Delhi Spice

Delhi Spice - Review
FC Road

We were escorted to their small upstairs dining area, and I observed this is where they send most of the people. I noticed while leaving that this was entirely occupied although the bottom area was still empty. They also have a seemingly good buffet for just Rs. 360/- which includes starters, parathas, Indian main courses and desserts.

"Chur Chur Olive"

We went for the a la carte menu instead and opted for their signature stuffed paratha thalis. The parathas were served at the perfect temperature – warm enough to start eating. The usual experience with similar paratha places is quite contrasting, where you have to wait for an appreciable amount of time until you can even touch the paratha; unless you want to sustain a burn by being too hasty to try the searing stuff. 

All the parathas were served with rajma – it tasted a lot like the packed, ready-to-eat ones you can pick up at any grocery store – so I did not appreciate it much. On the other hand, the dal makhani was delectable. A small pack of Amul butter was served with each thali which seemed out of place.  It’s common practice to serve the parathas with a blob of fresh butter which is what I was expecting – not that it was needed.

"Corn Cheese Chilli Olive"

Our choices were the following:

1)      “Chur Chur Olive Paratha” – An ‘olive twist’ to the regular:  crispy and soft at the same time. It has  a mild, lovely taste which kind of grows on you. It went well with the rajma and dal makhani. The unusual combination of olive and chur chur made it even more savoury.

2)      “Cheese Chilli Garlic Paratha” – This one a large amount of garlic, fairly tipping the scale but it was thoroughly cheesy and oozing with flavor. If you’re someone with a preference for mild tastes, then you may find this one too intense. Tip: If you do order it, make sure that you finish it fast as it becomes too overpowering once it gets cold.  

3)      “Corn Cheese Chilli Olive Paratha” – This was the one I had. Even though it sounds more like a pizza than a paratha, it was like combining the best of both – the goodness of pizza marrying the goodness of the stuffed paratha. The soft and thick paratha wasn’t too spicy even though it said chilli, and was covered with cheese on both the sides

Outside the restaurant there’s a notice which says there is no restroom here – but when my father asked, not knowing that this is displayed outside – the attendant obliged and showed him where it was! Quite amusing to see this practice – doesn’t it make for a proper ‘Puneri’ place?

Boondi raita was probably the best preparation. It was creamy, smooth and fresh. The boondis were few and far in between although this was better as it made for a perfect contrast against the rich parathas.  

By the time we were finished, we hardly had any space left for the dessert. It was plain old gulab jamun but I liked that it wasn’t too sweet. It was also very, very soft - melt in the mouth texture. 

Service was good – there a few issues at the beginning which were resolved very quickly and the rest of the evening went well.

Delhi Spice, F. C. Road

The Eatery - Four Points by Sheraton

The Eatery - Four Points by Sheraton - Review

Viman Nagar 

Our spontaneous dinner plan led us here – the menu looked promising. It’s on the ground floor of Four Points by Sheraton, Nagar Road, tucked away into a corner. Afghani fish tikka, grilled chicken, paneer schezwan and  masala aloo were the starters which they served on the table. The tikka was simply delicious; cooked to perfection with impeccable flavor. The chicken we found to be pretty dry and dull, paneer was fine and I didn’t even taste the aloo. I had the pumpkin and chicken soup, which was pleasant and wholesome. The basil-tomato soup did not attraction my attention and neither did the huge array of what could have been freshly baked breads. A major disappointment was that there was no cheese platter, which I look forward to at such buffet places. However, there was a lot of variety in salads – egg salad, paneer with mustard sauce and capsicum were the ones I liked the most.

There were live stations for pasta and Kolkata roll. We ordered white sauce pasta, it was decent. I did not fancy kolkata rolls, I feel they could have been much, much better. Main course had chicken chettinad, Mediterranean polenta, fish prepared in a way I do not remember (but was nice!), vegetable gumbo (complete with okra), paneer, lauki with moong dal, yellow dal, jeera rice, Singapore noodles, etc. We ordered butter laccha parathas to go with the Indian curries. Paneer was good but the chettinad turned out to be the best of the Indian preparations. I have never really liked polenta, but this time I enjoyed it.

We quickly moved on to the desserts which was their most elaborate section. There were 10 or more desserts and we had the honor of cutting the black forest cake. Moong dal halwa was way too rich and cardomomy for my liking. Brioche bread pudding was brilliant – both in presentation and flavor. Apart from these hot desserts, the cold desserts had something distinctive - a Spanish coconut dessert which I loved.  Dutch pastry with papaya, red velvet cake, dark chocolate brownie, kiwi mousse were the continental desserts. When I was helping myself to a second serving of some of my favourites here – particularly the red velvet cake -  the manager noticed and remarked how I am enjoying the desserts more! I would have liked to enjoy main course as much too if only there would have been better options. 

Service was dutiful.  For this price, I wouldn’t go there again.  

(Dinner buffet per person: 900+ taxes)

Dravida's Bistro

Dravida's Bistro - Organic Dakshin Cuisine - Review

A simple search shows you that it’s located inside City Point complex, but Zomato has the correct address. I was assuming that it’s in City Point, so we drove past this but I spotted it in time so we found a parking spot nearby. They have recently shifted, I was told – they’re opening up a new place at the original location. 

You can build your own dosas/parathas or even idlis for that matter – although we had their set thali. Chaas was served to us in a pretty, intricate bottle. Then came the plates laden with food – kerala parotta, dry chilli pickle, a bowl of tomato rice each, kurma, potato, raita and papad. The quantity of tomato rice was more than sufficient for a filling meal by itself and the rice was delicious. I had to parcel some of it and it tasted even better the next day! The parotta with kurma was really good, although the kurma was on the sweeter side, as expected.   Potato was lightly spiced with mustard seeds and chilli but the chilli pickle was superb. I am not really a fan of pickles so it is saying something !


They also have a curated five course set menu, which looks promising. Service was wonderful albeit a bit slower than hoped for. Overall, it’s value for money.   

 

 

Panchavati Gaurav - Review

Panchavati Gaurav,

Kumar Pacific Mall

 

The first time I’d been to Panchavati Gaurav was for someone’s party, organized at the Bhandarkar road outlet when I was just in school. I don’t really remember it in detail, but I do remember not liking it as much as I used to like going out to other restaurants. 

This outlet situated on the second floor at one corner of this mall, is a relatively new one compared to the original one in Pune. We expected it to be full being a Sunday, but were surprised to find quite a few tables unoccupied. The Kumar Pacific Mall, on the other hand, was FULL with people. 

A famiy had arranged a small function here as most of the tables were occupied by them. The service was rather slow, we entered at about 8 pm and they started serving us about 10 minutes later. Usually, at such thali places, there’s no time for you to say no when they start serving, so maybe this was a plus point! First came the chutneys – green and red (tamarind), then came the papad to which we said no.  A welcome drink – jaljeera was served. It was very minty but was refreshing. For snacks, there was tirangi dhokla which was tasteless. Small, fat samosas were quite okay, they just had a light masala potato filling which was average. Chaas was also served but I did not have it. 

There were four vegetable preparations – aloo (huge chunks in masala curry), paneer (small pieces in a rich gravy), gatte ki sabji and veg. kolhapuri. All the preparations were good, but I personally did not appreciate the huge aloo pieces. Chapatis, rotla served with ghee and masala puris were being served constantly. 3 bowls were to be filled with sweet dal, tikhi dal and kadhi, of which I had only the tikhi dal. Unfortunately and quite predictably, this dal was the same one used for dal bati. The small shapes in which the bati was offered here was something I’d seen for the first time. The taste, however, was nice and I helped myself to another serving. Moong dal khichdi was runny as I’d expected and offered a fitting end to such a heavy meal. 

Orange halwa, angoori basoondi and jalebi were the sweets. Orange halwa was just sooji halwa flavoured with orange but it was a fresh combination of flavours. Angoori basoondi was disappointing as the angoors were few and far in between the probably skimmed basoondi. Jalebi was fresh and crispy and we enjoyed it by dipping it in the basoondi ! The servers were slow but were attentive and enquired every now and then. 

Panchavati Gaurav

Sigree Global Grill - Review

Sigree Global Grill - Amanora, Hadapsar - Review

Having been regulars at the DP road branch, we are always welcomed here with warm smiles. We went here after a long time and found some minor changes but the service was just as good as it used to be. 

A small glass of complimentary mocktail is served upon seating (this time it was coca cola but we have had orange, jaljeera flavoured ones as well), after which a bread platter is served to your table with 4 different types of dips –usually salsa, hummus, flavoured butter and something else I cannot recall. There are 5 veg and 5 non-veg appetizers, the veg ones usually being herbed pudina aloo, tangy pineapple, veg tikki, succulent paneer in either red or green marinade, roasted cauliflower/broccoli on skewers which are served afresh to your personal barbeque box in the centre of the table where they get the smoky flavor. Non-veg ones include varieties of chicken, fish, mutton and prawns. I have always enjoyed the veg ones more but that’s just me – although amritsari fish and fish cakes were something that I liked the last time. Three different types of chutneys and dressings are served in addition to the earlier mentioned dips to go along with these starters. They also serve the pizza of the day which is surprisingly good, but this time we found it to be a bit chewy. The taste, however, was good enough.

I remember they used to serve a freshly tossed salad at the beginning of your meal before offering the starters which they have done away with as of now. This salad was added to the buffet section instead along with the other usuals – pasta salad, chana/corn salad, beetroot salad, etc. but the freshness of the lettuce leaves was not maintained. There were atleast 6-7 varieties here along with a veg. soup but I did not try them all. In the main courses, veg. section had a much larger variety – with North Indian, Thai and Continental cuisine. Thai green curry was quite runny – more than what I had expected and more than what I’ve had here earlier. I’ve been an advocate of “dal sigree”, their signature dish before they ventured out into Global Grill outlets – although this time even that was not as rich as it used to be! But it still remains my favorite preparation over here and I could easily finish a bowl within no time. Spinach rolls with cheese were quite nice. There were 4 or 5 different types of vegetables of which I had paneer lababdar and methi matar malai of which the former was good. In the non veg section, I saw crabs for the first time. Methi murg was delightful, but neither of us tasted the murg dum biriyani which looked promising. There’s a live pasta station or add-on risotto station for dinner, and you can choose your own sauce from mamarosa, aglio olio, pesto, tomato pesto, alfredo, arrabbiata along with your choice of vegetables and pasta. I’d recommend mamarosa and pesto if you like these sauces. This time I’d ordered pesto with fusilli after we were done with our main course from the buffet section but it was a rush hour so we couldn’t wait any longer and proceeded to desserts instead. They conveniently forgot our order and we were kind of glad for that!

When we were about to have desserts, the section was crowded but the re-fills arrived frequently. Malpua with rabri, pineapple halwa, rice payasam were some of the Indian desserts. Rice payasam was nice, I could see that it was a hit with the people.  Small portions of red velvet cheesecake looked better than they tasted. Kiwi mousse, blueberry mousse, banana almond cake were all pretty good but the chocolate cake was disappointing – it did not seem fresh. The children’s favourite part here was the ice-cream section – with creamy butterscotch, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavours and a variety of toppings like chocolate chips, desiccated coconut, chocolate sauce, etc. Cut fruits like watermelon and papaya occupied a corner.

Service, apart from the insignificant pasta goof-up, was just right.