Eating out in Pune : The good, the bad, the ugly...: restaurant

Showing posts with label restaurant. Show all posts

Sunday, 4 December 2011

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.

Reviews at Zomato

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Sunday, 13 November 2011

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
Review at Zomato.com

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Thursday, 6 October 2011

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

Alternate reviews at Zomato.com

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Sunday, 2 October 2011

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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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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Sunday, 7 August 2011

Cream Centre @ Cypress hotel

Very few places have bowled me over with their vegetarian food.

Cream Centre is one of them (Kebab Factory is the other). These two make up my top two places to eat veg. food. The food here is simply delightful. The experience is also delightful.
Cream Centre is pure veg. by the way, Kebab factory is mixed veg. and non-veg.

Ambience
The ambience at Cream Centre is new age and swanky. More over the restaurant is also very clean and the service is awesome. You can go here anytime with family, friends and dates too!

Cream Centre sets the Gold Standard on service. The waiters were good and courteous and also orders were served in record time, with very little waiting. The tables were also cleared of used cutlery almost as soon as they were done with. Kudos to the staff! Curry on the roof needs to learn very quickly from these guys!

Main Course
Starters :-
I tried the "Three-in-one starter", which consists of batter fried baby corn, batter fried onion rings and American cheese balls with corn. The baby corn and the onion rings were simply mind blowing. The red sauce served with them was also amazing. The onion rings and baby were however rather oily so could not be eaten without the sauce. The cheese balls were completely avoidable. No like.
The onion rings if ordered solely, is served on a steel pole. Nice concept.

Burrp.com has rated the Nachos at Cream Centre as the best Nachos ever. They were definitely good.
Tortilla chips with melted and thin cheese and salsa sauce. Very nice. The salsa sauce seemed to be made in house as it did not have the kind of sourness that the bottled variety has. The tortillas were masala tortilla. Basically the Nachos were "Indianised". A must have!

The Tandoori Paneer Tikkas were also amazing. The Paneer pieces were very soft and lightly flavoured.
Cream Centre sets the gold standard for how fresh and soft Paneer should be served. I don't think I have had Paneer like this in Pune before.

The Channa Bhatura served is in Punjabi style where there is a hint of the taste of tea in the Channa. A little spicy but tasty none the less. The best part was that the Bhatura was less oily unlike other places were you can taste and get sick of the taste oil in the bhatura. Their bhaturas can be eaten plain, straight away. Another A+ for Cream Centre.

They also have the chota sizzlers, and believe me, they really are chota. Quarter the size of a regular sizzler, and packs a tasty punch. The paneer chilli sizzler is mind blowing. It consists of Chilli paneer gravy served with rice on a sizzler plate. Of course, the paneer was awesome again. Another must try.

The drinks are also served in large glasses which makes it worth the price. Also the iced teas are not the packet Nestea kind and are made in-house. Usually, the peach flavour iced tea is better than the Lemon flavour however, the reverse was true this time.

Price
Three-in-one : Rs. 150
Sizzling Paneer Chilli : Rs. 210
Channa : Rs. 120
Bhatura : Rs. 45
Nachos : Rs. 195
Lemon Iced Tea : Rs. 110
Peach Iced Tea : Rs. 110
Fruit Punch : Rs. 155
Tandoori Paneer Tikka : Rs. 190

Place is certainly not cheap, but great value for money as the taste is worth it.

If only they had non-veg. also.

The next day I got a "Thank You for visiting" email from Cream Centre. I also got a call about my comments on the feedback form about the baby corn and onion rings being oily and that I could have got it changed.

Now that is what I call service.

[Please note. it may sound like they bribed me for such an awesome review; I assure you I was not. Try it out for yourself!]

Address : Hotel Fern Survey No.2081 Lane No.10,
Near Kalpataru Residency Opposite Solaris Gym
Kalyani Nagar Pune - 411 014
Tel: +91 (20) 40180000
Timings: 11AM to 11PM

Their website.

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Puran Da Dhaba @ Hotel Pride Executive [Buffet]

After hearing much praise for the North Indian food at Puran Da Dhaba, a visit by yours truly was a must. On my visit it turned out that they had buffet dinner that night and not a-la-carte.

Ambience
The decor is very nicely done. A replica of the dhabas as seen in the north complete with baithaks, the look a feel of low lying brick walls, the vessels used to serve food and drinks, the vessel used for the tasty preparations on buffet table, the mutka glasses etc, all add to the originality of the concept of Dhaba. The entrance area is also made to look like a road with a sabzi mandi, baithaks, and road signs. For entertainment there is a live band playing (at least on a Saturday night), a mehendi designer for the ladies and also an Astrologer. The live band sings old Hindi songs, some ghazals and they even take requests.

A very nice place to sit with family or even friends for a long duration whilst having dinner, slowly and steadily.

Dinner
Starters :- Aloo tikki, Chicken tikka, Fish tikka, tandoori banana and pineapple. Th Aloo tikki was very nice. The chicken tikka was standard, kind of like how you get it every where else. The second batch of chicken tikkas however, were not boneless. This was a bit annoying. The fish tikka had a very strong fish smell, hence I did not like that. The tandoori kela was really good but the tandoori pineapple, really BAD!.

Main course :-
Shorbas available were dal and Palak Shorba, chicken Shorba. I am not a very big fan of shorbas since they are very watery and usually tasteless. The dal palak shorba however, was better that the chicken shorba.
--> Benarasi Dum aloo :- very nice with the roast flavour and masala.
--> Lasooni Paneer : very weak taste and thin gravy. Not impressed.
--> Moong Dal : I did not like this at all. Too thin, watered down.
--> Benarasi Kukkad (chicken) : Nice chicken gravy with soft chicken pieces.
--> Sweet Lassi : very nice.
--> Chai : Awesome chai. Just needed to be a little warmer.
--> Gosht Biryani : Overall I did not like the Biryani. I think there was some more flavour required. I think I got something from the bottom of the vessel which was slightly burnt. The mutton pieces were quite soft though. I have had better.

Desserts
--> Doodhi halwa : Brilliant! To kill for.
--> Gulab Jamun : So-so. It was the sugar coated type. A little more sweet than required.
--> Kesar Barfi : Not worth a special mention.

Price

Rs. 575 per head + taxes
Coke Rs. 75 + taxes
Cocktails in the Rs. 250-325 range + taxes.
Service tax also charged.

Roughly Rs. 800 - 1000 per head with drinks.

Overall not very impressed with the buffet dinner. I hope a-la-carte is better. Will find out soon enough. Will post about it then

Puran Da dhaba on the Web.

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Shiv Sagar @ Aundh [Mexican Snacks]

If you are in Aundh, and feel like having some quick Mexican snacks, DO NOT go to Shiv Sagar.
It was quite disappointing. It used to be very good earlier but don't go there for Mexican. Try them for Indian and South Indian food instead. After waiting there in line and then being disappointed by their Mexica,n is not the way to go.

Shiv Sagar used to be the first and only place where mexican (of course Indianised) used to be available...circa 10 years ago.

I tried the following that evening at around 5'o clock as a snack.
1) Taco Special - 6 mini tacos(bite sized). Nothing special about it. The bean filling was also not good.
2) Nachos roasted with Capsicum and cheese - Bad! Bad! Bad! The tortilla chips were soft and felt a bit ... "old". The cheese was not soft and had hardened. It was not served warm and we had to ask for it to be re-heated. There was no taste and the Salsa sauce served with it was the only good thing and saving grace of the Nachos. Even the capsicums were not helping.
3) Coffee - Okay.
4) Tea - The tea was not strong but something was wrong. An instant acidity trigger.

Price
Taco Special - Rs. 140
Nachos roasted with Capsicum and cheese -150
Coffee - 20
Tea -30

Must avoid Mexican here.

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Polka Dots @ Kalyani Nagar

Polka Dots serves up a mean mix of continental and some Asian food. Beware when having Indian food at their restaurant (applies to the Aundh branch). Their Indian food can sometimes leave you sadly disappointed. To make up for it, their continental usually is outstanding.

Ambience
A small elevated restaurant with one side open to the road over a low wall, rather than having windows, the decor is not much to speak about. Also the desserts are on display in a centrally located glass display.
The chef's area is completely visible through a large glass window.
Not much to say about the ambience.

Dinner
1) Vietnamese Garlic pepper chicken - This was is kind of like a Chinese Manchurian with lots of ground pepper and sweetened soy sauce gravy. It was okay, not great. The sweetness can get to you after a while. Not something you have have on it's own (as I did) and some noodles or rice accompaniment is recommended (recommended by me, they never mentioned it).

2) Chicken Lasagna - The chicken lasagna was chicken Kheema with cheese in a brown "Lasagna sauce". The layers of the Lasagna were not well defined and it all seemed to be almost mashed up together. There was a lot of Kheema and less of the Lasagna layers. The Lasagna came with an outstanding garlic bread which was lightly herbed. The garlic bread was so good, that I ordered a plate more and told them to make it exactly like the previous one. Sadly, they did not do that. The second order or garlic bread was not herbed and not as good the initial one.

A light dinner which left me half happy.

The virgin Caprioska was well made (ordered by my wife and not me, in case you were wondering).

Price
1 Virgin Caprioska
1 Chicken Lasagna
1 Vietnamese Garlic pepper chicken
1 portion garlic bread.
Rs. 737 /- ( all incl.)

Must haves at Polka Dots
Veg. Lasagna.
Bruckwerst.
Schnitzel

Polka Dots is a must visit, although this time was not the usual great.

Address : Kalyaninagar, Near Ramwadi Naka, Next to Bishop's School
Phone: (020)-6561 1739 .
Timings : 11 am to 11pm, 7 days a week

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Mainland China Buffet (Lunch)

Buffets are generally a good idea for foodies. A wide range of options, right from starters to the desserts and unlimited quantity, all for a fairly reasonable price.
Mainland China is easily one of the best Chinese restaurant chains in Pune. A-la-carte dining at Mainland China is always a delight, however only one of their outlets in Pune, the one on Boat club road, has a lunch buffet. After many years of wanting to go there for the lunch buffet, finally I did venture there, and as always, was delighted.

Ambience
The ambience in Mainland China is very fitting with the Chinese theme. Chinese lamps dangling from the ceiling and large chinese paintings on the wall blend very nicely with the overall ambience.
A nice place to go for dinner with the family and also maybe on a date. Not very romantic lighting or even mood lighting but then the food will make the date all the more splendid. There was quite a din in the place but that did not make having your own conversations difficult, and not unnoticeable.

A quick run through of all the dishes and how they were.

On the Menu that day
Starters
-- Chicken Siumai - steamed chicken dumplings. Very nice.
-- Jiang's chilli chicken - Amazing fried chickens pieces in a chilli sauce. Also very nice. My compliments to Jiang!

-- Veg mini roll - mini Veg. spring rolls. Strictly so-so. Avoidable.
-- Crispy potato - A must have. Potatoes, fries and crispy, the best formula as always.
-- Veg. Basil dumpling - I myself did not like this very much; not a basil fan, the vegetarians around did seem to enjoy this.
-- Eight treasure soup(Veg. and Non.Veg.)- Worth having for sure.

Main Course
Veg.

-- Tossed Veg. dumpling chilli soya -
-- Sapo tofu veg. - A must have. Never has tofu been made in such a spectacular manner!
-- Mix. Veg. in hot garlic sauce - How can any Chinese veg. meal be complete without a hot garlic sauce dish. Pretty neat.
-- Okra egg plant in black pepper sauce. - Did not try this. Hey! I have limited room in my stomach!
-- Four treasure veg. fried rice- Not comparable to their Lotus rice, but good taste none the less. If you can eat the rice with any gravy and love it, that my friend, is a good rice, and that is exactly what this is.

Non. Veg.
-- Lamb in Peking style sauce ~ Awesome. Soft lamb pieces in a brown sauce. Loved it. However, if you do not like the inherent lamb flavour/fragrance, you may not like the taste of the lamb chunks.
-- Crab in garlic butter sauce ~ Not a fan of Crab. Crab piece was okay, gravy not extraordinary.
-- Chicken in Sichuan chilli sauce ~ Pretty good, especially in front of the other dishes.
-- Prawn in Chilli oyster sauce ~ Prawn pieces a little chewy. Could have been better. Overall not bad.
-- Fish in Yellow bean sauce ~ Strictly okay, not very impressed.
-- Mixed meat fried rice ~ Second only to their Lotus rice, and good to have without gravies too.
-- Chicken hakka noodles ~ Not extraordinary.

Drink
A choice of mock-tail or a glass of beer.

Desserts
Tart
Pastry
Mousse
Fresh fruits

Not a wide range of choices in the desserts section, however some of the chocolate mousse and pastries are worth having. Avoid anything which is mango/musk melon flavored. Some of the fresh fruits were tasty, especially the pineapple.

Price
Rs. 595 + taxes per head. A very reasonable price taking into account that there is an option for beer and seafood included. I want to say that the buffet was extraordinary, but can't since not everything was awesome, as I would have liked it to be.
Recommended none the less. It is a must try.

A-la-carte dining at Mainland China is very expensive, on average Rs. 800-1000 per head.

A-la-Carte must haves
In case you go to Mainland China and have a-la-carte, then you must try their crispy fried vegetables, Lotus rice, and the dumpling they serve with a thin brown sauce (the name escapes me at the moment).

The management at Mainland China do seem to be very particular about their image and dedicated to their work. We had put in a comment in the feedback form about their manager and the Senior manager immediately came to us to discuss the feedback. Such prompt response from management or corporates is very pleasing to see and experience.

I saw a placard behind the toilet door when exiting. The placard mentioned that if we wanted anything, we could ask the management for it and they would arrange for it. For e.g. if you wanted a sewing kit while dining there. There were a few more interesting examples which I can't seem to remember. This is a very unique and nice gesture. Kudos to them.

Mainland China website

Address : City Point,
               Gr. Floor, Dhole Patil Road,
               Boat Club,

Tel :      (020) 66013030, 30463605 , 30463606
Email : mlcpune1@speciality.co.in
Timings : 12:00 pm - 3:30 pm & 7:00 pm - 11:30 pm

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Curry on the roof @ Prabhat road

Curry on the roof is a rooftop restaurant on Prabhat road. It also has a non-rooftop level which is completely enclosed, however, the roof level is nice to sit on.
I went here with a bunch of friends on Friday evening after work. I have been here 4-5 times in the past and have always liked to food there. However this time there were some differences. The roof top section was closed. the waiters mentioned it was because of renovation. Anyway, so I decided that the 8 of us could sit on the lower level.

Being with with a fairly large group of friends did not allow me to fully review or pay attention to the food, however, my and the overall opinion was that the food was not great. This makes me not want to review that at all.
I never felt like this about Curry on the roof before but this time it was sorely disappointing.

So, a quick a rant about the place and a sign-off. Maybe next time I would have a better post, if I go there again that it.

AMBIENCE
The restaurant is done up fairly well with wood work and carvings . All the chandeliers and lamps are decorated with multi-coloured mosaic glass. The decor is pretty neat, a little hard to describe but not out of this world. The chairs are fairly comfortable.
The men's toilet was a little funny. The wash basin was in a narrow corner between two walls.
The wall left had a wall mounted hand dryer. The right wall had a paper towels dispenser. While washing my hands, my elbow would repeatedly set off the hand dryer. A small annoyance.
The wash-basin and the toilet were in separate areas; the toilet door had a small glass clear window at the top left corner. If you were tall enough, you could look inside the toilet rather clearly. I am still baffled with this design! This is a rather odd feature according to me, n'est pas?

The menu is a spiral bound menu with the front and back cover made of plywood and a rectangle protrusion on the front cover (kind of like sticking a portrait, rectangular picture frame on the front face) to make it look like a window. I found this a very nice way of presentation for a menu, until I saw another copy of the menu. In this copy, the second side of the front plywood still had the plywood manufacturers print on it! C'mon guys, a little more effort to polish and remove the print on the wood, would have been nice! The first page describes Pune city briefly. Nice Touch

One thing that stuck out from the evening was that, there was quite a din in the restaurant. With the restaurant full and a lot of people talking, it was not easy to ignore the overall sound. However, it did not make it difficult to speak to the others on the table. Not a place for a quite dinner for sure.
There was soft Hindi music in the background which did not disturb but was difficult to hear because of the surrounding noise. Not an issue at all since you don't go to a restaurant for its music 90% of the times.

Not a place to go for having a few drink evening, where you might want a bit of exclusivity.

SERVICE
The service was pathetically SLOW. They set the gold standard of how slow a service should NOT be. It took at least 20 minutes for anything ordered to be served. ANYTHING. Nothing came quickly. As a result of the waiting, a couple of us ended up drinking quite a few glasses of water. Not something to look forward to in a restaurant! (I don't know if they realise this also reduces their business as the number of items ordered would reduce). The waiters were okay and could use a little more training. Also the waiters were talking amongst themselves rather loudly adding to the overall aural content.

Cost was about 600 per head.

Alternate reviews at Zomato.com

I would surely think 4 times before going back here!

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

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