresh Lime Sode - Rs. 150

All prices are excluding taxes.
VAT at 12.50 % extra on the total and a service charge of 3.09%  on the bill.
Above meal was shared by 2.

Total bill was Rs. 1872.56.

I have heard from a couple of friends who visited Prego once, that if you mention to them that you are there  to celebrate your anniversary you get a box of chocolates from them complimentary.

Prego is definitely not cheap. In fact it is VERY EXPENSIVE. No starters were taken and only one drink, which still led to a bill of about Rs. 900 per head. My suggestion is that you plan for Rs. 1200 per head whenever you visit. The only saving grace was that the Calzone (Pizza) was very large in size and thus sufficed for two people and so we did not feel hungry afterwards.

For great Italian, I would definitely recommend going to Prego, however, I think some financial planning is advised before you go there, especially with Petrol prices going the way they are currently!


[I am still working on getting better photos for my blog. Please bear with me till then]


[Contact details]

Prego - The Westin Koregaon Park address

The Westin, 36/3-B, Mundhwa Road, Ghorpadi, Koregaon Park, Pune
Telephone :- 020 67210060 
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Bristo's @ Lunkad Skymax mall, Viman Nagar

Bristo's is a small restaurant located in Skymax mall in Viman Nagar. You get primarily Chinese and Indian food here. There are also a couple of Goan dishes.

[Ambience]
The restaurant is rather small and looks more like a snack joint.
Half the restaurant is enclosed and the other half is 2 sides open, like a terrace, with about waist height( 4 ft) glass and railings.
I would suggest sitting in the enclosed section as the outside section is only 100 feet away from the road and the traffic noise can be a bit disturbing.
On the particular day that I went, there was a Durga pooja procession passing with loud blaring music and alot of fire crackers. Painful. I had to relocate to the enclosed section.
The chairs and tables were of very light wood and would move with the slightest amount of force.

The restaurant does not have it's own washroom. You have to use the common washroom of the mall.


[Dinner]

-- Manchow soup - Not spicy like it is generally made in most restaurants. Crispy noodles should have been separate and not already mixed into the soup.Not bad overall but not the way it should be. Enjoyable even then.

-- Chicken starter goan style - Very spicy. Very oily. It burnt my oesophagus on the way down. I can;t say this was good. It also had too much turmeric in it. I am pretty sure this was not goan style. The chicken pieces in it were a bit chewy. I suggest you avoid this one.

-- Chicken Kheema - Nice and tasty, but also very oily. Not sure why everything they made so oily!?

-- Chicken Biryani - The biryani was the minty flavour type of biryani. There needed to be more chicken pieces and also the pieces needed to be a bit softer.

-- Onion Naan - This one was rather buttery. Something about the stuffed onions was not great. I can't put my finger on it. It is not bad, just a little different.

[Pricing]

Chicken Manchow Soup - Rs. 80.
Chicken Chilli - Rs. 110.
Chicken Kheema - Rs. 110.
Onion Naan - Rs. 40.
Naan Plain - Rs. 15.
Chicken Biryani - Rs. 130.
Soft drink - Rs. 20.
Total :- Rs. 595.

Above meal was shared between 3 people.

All prices inclusive of taxes. All prices are per unit of order.
Not an expensive place. Some improvements in preparation is required.

The dishes that I have mentioned as very oily, you should think before ordering.
Please feel free to leave a comment / feedback!

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Arthur's theme @ Koregaon park, lane 6

Arthur's Theme is a nice small French food restaurant in Koregaon park.
I quite liked this place. You get only continental/French food over here. How authentic is the French food? Good question. I have no comparison at the moment.
But none the less, you will not be disappointed here.

[Ambience / Experience]
Arthur's Theme is a small restaurant with not many tables (I did however notice there was a "downstairs" basement like section but did not actually see it, so all in all it is a nice cozy place. It usually is not very crowded which is very good at times when you want to have a nice quiet dinner. This works for you when are on a date.

Where you sit is rather important because  the placements of the large standing air conditioners  can give a direct jet blast to your face.
You can of course just ask the staff to also switch it off or point it away.
There is very little parking available at the restaurant so one needs to find parking in the lane which it is located in. That is not usually too difficult. The restaurant itself has parking for one car and 3 two-wheelers.

All the served dishes have the name of a past King/Queen/Royalty of some sort.

Service time is pretty standard, not surprisingly fast and not slow.

[Dinner]

All main course dishes are standalone dishes.
1) Leopold II. Soup -- This is a clear non-veg chicken soup. I was expecting a little better. It was more like boiled water, with boiled carrots, cauliflower and chicken. I was was not too impressed.

2) Cleopatra - A chicken starter. A piece of chicken cube on a stick stacked on a square piece of bread. I liked this but I found the flavouring to be not string enough. What would happen is that the bread and the chicken piece would dilute out the coated flavouring. A slight improvement here would make this have a great taste.

3) Herbed rice - Nicely herbed rice. So good that I liked eating it without any gravy as well.

4) Markus - A large patti of fillet of fish with a light brown cheesy sauce dressed all over the patti, with three pieces of smokes vegetables and accompanied by mashed potato. This was awesome. The best dish that night. I usually do not like fish because of the smell but when the fillet is this good, it really makes me feel good. The only issue with the dish was that after eating it for a while, the taste felt more sweet. Recommended none the less.

5) Heidi -  Chicken breasts with a brown sauce (and a bit of mustard) with french fries. Nice. Me is not a fan of mustard sauce at all but this dish is till good. Second best dish that night

6) William III  - Chicken breasts in a brown sauce with vegetables. A more detailed description escapes me at the moment. Okay tasting. What I liked was that sometimes, restaurants make the same brown sauce for more than one dish with just a minor difference, and thus two different dishes with brown sauces almost end up tasting the same; this was not the case here.

[Pricing]

1) Coke - Rs. 40
2) Cleopatra - Rs. 180
3) Heidi - Rs. 290
4) Leopold II - Rs. 160 (expensive for soup!)
5) Markus - Rs. 300
6) William II - Rs. 300
7) Herbed rice - Rs. 125

A nice place to go for Continental and on a date.

[Inside Scoop]
I have found out from unofficial, inside sources of the way Arthur's Theme source their fishes. Details are a bit scarce.
Arthur's theme apparently source their fish from an importer who imports them from Vietnam. I am working to get more details.


Dishes I have made a mental note of to try next time are, Czar and Alexander the great.

Their website here [Not loading properly when I tried last].

Address : Shop No. 2, Vrindavan Apartment, Lane No. 6, North Main Road, Koregaon Park, Pune 

Telephone :  020-26152710, 020-66032710 

Timings : 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM, 7 PM to 11:30 PM 


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Guru Nanak dairy and sweets @ Kalyani nagar

One of THE WORST sweet marts and places for pani puri, kachori, dhokla and samosa that I have ever been to in my life.


I also had paani-puri there. I went around 7:30-8:00 pm, a time at which the paani-puri was almost over, but instead of not selling me any paani-puri, what they did was water down the paani, so much so that it did tasted like water and almost no flavour.

I do not know if they realise this, but this is called food adultery and cheating.

Up next was the Kachori. Also one the worst kachori's I have had in my life time.

Lastly, we bought about 250 grams of Gulab Jamun from them, the sugar coated kind.
One of the Gulab Jamuns had a strand of hair in them.

What annoys me even more is that the lady at the counter is completely arrogant.
So arrogant that she completely flares your  temper.

I seriously don't know how they plan to survive as a business with this kind of service, arrogance, ignorance, and violations of the law.

Go there at your own peril!

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Barbeque Nation @ Nagar road

If you are planning to go to Barbeque Nation on Nagar road for dinner, I suggest that you stop reading this, phone ahead to make a booking and plan on reaching there.

I went there recently and had quite a pleasurable evening.

This one is a long one so be prepared to read.

[Ambience / Experience ]
The restaurant is well decorated like most other restaurants in the same league. It is quite well and brightly lit; I mean that in a good way.

All the tables have a cavity at the center of the table where a mini-barbeque grill with fresh embers of coal are placed. Your barbeque skewers are placed on top of these mini-barbeques. There is a small brass-rod like stand with a joint half way up it's length and a flag on top. When you would like them to stop serving starters, the flag needs to be turned down, until which time they would keep serving you starters.

Also on the table are two groups of 3 sauces each. There are flavoured sauces, some sweet some a bit ketchup like, and to apply the sauces, brushes are provided for one group and spoons for the other group, which has thicker sauces.

I went in the week when they had their 3rd year anniversary, so, there was even more decoration around the place, mainly balloons.

The restaurant is divided into two halves, the separator is a rectangle which encloses the kitchen. On the longer side of the rectangle are the two buffet counters and on the shorter side is the Bar.

The waiters are pretty good and courteous too. Every waiter is dressed in a black T-shirt and has his/her name on the back. (One guy's name is Sudan! Reminds me of Africa).

For entertainment there is a live band too. They were pretty good. Two guys playing the guitars, one electric the other one acoustic, and singing slow soft English numbers. Not that I am a fan of pop music (Ronan Keating and the like, I like Metal/Heavy Metal & METALLICA), but these guys made it enjoyable. They were just the right volume and not disturbing at all, in fact enjoyable. (Some day I hope to be good enough at the guitar to play in  Barbeque Nation!). Kudos to them

Some time later, the waiters put up a dance show for all the customers. I am not sure if this is a regular feature or was a special feature for the anniversary week.  None-the-less, they danced pretty well, some good steps,  some slightly girlie, but delightful to watch. So much so that I was compelled to watch and video shoot the second performance! The second performance was for the second half of the restaurant as both halves can almost not see each other.

One potential disappointment was that the speakers in the exterior half of the restaurant were not working. If I had sat in this section and later found out I missed hearing the live band, I would have been very, very disappointed. I hope they fix this soon.

A new feature in Barbeque Nation, something I have only seen on t.v. on the travel and living channel and no other restaurant in Pune, was a dude, wearing a cowboy hat, carrying a neck hanging tray filled with shot glasses and walking around to make people have Tequila shots. A nice touch for people who would like to have shots and also a smart way to rake up the cash too.

On the table were these table mat sized print outs which mentioned that the bill included a 4% service charge and that waiters were not to be tipped, and any waiter that accepted tips would be discharged of duty. Now the reason I like this is because they mention it clearly up front, not leaving you at the end to decide how much to tip. I am also not a big fan of the tipping system ( maybe someday I will mention why).

The place was rather crowded, and always is very crowded, so, please always go there as early as possible, or you may have to wait a while to be seated. The wait time can be killer. Ideally reach there by 7:00 - 7:15.


[Dinner]
The food at  Barbeque Nation is really good. In fact the variety and the range of dishes is phenomenal. There are a few small disappointments but nothing enough to put you off completely or not enjoy the evening.
It was impossible for me try all of the served dishes. So, I will list down the entire menu for that night and then mention a small note against the things which I actually had, leaving others with no note against them.

Their menu changes weekly, so by the time you read this, the menu may have changed.

One thing to remember: their starters are so good that you might actually end up eating too many starters and then end up having very little main course and very little dessert. It might make sense to go planning to have starters and desserts only! The desserts are unmissable.

Barbeque grilled starters on the table:
Veg.
-- Schezwan grill veg.- I can't seem to remember even seeing this!.
-- Paneer kali mirch - Okay I have had better Paneer at Cream Centre.
-- Italian mushroom - Avoid this one. I did not like it and found the mushrooms to have a weird taste.
-- Falafal with Humus - If you like middle easter food then you will definitely like this one.
-- Cajun spiced potato -  This was really good. A bit tough and crispy. Just the way it should be.

Non-Veg.
-- Coastal BBQ chicken - I was not thoroughly impressed with this one.
-- Parsley Fish - I am not a big fan of fish, especially if it has the strong fish odour, but this starter is really very good. a must have. The fish was soft and did not smelly fishy!
-- Chilly Garlic Prawns - This was a bit of  a disappointment. Medium sized tandoori prawns. Room for improvement.
-- Mutton Hyderabadi seekh Kebab - Good.
-- Angara Tangdi - Foil wrapped tender tandoori chicken drumstick with pepper corns. Yummy. Do not miss this one.

MAIN COURSE :-

Soups
Spicy coriander Veg. soup.
Chicken sweet corn soup.

Non-Veg
Kadhai Murgh
Fish in Oyster sauce
Achari Gosht
Chicken Dum biryani

Veg.
Paneer Lababdar
Corn Palak
Aloo Capsicum dry
Butter Chilli noodles
Plain rice
Veg Biryani
Veg, in hot basil sauce
Dal Tadka
Dal makahani
Baby corn mushroom matter masala

Desserts
Ras malai - Nice. Not very praise worthy since my moms makes 'em better.
Vanilla ice cream
Angoori Gulab jamun - WAY TOO sweet. My teeth tingling just thinking about it again.
Fresh fruits
Apple Strudle
Italian coffee mousse - Very nice coffee flavoured mousse.
Double chocolate slice
Butter scotch pastry - Awesome, brilliant. A must have . Perfect right amount of sweet.

THAT IS ALOT OF FOOD!!!

I would suggest you go over as soon as possible, for dinner rather than lunch.

[Price]

Rs. 649 - Non veg.
Rs. 549 Veg.

Well worth it, especially for the sheer variety and the fact that it is unlimited.


There is a  Barbeque Nation at the Sayaji hotel in Wakad as well. I have found that the Nagar road one is better than the Sayaji hotel outlet.

Overall my verdict is the  Barbeque Nation is well worth it.

Barbeque Nation website
Address:  Solitaire Building, Behind Dass Showroom, 
                 Nagar road, near Kalyani Nagar, Yerawada ,  
                 in line with Near Aga Khan Palace, Pune                
Phone number :  +91-20-32327788, +91-20-32327799.
Timings : 12:30 PM to 3:15 PM, 5 PM to 11:15 PM

 Feel free to drop me a line, or leave a comment of your experience at  Barbeque Nation. 
Have a great evening.


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Home delivery from any restaurant

I just recently came across this website called Yum King.
They take your order based on your location and delivery feasibility. They show you entire menu options.
You can then order your food online and they deliver it to your doorstep after picking it up from the restaurant that you choose.

Pretty neat idea. There used to be a similar service in Pune years ago called dial-a-meal.

If you have tried Yum King, please let me know how your experience was in the comments section.
I will review it soon enough and link to it.

Email:  team@yumking.com
Contact Number: 020-2446 2447
Timings : 11 am to 11 pm.

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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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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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