Prems, Koregaon Park – Pune

A decent Prem affair !

Rating – 3.5/5

Quick facts
Address – Close to SBI Training Centre, North Main Road, Koregaon Park
Cuisine – North Indian, Chinese, European
Cost – 1000-1200 for two.

This place has been around for a long time and I remember dining here once during my initial days in Pune in 2004 and since then it was my only visit until Today. This visit was of-course motivated by the absolutely fantastic PEO offer that is available to all PEO Card holders.

The Ambience & Parking – We were a little skeptical to visit them for lunch in this scorching heat as we were aware that there wasn’t an indoor a/c seating option. However I have also heard about their sprinkler based misty ambience which prompted us to give it a try and we weren’t disappointed at all. The sprinklers combined with fans does a good job and we didn’t feel the heat at all.

There’s a large seating section (80% of area) where one can smoke as well and the water sprinklers are at a good height, in the other non smoking section the sprinklers are closer in terms of altitude and you might feel a bit more sprayed with the water droplets so choose your section accordingly. On the Parking front they offer a Valet parking where they park your vehicles in the lane on the opposite side of the road so this is one aspect you don’t have to worry about while you dine at Prems.

The Service – This was probably the best part of the experience, service was fast and top notch. The servers and Captains were all quite courteous and recommendations were made as per our preferences and overall I was pretty satisfied with the experience and didn’t quite mind paying the mandatory 10% service charge that they levy. However I am not quite sure why this isn’t optional still.

The Food – Food was a combination of hits and misses and overall was a decent affair but frankly I had more expectations considering the legend it has become over a period of all these years. Though I have to add that the quantity/portion size of the preparations were fair and in sync with the pricing.

Vegetarian & Chicken Manchow Soup

The Veg Manchow (Rs.160) & Chicken Manchow (Rs.200) Soups were right on the button and surprisingly I liked the Vegetarian one better.

Paneer Tikka

Paneer Tikka – This was one preparation that could have been so much better but remained as average due to the marination feeling a little raw, especially the Red chilly powder. Thankfully the Paneer itself was soft and tender and still went Okay with the Salad & Green chutney.

Chicken Banjara Kebab

Chicken Banjara Kebab – This came across as a below average preparation as some of the chicken chunks were juicy and properly marinated while others were devoid of proper marination. Consequently some of these chicken chunks had a bit of a raw feeling after-taste which ruined the preparation for me. By the time we discovered this issue everything was on our plates and I had finished 1/3rd of the preparation as well. I informed this to one of the Captains with no intention of a replacement since we had already served everything up and left it at that after providing the feedback.

Paneer Tikka Masala

Paneer Tikka Masala – Along with the Soups this was the best preparation of the Lunch and we enjoyed the rich tomato gravy topped by cream consisting of soft Paneer Tikkas to the fullest with their well prepared Butter Naans. With this we ended our lunch on a happy note but definitely both the Paneer and Chicken starters could have been better and that would have been an ideal meal but this was still decent nevertheless.

The Verdict – This is definitely a friendly place to have your lunch/dinner and expectedly the evenings on weekends are a bit more busy than the afternoons so choose your time of visit carefully. This is an all day dining place so you can time your visit accordingly in case you don’t like waiting for Tables to become vacant. Despite food being mixed bag I would still visit them again and see how other food items hold up, definitely a one time place to visit for sure.

Murphies, Lane 6 – Koregaon Park, Pune

July 18, 2016 by aprajitp in Pune Restaurants and tagged Koregaon park Non veg restaurants, Koregaon Park Restaurants, Murphies | Leave a comment

What da Murph!

Rating 4/5

One of the best pleasures of life is the pleasure of food and one of the best points about food blogging is you get invited to enjoy the one thing you enjoy the most – eating ! So here I was at Murphies – a quaint place with an innovative offering called Murphs and hence the name Murphies.

So what exactly is a Murph? It’s a whole potato slowwwly baked for hours with the skin intact resulting in a mashed form inside while the skin gets all crunchy. These murphs are then topped/drowned in the various constituents like gravies and meat chunks of their various recipes, the recipe is quite unique to say the least and we’ll talk about it later in the review.

Hope this gives some idea on what the place is about, the attached pictures might help a bit however you need to be there and taste it in order to get the complete picture. You may or may not like the Murph based on your taste buds but there are other items to enjoy like the Smoothies, fries, some of the tastiest soups I have had in recent times and other tid bits.

Ambience & Location – I would rate them a good 4/5 on this parameter.
Located in Lane 6 of the Koregaon Park, the place is easy to locate and offers both outdoor and indoor seating. Wednesdays are the days of Jam sessions where people can bring their own instruments and well create a Jam.

There are board games to be played as well while you munch through their offerings, the overall atmosphere is pretty much casual. Coming to the Parking facilities especially for Cars one needs to rely on the adjoining lane parking and park accordingly.

Food – I would rate them a good 4/5 on this parameter as well. I found the soups to be really tasty and the Murphs itself interesting and filling, one Murph is definitely enough for one person so choose your order appropriately, like sharing it with your accompanied ones so that you could enjoy the other preparations.

Mushroom Cappuccino soup – Don’t be scared folks, the Cappuccino part of the soup is only because of it’s color otherwise it’s a pretty good Mushroom soup. It was a welcome break for me from the much cliched Tomato Soup – the redundant choice to fall back upon when talking about Vegetarian soups. The soup is medium spiced with ginger playing second fiddle to mushrooms and I can say it was flavorful and I liked it very much.

Cream of Chicken Soup – This was the milder of the two yet not to the extent of being bland and it was pretty decent in its own right as well. If you’re looking for a light and mild soup this is the one for you when you’re at the Murphies.

How to eat a Murph ? Well once the process of prolonged and slow baking is done, the end result is so tender that with a plastic fork you should be able to dig into the murph from top to bottom and attempt to eat the layered end result in one go and then top it off with the crunchy potato skin from the sides. This is what I exactly did for both the murphs I had during this meal.

Mutton Kheema Murph – The good part about this is the use of Mutton (Goat’s meat) rather than that of Lamb which is even more pungent and it’s the handling of this element which can make or break a dish. This one came with a topping of Cheese, beneath the cheese Mutton Kheema Gravy and finally the baked potato base. It was a fair enough preparation though can be improved with adding more flavors to the mutton keema gravy to further enhance the preparation.

Chicken Tikka Murph – This one I really enjoyed with the Makhni chicken tikka gravy playing its part nicely and the somewhat milder flavors from the previous murph were adequately topped up in this one. The Chicken tikka pieces were tasty and the makhani gravy was flavorful which was not too sweet and I liked this one quite a bit.

Green Apple Cooler – The only drink I had since I was recovering from a bad throat so couldn’t try their famous smoothies but this one without the ice (as per my request) was pretty refreshing and was a good way to end an otherwise good meal.

Value for Money – I would rate them 4/5 on this parameter and found the place to be a good deal and value for money for sure. They’re moderately priced given the KP standards and by taking the good taste and quantity, moderate ambience, service and prices into consideration I recommend the place. However you still need to decide for yourself whether you’re with a Murph or against it 🙂

Credits – A huge shout out to Mr.Dhiren who shared the meal with me and who also happens to be the Recipe master and the brain behind their Menu. He took me through to the overall process of Murph preparation from a humble Potato in a farm / shop to that of the finished product in their Restaurant and it was good to learn about a new concept from scratch. Lastly, special thanks to Ms.Sonya for arranging the food tasting and inviting me for the same.

Social Clinic, June-16, KP Lane 7

June 26, 2016 by aprajitp in Pune Restaurants and tagged Koregaon park Non veg restaurants, Madness Koregaon Park, Restobars Koregaon Park, Social Clinic Koregaon Park | Leave a comment

Madness located at Lane 7 Koregaon Park has been a trend-setter in Pune at-least personally for me. From having started the stand-up acts in this part of Pune to three differently themed restaurants – Social Clinic, Donkey’s Arse and Superheroes. They have been around for a while and I am not going to cover what each restaurant offers and what they are about. However soon they will be undergoing renovation and would be bidding goodbye to their Hospital theme to try different themes and food styles starting with the Punjabi/North Indian theme and food from July.

Coming back to the tasting session, on the specially designed Menu for this tasting event organized by Dineout India we had four starters, four main courses and two Desserts, my take on them as below:

Food & Drinks – 4/5 – The preparations on the Day came across as the usual however each came with a slight twist and I enjoyed my starters more than the main course.

The Drinks – I had the Over the Moon Mocktail infact I had two of them 😉 It was pretty good with the Kiwi & Litchi crush coming good with the refreshing taste of Mint.

Starters – Paneer Pesto Tikka – The Pesto sauce based Paneer Tikka tasted a bit bland at first however once notified the next serving was pretty good, spicy as I like it and the pesto sauce doing the trick, something I have never tasted before, yummy it was !

Thai Crispy Veg – This was pretty much like a usual crispy veg preparation, I didn’t find anything bad or extra-ordinary about it.

Lemongrass Chicken Tikka – This was a mild flavored chicken tikka with an added twist of lemongrass to give it a Citrus flavor. It’s difficult to define taste in words but it was like a Malai Tikka with an added citrus punch of lemongrass. To make matters great the chicken was tender and overall I was pretty satisfied with the preparation.

Basil Chicken Tikka – This was the green color textured chicken tikka and this time the twist was the Basil flavor which I initially thought could have been strange but surprisingly worked well.

The Mains – The mains came with Butter Chicken (not sweet, thankfully), Vilayati Tarkaari (an alternative to Veg Kadhai with Broccoli, Zuchini and American corn) and Veg/Chicken Pasta in Pink Sauce. I had most of my meal with the Butter Chicken and I found it as the perfect foil to go with some hot Butter Naans.

The Desserts – Tiramisu – this was pretty good and even better than the Gulabjamun Brulee which is my resident favorite here. Had an interaction with Chef Saurabh who told us that there’s a variance in this preparation wherein he used the Coffee liqueur to give the downmost layer in the preparation that bitter taste which went well with the topmost and overall I loved it.

Value for Money and Service – 4/5 – Given the location and the usual pricing in KP, I definitely found the place to be value for Money and we had a good service provided by Mr.Shishuranjan Roy (our server) and Mr.Sachin took good care of us and ensured under his watchful eyes that we were served in the most orderly and timely fashion.

Credits – Huge shout to Ms.Chandni and Mr.Avanish of Times Internet/Dineout platform for inviting me to the tasting. There are some exciting discounts on offer by booking Table of your choice through dineout in Pune and you may end up getting up-to 40% off on your bill, would suggest to go through their T&C and make your decision if this is a good direction to pursue !

Madness – Social Clinic, Lane 7 KP, Pune

March 1, 2016 by aprajitp in Pune Restaurants and tagged Koregaon park Non veg restaurants, Koregaon Park themed restuarants, Madness Koregaon Park, Social Clinic Koregaon Park | Leave a comment

It’s absolute Madness for Sure !!
Rating – 4.5/5

It would be an under-statement to say that Madness (owned by the DSC group) has the potential to become one of the most popular joints in the days to come. In order to achieve this they undoubtedly would have to maintain their consistency across the important spheres of Service, ambience and food.However what I experienced over an event of food tasting organized by Carpe Diem on 29th February was enough to ensure that they have begun on a positive note and are definitely here to stay !
To talk about the concept of Madness in brief – a place with three levels each offering something different from the other in terms of theme/experience while the food options remain consistent throughout.

Ground floor – The GF houses the Social Clinic where we had the food tasting session that largely attempts to capture the experience of a hospital with the male servers dressed in blue colored ward boys uniforms while the female servers dressed as nurses in Pink uniforms. In terms of seating one side of dining tables are lined up with metal chairs as in Hospitals while the other side has the more comfortable sofa seating.

First Floor – The First floor offers a rather dimly lit club/lounge type Ambience with some quirky one liners doting the ceilings in their Funky Avatar funnily named as Donkey’s Arse. While you’re here and if you do get a call from your acquaintance not sure if it would be a good idea to say that you’re in Donkey’s Arse 😉

Some people might find the artifacts here to be a bit over the top especially some of the seating designs but I found most of them pretty alright and some downright hilarious. It is at Donkey’s Arse where on specific days they have comedians from Mumbai perform stand-ups. Then there are other theme based events every now and then like the Retro Night, Ladies Night etc to name a few. Having these different types of themes/events create a dynamic feel which doesn’t let a feeling of monotony creep up which I guess is one of their USPs as well.

Second Floor – This floor housing the theme of Superheroes perhaps serves as the knock out to other competing establishments. This floor has a number of swings, trampoline and other activities designed exclusively for kids and has a support staff that takes care of the little ones at the roof-top. As you climb the stairs you cannot help but notice the larger than life portrait of Hulk threatening to tear up the wall and come in your way.
In the near future the Management plans to introduce child-centric packages where the parents can leave their kids for 3-4 hours at Super-heroes in the support staff’s care while performing their errands or shopping and what not !!

This to me was one of the most incredible concepts that a restaurant has to offer and I wish they just price it right for both kind of Customers – the ones dining in the restaurant (something that couple of us foodies suggested) and the ones not dining but just wanting to leave their kids at SuperHeroes.
They also have an app design in progress which will enable you to watch your kids on your mobile phone while you’re away which will help you to remain calm and certain about your precious ones.

Switching the focus back to the food tasting at Social Clinic, following are some of the hits and misses in various parameters in brief:

Drinks – Being a strict Non Alcoholic I kept sipping on my Pomegranate based mocktail called “The refreshing” and it was refreshing indeed. Infact I could hardly get to taste as all my co-foodies liked it so much that almost everyone had a sip of it 😉

I would let others to go gaga over the cocktails as I have no knowledge to comment on the same but I could make out Nasheeli Lambi Chai or the Long Island Beach Tea (the one with the long straw) was loved by everyone.

Food – I would be lying if I don’t admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the Mughlai / North Indian preparations here and some of them really bowled me over 🙂

Starters – This was undoubtedly the best course of the meal !

Hits in that order – Kundan Mutton Seekh Kebab, Murgh Kali Mirch Kebabs, Chilly Garlic Mushrooms and Mix Veg Coriander Dim Sum.

The absolute stand out starter was the Mutton Seekh kebab and it was indeed the best I have ever come across in Pune – sent me straight back to my growing up years in Lucknow feasting on Tunday kebabs. It was one of the most tender kebabs I have tasted in a long time which is usually the deal breaker with the rest of the places in Pune where they make it so hard that it’s a Cardinal Sin to call them Seekh Kebabs anymore 😉 It was spiced just right and had thankfully no particular spice overpowering the preparation whereas in most places usually you would find Cinnamon dominating the flavors, here the preparation was aptly and judiciously spiced.

Misses – Chicken and Prawns Gyozas (sort of dimsums) were my least preferred preparation of the evening, the stuffing with a mix of shredded chicken and prawns didn’t quite give me any gastronomical goosebumps !

Main Course –
Hits – Gosht Dum Biryani, Methi Chaman, Roasted Nutty Fish, Chicken Gone Mad and House Spice Lamb Burger.

The clear Winner in the main course for me was the flavorful Mutton Dum Biryani that was served in a Handi covered with Dough to preserve the aroma and flavors and OMG what flavors and aroma the Biryani offered indeed, simply Phenomenal. The mutton was nice and tender with no raw smell evident and the rice was just cooked right with a generous layer of caramelized onions, if you like your Lucknawi Biryani this is what will absolutely please you.

The other notable mention should be for the Methi Chaman curry, the lone vegetarian curry that went really well with the breads and wasn’t something I looked forward to taste initially.

Misses – Peri Peri Chicken Pizza and Tofu Steak (both being too bland for my liking).

Desserts – I would rate the desserts to be on even keel with Gulab Jamun Brulee standing out, Brownie being well like Brownie but Churos wasn’t something I liked much.

Hits – Gulab Jamun Brulee and Brownie with Ice Cream (with a Caramelized Pine-apple cut at the bottom of the preparation – yummy)
The Gulab Jamun Brulee is definitely a praise-worthy attempt at the Indian-Western fusion and thankfully the Gulab Jamun didn’t appear as the forced component in this rather unusual combination. However I must say I did enjoy it !

Misses – Spanish Churos – all I could taste was Cinnamon in this but it was slightly better when dipped in the Chocolate Sauce. I guess this was because the selected version of Churos was with the Cinnamon sugar, would look forward to chocolate/fruit flavored Churos someday here.

Service – Being an organized event the service was pretty good and all the Servers were polite and courteous. However a real test would be to visit them again when in full capacity and observe the efficiency in order to truly rate on this parameter. However whatever I saw on the day was more than good enough.

Parking – Valet Parking is available at the venue so this should be the least of your worries on an otherwise crowded section of KP on week-ends.

At the end of the session we had a good amount of interaction with their Staff including Chef Bir Singh who was the Chief Architect behind the sumptuous Mughlai delicacies. He was able recreate the Lucknawi Magic here seemlessly. Also discussed with Chef Gaurav regarding the absolutely delicious Mushrooms, the soft yet crunchy Basa Fish Preparation of Roasted Nutty Fish and maithi chaman. It was good to do the chit chat and to know their perspective on the preparations. Among their other Managerial Staff had pleasant and informative conversations with Ms.Sai Budhey, Mr. Abhishek, Mr. Rishi and Mr. Sanjay (all of the DSC group).

Special thanks to Carpe Diem Team (Pracey, Carina and Shivangi) for inviting me to the event and for the wonderful company they provided for the evening 🙂

In a nutshell I can say a visit here shouldn’t disappoint you however remember to book early on the week-ends as it can get extremely crowded. It’s a must visit for sure IMHO !

I couldn’t resist but put up a snap with the Social Clinic Servers, I am in foreground with Maanas Shah (in the background) my foodie friend along with the real heroes of the Place !

Savya Rasa Koregaon Park, Pune

December 17, 2015 by aprajitp in Pune Restaurants and tagged Koregaon Park fine dining restaurants, Koregaon park Non veg restaurants, Koregaon Park Veg restaurants, Pune best south indian restaurant, Savya Rasa | Leave a comment

A Southern Delight !

Rating – 4/5

There’s a lot to discover if you intend to dine at Savya Rasa, starting from the meaning of their name to the various artifacts like paintings, hand made tiles, single stone carved statues to of course their different from usual South Indian preparations and what not? By any chance if history enchants you and South Indian food is your passion then you must visit them right now but please after going through and liking this post 😉

Another good reason to visit the place is to check your concept of South Indian food, if you’re the type who think South Indian food is only about dosa, idli, utthappam, vada, sambhar and similar usual suspects then again you need to have a serious reconsideration about that thought. Let me get straight to the point, in this entire food tasting experience that I had in Savya Rasa I tasted a number of items but the menu didn’t have any of the above aforementioned dishes ! The place boasts of offering their food outlined on the seven exquisite region based cuisines of Southern India namely Kongunadu, Chettinad, Nasrani, Malabar,Mangaluru, Mysuru and Nellore.

Let’s start from the start, I was part of a complementary food tasting session organized by Carpe Diem for a select few foodies on a somewhat slightly chilly evening of December 14th, 2015 and I must say I was indeed surprised by the variety of South Indian Cuisine that was served on the Day. The name Savya Rasa literally means Flavors (Rasa) from the South (Savya) or Southern flavors. I have to admit in some preparations what amazing flavors they indeed were and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal.

This has all the makings of a long review but I will try to not make it a book of sorts so would like to state my impressions of food in brief as below:

Food, I rate them an exciting 4/5, the food items you shouldn’t really miss :

Venchina Mamsa Koora (Mutton starter), Kozhi Podi Varuval (Chicken starter), Chemeen Podi-ittu Varuthathy (Prawns starter), Pollachi Kari Kozhambu (Mutton Gravy), Milagu Kozhi Chettinad (Chicken Chettinad), Bun Parota, Thalassery Meen Biryani (Fish Biryani) and the Kongu Mutton Biryani.

Ambience, I rate them an interesting 4/5, it’s definitely very different from your usual conventional form of restaurants. Located in Gera Serenity, it’s a residential setup which now houses a restaurant and boy the atmosphere inside is Serene indeed ! They have a capacity to house 60 odd people and the tables are setup on multiple levels to give the guests a private and comfortable experience

Service, I rate them a top of the class 4.5/5, the staff were extremely presentable and knowledgeable about the dishes they were serving despite many of them not being from the Southern part of the Country. We were briefed about their test kitchen down South where each of their Staff have gone through a rigorous training of months to master the intricacies of the preparations they serve at Savya Rasa.

Value for Money, well consider this place as fine dining and for the “hatke” food you’re going to get it’s Ok to spend a few extra bucks every now and then in my not so humble opinion 😉

For the review in details please read below, happy reading 🙂

The Location

This place is located before German Bakery on the opposite side right next to a lane besides Starbucks i.e. if you’re coming from the Bund Garden side. This is one stretch of the Road where there is always lots of traffic. However once you have taken the turn towards left after Starbucks there is sufficient parking space around the vicinity of Savya Rasa to park your vehicles. This is not your conventional style of restaurant and you would realise what I am talking about only after you have visited them once.

The Ambience – I rate them an interesting 4/5 on this parameter.

You have to see the pictures to understand how the ambience lines up at this place, apart from being a restaurant this place at the same time showcases some of the traditional southern artifacts that you usually would encounter only in the South. Depending on your preferences this may or may not be a big thing for some but I really liked the experience of witnessing some of the items which I usually wouldn’t have seen anywhere else let alone at a dining place.

The Mirror which actually isn’t the mirror 🙂

For instance take the case of Aranmula Kanadi which will appear to you like a usual mirror but you would be amazed to know that it’s made of an alloy of probably Copper and tin (the exact combination is not known) and polished for like forever to give it that reflective property.
There are also other things to appreciate like the Murals from Ramayana, the hand made tiles or the depiction of Yali (which is partially an elephant,a lion and a horse) a Creature from Hindu mythology that is sculpted on a single stone or some of the beautiful chandeliers that you could ever witness. In case you like your history and art, the ambience of this place should definitely turn out to your liking.

Drinks – Being a non alcoholic I didn’t have any huge expectations on this parameter and the non alcoholic mint based Mojito I tried along with a root based drink were pretty decent. I’ll leave it to the other foodies to describe about their likings in this department but from what I heard about their Betel Sour drink (their whiskey based cocktail) it seemed people really liked it quite a bit.

The Food – I rate them an exciting 4/5 on this parameter and would try to cover their specializations of five (I personally liked 5/7) types of region based South Indian Cuisine.

I can’t deny but have to honestly admit that Savya Rasa have introduced me to a new dimension of South Indian Non Vegetarian Cuisine which I was so blissfully unaware till this point. I am a foodie who loves his meals and when I eat out my usual choices roam around North Indian / Mughlai cuisine, a bit of continental and at times Indo/Chinese or Indo/Thai food and I just adore Tandoori preparations. Why am I telling all this because the satisfactory meal I had here was devoid of all of my favourite items and still I can say that I was quite satisfied with my meal.

From the starters that were served I liked the following:

Kozhi Podi Varuval – Chicken essentially cooked in Chettinad style right from the kitchens of Tamil Nadu, it was a dry roasted chicken starter with absolutely no visible sauce associated with it. However the chicken bites inside the coating was juicy to serve you just right.

Venchina Mamsa Koora – Mutton cooked as per Nellore (Andhra) style of cooking, this was understandably spicy and I liked it as much as the prawns starter. This was so good that I had to ask for a second serving, the mutton was tender, juicy, spicy and went really well with the browned onions.

Chemeen Podi-ittu Varuthathy – Prawns based starter cooked in Malabari (predominantly encompassing the Kerala and parts of Karnataka region) style which for a change I just gobbled up one after the other. The key of the preparation was the total absence of the pungent smell associated with prawns which is the foremost reason I don’t prefer them usually. On the contrary here after initially just taking a bite to taste it I ended up ordering it for the second serving as well 😉

Koon Ularthiyathu – Pan tossed Mushrooms cooked in Nasrani style (an ancient Saint Thomas community from Kerala) was the only exceptional vegetarian dish that made it’s mark on my food palate.

From the mains, my favorites were the following:

Pollachi Kari Kozhambu – Mutton gravy cooked according to Kongunadu (region comprising portions of the states of Kerala, Karnataka & TN) style of cooking. The end result expectedly was an exceptional thick gravy that had a subtle taste and aroma of Cinnamon that went extremely well with the Bun Parota.

Bun Parota – Another Kongunadu preparation the looks of which could be deceptive as it’s made with eggs and comes out nice and fluffy. This was the best bread I tasted on the day and it went equally well with the chicken and mutton gravies.

Milagu Kozhi Chettinad – Chicken gravy cooked in Chettinad style had flavors of coconut crush/milk and black pepper signifying the dish, again none of it was overpowering so had a good time with this decent preparation.

Kongu Mutton Biryani – The Mutton Biryani cooked in Kongunadu style was spiced in a subtle manner, as I had my first bite to a certain extent it reminded me of the best Mutton Biryani I have ever had in a restaurant called Krishna’s Dosa Grill in the Surrey sub-urban area of Vancouver, Canada. I would have liked it to be a bit more spicy as the flavors were just a little understated for my preferences. The Mutton however was consistent i.e. tender and juicy as the rest of the Mutton dishes so full marks on that part. One point I forgot asking was about the Hyderabadi Biryani which was evidently missing from their vast Southern Menu, something that I would love to have 🙂

Thalassery Meen Biryani – The Fish Biryani cooked in Malabari style, which I wasn’t too keen to try about… actually surprised me ! I tried it on the insistence of Mr.Dennis and I am glad that I went for it. The Fish in a biryani was a new concept for me which they seem to have mastered, I have never had the courage to try this combination before but I’ll definitely try this the next time I am here for sure.

Service – I rate them a top of the class 4.5/5

As is evident this was a complementary food tasting session so I am not judging them on their serving time alone as they’re already well prepared for it. However the thing that is impressive is that each of their serving staff knows about the details of what they are serving speaks the seriousness of the intent they are running the place around. For someone who is not from the Southern Part of India just the names on the customized menu for our party were difficult to comprehend, however as the dishes were served Mr.Hom described all of the dishes along with their origin, major ingredients and the region it belongs to.
We were served with utmost care by Mr. Dennis and some of our demands that were outside the set menu were met with a smile and ever ready to serve attitude.

Areas requiring attention – Despite the rather wonderful meal I had, I was slightly expecting more on the vegetarian dishes and the Desserts. The only fair enough dessert I could taste was the Karuppati Halwa but it wasn’t something that would make me come back to the Place.

It’s a place you should visit for an introduction to a different aspect of the Cuisine down south, again their different from usual Ambience and their polite and efficient Service quality.

A special note of thanks to Carina and Shivangi (from Carpe Diem) for inviting me to this session. I also took immense pleasure in sharing the surroundings with fellow foodies – Akshay, Vaibhav, Karan and Megha, it made the experience just a bit more interesting than what it would have been.otherwise 🙂

Rajput Restaurant Koregaon Park, Pune

October 30, 2015 by aprajitp in Pune Restaurants and tagged Koregaon Park budget restaurants, Koregaon park Non veg restaurants, Pune best Non vegetarian restaurants | Leave a comment

Quality dining at budget prices !

Rating – 4/5

The food here is good and above average, there is no iota of doubt about it! However there’s a problem of cleanliness generally that I could observe along with some flies hovering over food every now and then. For people who can ignore these issues may find Rajput very interesting and extreme value for money.

Talking about my experience :

Service – Having read the previous reviews the major complaint here has been about service and thankfully the service was top notch Today on a Sunday afternoon with almost full capacity.
However be prepared for a wandering soul to ask you if you ordered a masaala Papad or some other item destined for the adjacent table 😉 But you should be fine in the end 🙂

Ambience – This is pretty basic to say the least and place is open from one side to a lot of greenery which contributes to flies and other kind of insects during the evening. The management should seriously look to fix this.

Food – As I said in the beginning, the food here is good and amply spiced but not overspiced or overpriced. Three people with moderate diet could have a three course Non Veg meal between 600-700 which is like a dream come true in KP 🙂

I ordered the following :

Tandoori Chicken – 4/5, very tasty marination and preparation, some of the chunks were tender while others were not and slightly hard hence the rating. The marinade was good though, better than most places.

Chicken chooza masaala / Murgh Mussallam – 4.5, very nice taste and ample quantity. I wanted to order Mussallam but it would have been too much for three so I asked the steward if it comes in half and he suggested to order the Murgh Chooza Masaala. This was a thick gravy and medium spicy preparation with four medium to large sized chicken pieces.

The Butter Naan and Butter Rotis went fine with the gravy though both the Naan and Roti were not the best I have had but nothing much to complain about really.

In the end, this is an awesome place as far as value for money is concerned, taste is along the lines of North Indian cuisine and the quantity is generous as well.

Copper Chimney Koregaon Park, Pune

October 28, 2015 by aprajitp in Pune Restaurants and tagged Koregaon park Non veg restaurants, Pune buffet restaurants | Leave a comment

A bit of a letdown !

Rating – 3/5

Having read so many reviews complaining of service, the only thing that was top notch was service Today. Food was just above average because of two good items – Kabuli Naan and Rabdi.

Other items like Kadhai Chicken and Achari chicken tikka were not bad in taste but nothing out of the ordinary really. I expected the dishes to be much much better than what was served especially for the price we paid. Malai Kulfi was good in taste but felt a bit icy which was a letdown as that’s what a Kulfi should avoid at any cost.

Finally the ratings:

Food – 3/5
Ambience – 3.5/5
Service – 4/5
VFM – 2.5/5

The most surprising part though were all kind of taxes and charges added to our bill. The bill before taxes was 1400 for two but after all kind of service charges and taxes were added the final amount was 1840 bucks.

Now I would want to pay that kind of amount at a Five star any day for some lip smacking food but this was a total letdown to be really honest. This is just ordinary food at 3 times the price that you can get at any mundane eating joint, not coming back again.

Visited February 2014.

biryanimaster

Tag Archives: Koregaon park Non veg restaurants