Double Roti is Double the fun !

Rating 4/5

Jaan-Pehchan (Introduction)

This is a fresh addition to the ever evolving food scene of Pune with the place offering it’s fare share of innovative sandwiches, burgers, shakes and Pizzas. It’s Double the fun as both the Burgers and Sandwiches are good and depending on your preferences you can pick one or both ! Having opened their doors already in Delhi and Chennai this is their fourth outlet with yet another one opening in Chennai soon to take their tally to three outlets in TN Capital alone. So it can be said that they are already a popular brand making its foray into Pune and from what I observed Today there shouldn’t be any reason for them not to do well here as well. Had a number of interesting discussions with Japtej (one of the two partners) about their strategy and concept behind the name Double Roti. It’s primarily a place with westernized menu based out of breads but with an Indian touch and soul hence the name Double Roti 🙂 They source their breads from a third party bakery but with their own specific instructions on the bread preparations and the breads indeed appeared fresh and complemented the various preparations.

Owned by two Punju Partners (Mr. Japtej Ahluwalia and Mr. Nikesh Lamba) the place’s menu is one heck of a kind and has served as an inspiration for me to peculiarly name the various parameters I usually consider while reviewing a place. You will understand what I mean as you go through the review 😉 The menu itself may leave you in splits due to the hilariously named dishes like NRI Kukkad, Barely legal/Illegal Burger, Silence of the Lambs or the witty use of Beep in all their Buffalo Beef dishes. All these came across as pretty creative attempts in a cleverly thought out Menu. It’s a good time pass to read while you wait for your orders to be fulfilled 🙂

Mahaul (Ambience & Location) – 4/5 – With some witty one liners like “Eat, sleep, shake and repeat” and ofcourse the innovative Menu, the Ambience of the place is designed to keep the young crowd in mind in the Sky Max Mall at Datta Mandir Chowk in Viman Nagar, Pune. They have an option to sit indoors (around 4 tables) or outdoors (around 8 tables) and the outdoor section being a bigger one, the bloggers table was setup outside.

For an evening with pleasant weather it’s a good experience to sit outside with some good amount of lighting coming in handy for clicking clear pictures of the sights on offer. In terms of Parking they have two levels of shared basement parking available for four-wheelers and a sizable two wheeler parking as well. Therefore during the busy hours of evening in Viman Nagar at-least there shouldn’t be a problem faced by customers on this front.

Daru kudiyaan di (Shakes, juices, mocktails) – 3.5/5 – With their Liquor license expected to be operational in last week of April/May first week, it’s the Juices and thick shakes you have to content with which are fairly good as well. I for that matter don’t drink alcohol either so it didn’t perturb me in any manner whatsoever 🙂

Some of the drinks that made an impression (both the hits and misses) are as below:

Dil wich ghaar kar gayi (The Hits) – Oreo O Oreo shake (outstanding) and Nutty flavors (good however a bit too pea-nutty for my liking).

Hor wadiya ho sakada hai (Can be improved) – The Coldest Cold Coffee (a bit too strong and bitter) and Killer Strawberry & Banana Shake (I think the Bananas killed the strawberry as all I could taste was bananas here) could be further improved to become better drinks.

Langar Videshi (Appetizers, Pizzas, Burgers, Sandwiches) – 4/5 – Following is a brief on the hits and misses from the food section:

Dil wich ghaar kar gayi (The Hits) – Sour Cream and Salsa fries (Tangy and cruncy – so yummy), Pickled chips (crumb fried gherkins with deyhrated salsa – loved it), Corn fusion Quesedillas (basically a jalepano based thepla consisting of corns and beans, quite an innovative find), Hoodlum Pizza (Mozarella Cheese doing wonders with black olives, bell peppers, zucchini, grilled onions  and overdried tomataoes) Creamy cheese and chicken Sandwich (it was creamy, gooey and had ample chicken chunks, can’t expect anything more there), Popeye Burger (The Veg variety expectedly had a fair portion of spinach along with Cottage cheese, was good), Silence of the Lambs (I ordered just because of it’s name, didn’t disappoint in taste either), Chicken Peri Peri,Vegetable Pizza (loved the thin crust and the Basil flavors) and the Southern spice Burger (Juicy chicken patty that evokes Southern flavors).

Hor wadiya ho sakada hai (Can be improved) – Barbequeue Chicken Wings (a bit too tangy and could have been done more tender from inside), LA Siciciliane Pizza (the roasted chicken pieces needed to blend a bit more with an otherwise good taste of the rest of the pizza seasoning), Goodfellas Pizza (was a bit on the Salty side yet the Paneer used in the topping was tender and the peri peri seasoning was tasty), Garden of five senses sandwich (sadly it couldn’t tingle my taste senses), Blueberry and Chocolate Waffle critters (I would have preferred them with a filling as otherwise it went well where the sauce had a decent spread on top but was understandably bland where the sauce was absent)

I may add a word of caution that judging the preparations on parameters like tanginess, salty/too salty is a matter of personal preference and the way your taste buds respond to the preparations. I have rated them as hits and misses based on my own taste palate which is subjective of my own taste bias and doesn’t quite mean that only the above preparations were hits/misses but is an attempt to give the reader an idea from my perspective.

Mitra da Pyar (Service) – 4/5 – Being on an invite helps in this parameter usually but then they are always on their toes to serve usually large number of dishes on the Blogger’s table and the staff here didn’t err on this at all. Shashi from the serving team was helpful in this regard and ensured that we got what we wanted in time. I must bestow a special word of praise for Japtej – the affable and friendly owner who himself served us most of the dishes and informed us about the ingredients used in the preparations which I thought was very kind of him.

In a nutshell I can say that I fairly enjoyed my outing to Double Roti and Special thanks goes to Team Carpe Diem and Japtej for hosting us so graciously 🙂