A Bridge of World Cuisines !

Rating – 4.5/5

Quick Facts
Damages – 1500-2000 bucks for a three course meal.
Food – Ala carte menu with a mix of Italian, Mexican and Indian.
Highlights – Courteous and customer friendly service and one of the best Mutton Biryani in Pune.

My experience with Radisson Blu’s various Restaurants has been pretty good with their staff being cordial and extremely customer friendly, this outing wasn’t too different either !

The Ambience & Service – The place has a comfortable seating and comes with a full fledged Bar and extremely toned down and pleasant feel. We were told that their live singing artist was not well and that this program will resume in a month or so. I am sure it will only add to the atmosphere once resumed. We pretty much liked the Ambience and it’s a place where you can have a good relaxed meal over a long and hearty conversation and no one is likely to disturb you which could be a good thing for some and for others it may translate to a laid-back and not so happening atmosphere. To each his own I guess but personally I am more inclined to these kind of places for sure.

Talking about the service, the more I say the less it will be, we were treated absolutely royally and just floored over by their desire to make the customer happy over everything else. One of their executives Mr.Shrikant was exemplary in going that extra mile whether it was getting us a fresh serving of Chicken Tikka on a mere mention of chicken morsels not being tender to just getting us a surprise dose of Galawati Kebabs from TGKF.

Their F&B Assistant Manager Mr.Vishal spent a few minutes on our table for the feedback and at the end of our meal surprised us with Desserts on the house. I don’t quite remember being so pampered in a food establishment whether on any food tasting invite or otherwise so a double thumbs up on the service and courtesy front.

Food & Mocktails – Among the mocktails, one strawberry based drink was a complete bliss followed closely by the litchi and watermelon ones. We were quite satisfied with the quality of the drinks and Mr. Abhijit the Mixologist/Bartender certainly gave some appropriate recommendations based on our liking. Talking about the food, we were not so impressed by the initial serving of the Chicken Angara starter but on giving them the feedback, a fresh serving was arranged with a smile and without an iota of reluctance which is where they score all the brownie points and deservedly so 🙂

The fresh serving of Chicken starter was both succulent and juicy and we liked it. Talking about the Mains, after a lot of deliberation we went with Butter Chicken fearing that it would be too sweet. Though my worst fears didn’t come true but it was a little too sweet for my liking, nevertheless it wasn’t too bad but not outstanding either.

Lastly in the mains came the most anticipated item of the Dinner – Mutton Dum Biryani ! It would only be fair to say that it wasn’t just the star of the evening but the preparation was among the best ones I have ever had in Pune. So mark my words if you like your Biryani to be a bit spicy but not too overpowering and of Mughlai variant this is the place to be and I am sure you won’t regret it. Long and fragrant basmati rice with layers and layers of tender mutton chunks in a spicy yet subtle masala is all you can hope for a mind blowing biryani, for this preparation alone I’ll be going back again and again. It was great to meet Chef Jagdish after the Mains and talk a thing or two about the Biryani 🙂

The Desserts – Our Dinner was polished off nicely with a Mexican and Italian Dessert each and both were equally good though the Churos with Chocolate sauce had a bit of an oily feel to it without which I am sure it could have attained greater heights. It was great to meet their Mexican and Italian Chef Mr. Narendra.

Final Verdict – It would be understatement to say that the place is a bit underrated but we came out as happy diners, their Biryani and extremely courteous customer-centric service were the highlights of the day and something that will prompt us to plan a revisit pretty soon.