Paprika Hot rock, a restaurant that serves Mediterranean, Lebanese, Italian & North Indian food with an interesting concept and novelty factor about it.
Food served on hot amorphous rocks & cooked in front of you... read on to find out more...
[Ambience / Experience]
Ambience:
The restaurant has two sections. A lounge section and a restaurant.
The outside section, the main restaurant, is a dimly lit place with coffee/chocolate brown furniture and white drapes. the tables and chairs section is pretty much standard but on the left hand side of the restaurant are small, two, four and six seater sections which are separated by white drapes and are very nice and cosy. Especially good for going on a date or if you want a semi-private feeling. It is easy to hear one another though. (The photos are taken from the sections I spoke about and unfortunately I did not take photos of those sections; my bad).
Service:
The service was terrible on the day that I went. There were four of us and for the first 15 minutes we just sat there unattended. We had to call for someone to give us the menu cards. We received exactly one drinks menu and exactly one food menu to share between the four of us.
When we asked for more we got exactly one more food menu. Then we called a waiter, he nodded and did not turn up! Another fifteen minutes later we had to call out for someone to take our drinks order. I said I wanted Kingfisher beer. He told me that they were out of Kingfisher and I started to speak, to ask him about which beers were, available and he walked away whilst I was talking! Another 5 minutes needed to flag someone down to take our drinks order! Pathetic really.
On the table are present a small candle light, a shaker with oregano and a pretty neat container that had olive oil and what looked like soy sauce. The container had two outlets and if you tilt it to one side, it would dispense olive oil and the other side would dispense soy sauce. The really appealed to my technical side. Also loved the stop cork used to close one end. Really impressive!
Novelty factor:
The novelty factor about the restaurant lies is the hot rock orders. A limited set of items on the menu are served on square slabs of amorphous, volcanic, black rock. These rocks are heated in an oven to 400 degrees Celsius for 6 hours prior to use. They retain this hot temperature for quite a few hours.
The food is served on this hot rock and it also cooks pretty much in front of you. You can think of it as a sizzler only the meat/veg. patty is still raw and you have to flip it over a couple of times on the hot rock for it to cook. This is an amazing novelty factor about the way the food is served.
[Dinner]
Starters:
Cheese Racquet: Cheese Samosas served with a yoghurt based garlic sauce. The description in the menu was "Feta cheese wrapped in a pancake and deep fried served with orange segments and honey drizzle". I swear I think the cheese was not Feta cheeses and was Mozarella and I have no idea where the orange segments and honey drizzle went! The cheese samosa was pretty neat even then and the yoghurt was just amazing.
Chicken Espetada:
A pretty nice chicken dish. Nice and tangy. Definitely did NOT taste like tandoori chicken passed off as middle eastern cooking.
Main course:
Hot rock Vegetarian : By far one of the best vegetarian I have had. For once the vegetable patty is tasty and makes you want to have more. The vegetable patties are also cooked in the same way as the meat is on the hot rock. The potato wedges with it was also quite nice. Spicy though especially the sauce that comes with it. Amazing sauce too. The saffron rice that came with this (and the Tepenyaki prawn) came in a separate bowl; it was rather bland and tasteless, also less on the saffron. The rice was room temperature and needed to be heated on the rock before it could be eaten (no this was not cooked on the hot rock, only heated).
Hot rock Lebanese chicken and Hot rock Moroccan chicken:
Both the chickens were really nice and had distinct tastes.
Their individual sauces were fantastic. None of the sauces in either of the dishes were repeats or even had similar tastes. This is a very good quality and is useful to increase the variety and range of tastes that you can experience at any restaurant.
Hot rock Tepenyaki chicken:
The prawn pieces were quite nice but rather sweet. If you do not like food that is sweet, this is best avoided. The vegetables that came with it were really good too, nice, buttery and crunchy.
Desserts :
Tiramisu : Unfortunately many of the desserts were unavailable. I really wanted to try the Baklava. The Tiramisu was more like a coffee mousse cake. Not impressed.
[Pricing]
Foster's Beer: Rs. 140 each
Soft drinks : Rs. 30 each
Cheese Racquet : Rs. 230
Chicken Espetada : Rs. 290
Hot rock Chicken Lebanese : Rs. 395
Hot rock Moroccan Chicken : Rs. 395
Hot rock Vegetable : Rs. 280
Hot rock Tepenyaki Prawn : Rs. 490
Tiramisu : Rs. 210
Total Rs. 2630 + Rs. 263 (service tax at 10.0%) = Rs. 2893 / 4 = 723.25 per head.
All prices inclusive of taxes.
The place is a bit expensive but the food is well worth. I would definitaly go back for the great food but... the terrible service needs improvement by many fold.
Paprika Hot Rock
Address : City Towers, Next to Mainland China, Dhole Patil Road, Pune
Give them a shout @ : +91-20-30570433 ext:145
Review at Zomato.com
Food served on hot amorphous rocks & cooked in front of you... read on to find out more...
[Ambience / Experience]
Ambience:
The restaurant has two sections. A lounge section and a restaurant.
The outside section, the main restaurant, is a dimly lit place with coffee/chocolate brown furniture and white drapes. the tables and chairs section is pretty much standard but on the left hand side of the restaurant are small, two, four and six seater sections which are separated by white drapes and are very nice and cosy. Especially good for going on a date or if you want a semi-private feeling. It is easy to hear one another though. (The photos are taken from the sections I spoke about and unfortunately I did not take photos of those sections; my bad).
Service:
The service was terrible on the day that I went. There were four of us and for the first 15 minutes we just sat there unattended. We had to call for someone to give us the menu cards. We received exactly one drinks menu and exactly one food menu to share between the four of us.
When we asked for more we got exactly one more food menu. Then we called a waiter, he nodded and did not turn up! Another fifteen minutes later we had to call out for someone to take our drinks order. I said I wanted Kingfisher beer. He told me that they were out of Kingfisher and I started to speak, to ask him about which beers were, available and he walked away whilst I was talking! Another 5 minutes needed to flag someone down to take our drinks order! Pathetic really.
On the table are present a small candle light, a shaker with oregano and a pretty neat container that had olive oil and what looked like soy sauce. The container had two outlets and if you tilt it to one side, it would dispense olive oil and the other side would dispense soy sauce. The really appealed to my technical side. Also loved the stop cork used to close one end. Really impressive!
 |
| The container on the left contained both soy sauce and olive oil. |
Novelty factor:
The novelty factor about the restaurant lies is the hot rock orders. A limited set of items on the menu are served on square slabs of amorphous, volcanic, black rock. These rocks are heated in an oven to 400 degrees Celsius for 6 hours prior to use. They retain this hot temperature for quite a few hours.
The food is served on this hot rock and it also cooks pretty much in front of you. You can think of it as a sizzler only the meat/veg. patty is still raw and you have to flip it over a couple of times on the hot rock for it to cook. This is an amazing novelty factor about the way the food is served.
[Dinner]
Starters:
Cheese Racquet: Cheese Samosas served with a yoghurt based garlic sauce. The description in the menu was "Feta cheese wrapped in a pancake and deep fried served with orange segments and honey drizzle". I swear I think the cheese was not Feta cheeses and was Mozarella and I have no idea where the orange segments and honey drizzle went! The cheese samosa was pretty neat even then and the yoghurt was just amazing.
 | |
| Cheese Racquet |
A pretty nice chicken dish. Nice and tangy. Definitely did NOT taste like tandoori chicken passed off as middle eastern cooking.
 |
| Chicken Espetada |
Main course:
Hot rock Vegetarian : By far one of the best vegetarian I have had. For once the vegetable patty is tasty and makes you want to have more. The vegetable patties are also cooked in the same way as the meat is on the hot rock. The potato wedges with it was also quite nice. Spicy though especially the sauce that comes with it. Amazing sauce too. The saffron rice that came with this (and the Tepenyaki prawn) came in a separate bowl; it was rather bland and tasteless, also less on the saffron. The rice was room temperature and needed to be heated on the rock before it could be eaten (no this was not cooked on the hot rock, only heated).
 |
| Hot rock vegetarian selection |
Both the chickens were really nice and had distinct tastes.
Their individual sauces were fantastic. None of the sauces in either of the dishes were repeats or even had similar tastes. This is a very good quality and is useful to increase the variety and range of tastes that you can experience at any restaurant.
 |
| Hot rock Lebanese chicken. The white haze is the steaming chicken on the hot rock. |
Hot rock Tepenyaki chicken:
The prawn pieces were quite nice but rather sweet. If you do not like food that is sweet, this is best avoided. The vegetables that came with it were really good too, nice, buttery and crunchy.
 |
| Hot rock Tepenyaki prawn |
Tiramisu : Unfortunately many of the desserts were unavailable. I really wanted to try the Baklava. The Tiramisu was more like a coffee mousse cake. Not impressed.
[Pricing]
Foster's Beer: Rs. 140 each
Soft drinks : Rs. 30 each
Cheese Racquet : Rs. 230
Chicken Espetada : Rs. 290
Hot rock Chicken Lebanese : Rs. 395
Hot rock Moroccan Chicken : Rs. 395
Hot rock Vegetable : Rs. 280
Hot rock Tepenyaki Prawn : Rs. 490
Tiramisu : Rs. 210
Total Rs. 2630 + Rs. 263 (service tax at 10.0%) = Rs. 2893 / 4 = 723.25 per head.
All prices inclusive of taxes.
The place is a bit expensive but the food is well worth. I would definitaly go back for the great food but... the terrible service needs improvement by many fold.
Paprika Hot Rock
Address : City Towers, Next to Mainland China, Dhole Patil Road, Pune
Give them a shout @ : +91-20-30570433 ext:145
Review at Zomato.com
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