Can this place be termed as a Drinker’s Den ?

Rating – 3.5/5

Away from the hustle bustle of Pune City in the wagholi area of the city lies Shangri-La. With it’s rather inconspicuous location and visibility it’s hard to notice it mostly. However when the time came for a Guy’s only TTMM meetup where drinks were mandatory we started looking for budget options other than the mundane Invitation 365 in Viman Nagar which we usually visit for outings like these.

We decided to go for Shangri-La as it has 10 times better ambience compared to Invitation 365 and the drinks prices were on par as well so we thought of giving it a try.

To start with the place is situated on the Pune-Ahmednagar Highway towards the diversion to Kamalbaug Society and Marvel Fria on the left of the highway as you come from Kharadi side. It’s just half a km (550 m to be precise) before the now extremely famous Wagheshar Temple (thanks to all the builders in that area which provide the temple as reference point for their projects).

As you enter the place you realize that there’s enough parking space for cars and two wheelers alike which is always a relieving factor with the ever shrinking space in the City.

Ambience – I give them a good rating of 4/5 on this parameter.

As I entered the place, it’s ambience really suprised me as I was expecting a run of the mill, shabby place as is the norm for the budget places famous for reasonable price points for drinks.

However I was pleasantly suprised by the place with a clear and distinct setting for stags interested in the Bar and a neat brightly lit area for families. The bar can hold at least 25-30 people at a time and the bar seemed well stocked for all your drinking needs.

We were a group of four guys with quite varied tastes, two of us including me were non drinkers, one was pure vegetarian and then three out of the four of us were hardcore non vegetarians and that’s usually the make up of our Guys only parties and this gives us a fair and varied perspective of the places we visit.

Drinks – I give them a good rating of 4/5 on this parameter.

The major concern at places like this is whether the prices of drinks be reasonable or charged exorbitantly and thankfully my drinking buddies were quite satisfied with the charges (a Tuborg strong available for 220 bucks each). The second crucial concern is whether the titbits (chakhna) be replenished on a regular basis and more thankfully this was handled very well since we non drinkers (me and my colleague) also enjoyed the chakhna with our non alcoholic beverages and probably ate it more than the other two Guys 🙂

Food – I give them a respectable rating of 3.5/5

The food at Shangri-La was again beyond my expectations, we really liked the Tandoori chicken and Chicken tikka masaala while the Paneer Tikka and Tomato soup were pretty decent. However the Kadhai Paneer was probably of average taste and is one item which wasn’t quite up to the mark in the entire food and drinks affair.

Service – I give them a decent rating of 3/5

The service was good and then patchy at times, the Captain of the drinks section where we were seated was a little strange to be honest. Sometimes we had to do all kind of antics to get the Guy’s attention and he wasn’t too courteous either. When we were calling him for some order he just wouldn’t notice while the servers standing at the other end of the seating would notice and signal him to listen to our cries for replenishment. This Guy definitely needs to learn a thing or two in hospitality while all their other staff were decent and worked efficiently to get us what we wanted after of course our orders were registered with Mr.Captain of the place.

In case you’re looking for a place with good enough ambience and fair enough food to club with quite reasonable drinks prices then this is definitely the place to be if you don’t mind the slight distance that you have to travel to reach this part of Pune.

So to answer my question in the Post’s title – Yes, this place can definitely be considered as a drinker’s Den.

Cheers !