In the Season of IPL you have to be here !

Rating 4 /5

With the IPL Season in full swing it was a perfect time to receive a food tasting invite from one of the famous Sports Bar close to the Camp / Swargate Area. On a Friday evening though ditching the traffic could be extremely challenging especially if you’re coming from one part of the City to the other.

In my case it was from Kharadi to Kumar Pacific Mall at Shankar Shet road and it’s always advisable to leave early (I left at 5.30) if you want to avoid the traffic menace these days. So on a balmy summer evening I reached Aufside located at level 3 in Kumar Pacific Mall and was greeted by one of their Owner Partners Mr. Varun Punjabi.

Ambience – I would rate them 4/5 on this parameter.
The place has both indoor and outdoor seating available next to a multi-purpose miniature playground owned by another business – Hotfut. The weather wasn’t quite conducive to sit outdoors hence the Bloggers table was setup indoors which offered a pleasant environment to enjoy a good game of Soccer/Cricket. The walls were all lined up with Soccer Player’s Jerseys, Cricket star’s photos and different sporting artifacts.

The overall setting was satisfactory with couple of LED TVs on the wall above the bar with IPL getting projected at the other end of wall in the restuarant. They have a policy of playing music only up to the time match is about to start and once the play commences they run the game with commentary so as to enjoy the match experience completely.

Service – This experience was on invite so the service was expectedly good, can’t really rate them, though all the servers were polite and did their job as per expectations.

Drinks & Food – I would again rate them 4/5 on this parameter.

I don’t drink Alcoholic drinks and don’t eat pork/beef either so I am going to cover the rest of the items that were served during the tasting session except the aforementioned ones.

Drinks – I ordered the Winning Shot Mocktail which was a bit too sweet the first time it was served but came out really good the next time after the feedback was provided, it was a good mix of Strawberry and Cranberry juice and went well with the starters. The other non alcoholic drink – Perfect Hat-Trick was a Cold Coffee of sorts with nothing out of the ordinary or bad about it.

The Menu & Food – Since the place is a Sports Bar, the food is a mix of Nachos, burgers, sandwiches, wings, pizzas and similar kind of stuff. Food mostly was good but it would be good to remind to not expect daal makhani or butter chicken to be served as far as the Menu orientation is concerned. Talking about the Menu it’s a different kind for sure, apart from the dishes organized by Cricket jargons, the dishes are categorized with Soccer playing positions giving it a sporty feel for sure.

Moreover the menu also informed the Patrons about the events/special menu planned for the upcoming weeks which was quite innovative so the menu is pretty dynamic and after every quarter or so there’s a revamp of sorts and new items replace some of the previous ones.

The Team Composition – The items which I tried were Crispy Chicken tenders, Chicken Barbeque wings, Jalepano Cheese balls, Honey Chilly Potatoes, Sauteed Mushrooms, Grilled Prawns, Cheese & Jalepano Poutines, Grilled Cottage Cheese,Chicken Roulade, Triple deck Mousse and Chocolate Mousse.

Stuff that bowled me Over – The Best dishes of the day were the Crispy Chicken Tenders (really munched on this starter big time, had a crunchy outside with a tender chicken filling and it delivered the promised taste) , Sauteed Mushrooms (simple yet tasty preparation with sauteed mushrooms in an oriental like sauce) and the Cheese/Jalepano Poutines (whoa, made me remember the New York Fries which I had in large quantities when I was in Vancouver, Canada – basically these were thin-cut french fries with a generous sprinkling of melted cheese and the combination worked really well and as expected I really hogged on them 🙂

Other notable mentions during the evening were the Barbeque Chicken Wings, Grilled Cottage Cheese in Mains and the two Desserts Chocolate Mousse and Triple Deck Mousse were terrific as well.

Stuff that missed the Stumps – Jalepano Cheese Balls (cheese seemed chewy and had no flavors to boast of), Honey Chilly Potatoes (the appearance was like french fries but the potato seemed unevenly cooked with some uneven sprinkling of chilly flakes made the dish taste a bit soggy, very spicy and bland – all at the same time), and Chicken Roulade (the filling was tasty however the outer layer was just a tad under cooked which was the deal breaker here).

The Verdict – This is the place to be if you want to enjoy the Sporting events with your friends over beer and tid bits. Their other attraction is the Mid-match Quiz fun where they have engaged another startup Choose to Thinq who add another dimension to the overall experience and just enhances all the fun. You answer questions correctly and you might just end up winning some goodies. I won 1 Kingfisher beer voucher which is valid for a month and can be utilized in my next visit, my other blogger friends won a few as well 🙂

Special thanks to the Owner Mr. Varun Punjabi for hosting the session and Ms. Elaine for the invite 🙂

In a nutshell this place is value for Money and you should have a good time for sure if you happen to visit them. Enjoy !