Is it really the Magnum Opus of Food experience?

Rating – 4/5

I was here for a food tasting event, thanks to Ms. Shreeya of OrcaStudio as I had been wanting to go here for quite a while. I happened to win a FB contest for 31st December Night when they had initially launched it but they announced the decision of the contest quite late and by that time I had other plans so couldn’t make it. So when the opportunity came I grabbed it with both hands 🙂

Shreeya had invited me for the Maharashtrian Food Festival, though I am not an expert on Maharashtra Cuisine but to be honest the Maharashtrian Cuisine dishes that were served didn’t quite exactly bowl me over. However since they also served some of the items from their usual Buffet which I liked and hence the rating.

Location – 3/5, located at Pimple Saudagar, Vision Galleria building, the way leading up-to the building housing the rooftop and the parking area is strange and quite dated which might be misleading because once you’re at the establishment entrance everything in terms of Ambience and aesthetics drastically changes for the good.

Ambience – 5/5 – The place itself has three different restaurants clubbed into one place (talking about choices) namely as below:

Magnum Opus – serves Buffet as well as Ala carte, seating available indoors as well as on a semi open Rooftop. In case you’re worried about the heat they have an innovative way of ensuring that you get your fair share of air conditioning through special ducts that open up on your table and gives a fair share of coolness in an otherwise parched weather. They also have a dedicated playing area for kids which can be relieving if you have a kid like mine who is more interested in playing all the time. It can easily serve as a bait for the child to eat something and then play so it is definitely a thoughtful move to have the play area.

Bay Leaf Bistro – for the pure veggies, this dedicated restaurant serves vegetarian food.

Lollapalooza – A Lounge style setting with a bar to go with finger food, pizzas, cocktails etc.

So they offer something for everyone and each place’s look and feel is different from the other hence full marks on the Ambience part of things !

Food – 4/5 – The food review is only based on what I had in Magnum Opus during my experience and most of it was good.

Recommendations – Vada Paav (yeah, you read that right), Malvani Komdi Masala (Chicken starter), Kokam Cha Paneer Tikka (the marination was nice and spicy), Komdi Patra (Chicken wrapped in Patra leaf, the dish was innovative for sure and tasted quite different from the usual) – these were the Maharashtrian dishes I liked from their ensemble. Among other dishes what I liked were the Sesame Crispy Chicken and Peshawari Tandoori Chicken. Among drinks the Mango Delight drink they served in the buffet was really good, I found it better than the mocktails that were served though the Smoky Tangerine Mocktail was pretty good as well.

Not so recommended – Almost all of the Maharashtrian Cuisine fare served in the Main course was nothing much to write home about as it varied from pretty ordinary (Varan, Dal Amti, Pandhara Rassa, Subj Kolhapuri) to just about an average fare (Veg Maratha and Sukki Bhendi). Following a rather sumptuous round of starters it would only be fair to call the main course a dampener of sorts, however we still enjoyed the starters and drinks a lot hence the food rating.

Service – 2/5 – in all my experiences of food tasting (and there are quite a few) I have never ever had an experience this bad in Service. In the beginning it started well but then gradually one Mr.Shridhar lost complete interest in serving us and another blogger who was there on a separate table, she has mentioned a similar observation in her review as well. However Mr.Baliram the Outlet Manager was the saving grace in this regard and ensured that our experience didn’t downgrade any further once he was aware of the situation.

If it wasn’t for the service part of things I would have rated them 4.5/5 on account of sumptuous starters, good drinks and almost perfect Ambience. So to answer the question in Review’s title – it isn’t quite the Magnum Opus of Food yet but they have a lot going for them and fine tuning some of the aforementioned issues would go a long way to further establish their credentials.