Polka Dots

This is my new favorite restaurant.

If you haven't tried it, you simply MUST !

I have already been to it about 4 times this month :D and I have coerced my team to give me my farewell there too ! Yes I am absolutely crazy about this place.

So we went there yesterday and had the following:

"Veg quesadillas"
"Teriyaki Chicken"
"Chicken Paprika"

All of the above were made to perfection. I ordered the last dish and it did not disappoint. It was superb. I licked the plate clean ! Dammit, I'm hungry again :P

Located in Kalyani Nagar and Aundh it serves all kinds of food - Indian, Continental, South-east Asian, Mexican etc etc. Pretty reasonably prices and good portions. Even their desserts are to die for. We had this creme brulee, oh, I cannot begin to describe what it did to me.

A meal for four cost about 1200 bucks. And we ordered mocktails as well (they do not serve alcohol) The mojito is really good and so is the iced tea.

Again, you MUST go !

P.S. The place has just about 10 tables and is always packed. Also, it is not air-conditioned but they have these huge air coolers and its covered so well that you cannot make out the difference at all !

New Meal Plan

I found this really interesting 7-day meal plan on The Nest. It has a lot of variety and even includes a serving of dark chocolate :) So I think I'm gonna try this out next week ! :)

Happy eating !!

Christmas Eve dinner

Mom and I went to our favorite restaurant in Pune - La Pizzeria. We simply LOVE their pizzas and pastas. Absolutely authentic stuff and simply delicious. The only thing that sucks is the ambiance coz the place is tiny and is full of kids - screaming, shouting, playing and running all over the place!

We tried the Tortellinis (FAB) and a thin crust pizza (superb) and ended it with an Italian Tiramisu (heaven) !!

I couldn't get a pic of the pasta coz I was so hungry and simply forgot !

Healthy way

So I am going down the healthy road...and this is what I take in my dabba twice a week:

My dad makes it and it is totally delicious. Also, rajma (kidney bean) salad is super. I have a light lunch so that I don't feel too sleepy and it also keeps me fit :)
Come to think of it, I don't have a heavy dinner. Only breakfast is a full proper meal with carbs. I avoid carbs in lunch n dinner.

Le Kebabiere

My first visit to this place. I really liked the color scheme - pink n blue - and the right shades of both. They have created a very nice and comfortable ambiance. Pretty knick knacks all over the place. I expected it to be very expensive, but was surprised that it wasn't. Cocktails started from Rs. 350. and that is cheap considering the location, which is a part of Stone Water Grill. 

The food was lovely. We ordered an ulte tave ka paratha and it just melted in my mouth. Awesome ! The dal was okay. The prawn starter was super. My cocktail - apple rock martini was really gud ! Very courteous staff. Good service. 

Here are the pictures:

"Table decor"

"My empty glass"

"The very large finger bowl"

Snippets from Bengalooru

Eeks..can't believe I just called it that. Sounds terrible. Bangalore it is and always will be, like Bombay will never be Mumbai.

So the trip was fun. Had to be considering I was meeting S after a whole month. SO excited just to see him. Oh, lemme tell u, the flight was shorter than the bus journey from the airport to the destination - E City ! 2 and a half hours. Thank god it was a nice AC bus. But seriously, 1.5 hrs on the plane n 2.5 in the bus, not funny !

Bangalore was cold. Raining off n on and cold breeze. I quite enjoyed it coz we don't really have winters here. 

Here are some random pics from the trip.

A lot of eating happened. Andhra thali, Tamilian thali, Chettinad food etc. etc. Those who love south-indian food must visit MTR (Lalbagh) and Nagarjuna (MG Road). Their thalis are awesome. The fish fry at Nagarjuna is delicious. Also, Anjappar at Kormangala for the chettinad stuff. Their specialty is the rabbit biryani.

Eating was accompanied and followed by a lot of drinking. Le Rock (rude waiter, ok place), Guzzler's Inn (cheap liquor) both off Brigade Road. 

The finished Mojito

That is not wine. Thats old monk served in a wine glass :D

Do you know, I did NOT shop one bit ! I am so damn proud of myself. I just bought 2 pairs of earrings for a colleague worth just 40 bucks. N S's friend bought me this from the road side. Aint it cute, my Snoopy balloon :) 

Here are some other note worthy points from the trip:

- There is a 10km long flyover to E City! Can u believe it ! 10 kms ! awesome !

- B'lore has a lot of under-age drinkers.

- The traffic sucks.

- The AC buses are so damn convenient !

- Movie tickets are expensive !

The Westin Buffet

I totally forgot to post these pictures from our team-lunch. The last team lunch, now that my dearest boss is leaving. :( Yes I will keep moping about it. Coz im very very sad.

"SUSHI"
I love sushi. They had two kinds - veg and non veg of course ! I hogged. Very tasty with a lil wasabi.

This was called - Chocolate silk or velvet or something.. looked really good..but was okay.

Another chocolate dessert. I loved the shavings on top. The rest was - meh.

And those are the only pictures I have sadly ! I was too busy eating the really big spread of delicious food to snap. The tastiest bit was the prawns in the salad section. Lightly spiced but so very flavorful ! The main course was decent. I did not try the burgers and pasta section coz I was stuffed.
It was worth the 730 bucks, which I dint pay ! :)

Rating - 8/10

Go Doolally !

I dint take any pictures last time .. I wonder why ! And strangely enough I managed to click just a few this time around too.

The place is pretty good. I wouldn't say great, but its really good. The first of its kind so I gotto give it credit for that. I am not a beer drinker. It never did much for me. So I can't really go ga-ga about this place, it being a beer brewery. But I did taste all the different types in my two visits.

Here are some of the pics I took during my second visit.

The interiors are really done well. ou really feel like you are in an Irish/English pub. That is until you listen to the music. I must say the music is a huge huge let down. Maybe I was there at the wrong times, but come on. Such old pop music. Dint go one bit with the place. And I guess they have just one CD on repeat. It is painful to hear the same songs on loop.

I like the place. I would mind going again. Only its really far far away. It's on the other end of town so distance really deters me. Food is average. Beer lovers should go for the Sunday buffet which is @ 700 bucks with unlimited beer and food. 

Brimming with energy

Ive been busy :) at least slightly busier than I usually am. Okay, lemme put it this way. I have been KEEPING myself busy. Yes. That sounds more like it.

I draw almost everyday now. Am working on something and practicing figures for that. I think it will be a nice watercolor. But I need to practice my human figures before that. The proportion is so damn important. This is the most recent one I did. Not happy, but getting there. 

Apart from that, I have also been trying my hand at cooking. Well, baking I'd say. Made my first cheese cake and I must say for a first timer, its not so bad. Very decent. It tastes really good. I just missed the proportion. (looks like thats a problem for me :P ) I need to add more gelatin next time. Its turned out a lil less solid than it shud be. I got good feedback from those who I tested it on. Here's wat it looks like.

As u can see I have nibbled some off it already :) Yes, today was cheesecake breakfast ! Wat a lovely start to the day I say !

High Spirits, Pune - review

Imagine, this place has been there for years now. I too, have been in Pune for years. Wednesday, May 19, was the first time I finally went to High Spirits. This place is located right behind Burger King in Koregaon Park.We almost drove right past it. We landed there, thanks to the Pune Mirror, which had this lil ad about the jam session there that evening. It sounded interesting and there we were.

When we walked in at about 9-9:15, there were hardly many people. They have an outside seating as well as inside. The bands play outside and the bar is indoors. One thing - the bar stools are really comfortable and thats where we sat for half the evening. The bartender, I dont remember his name now, was really sweet and in an awesome mood. He really bonded with S once he got to know he was Bengali too. He gave us two rounds of shots free. One was green-apple vodka and the other was blue-curacao with something. I ordered a Mango-Mojito (nice) It had a stick of sugarcane in it :) S had a beer. We both squabbled over who was gonna drive home and it was a lost cause.

For snacks we ordered fish tikka. I really liked it. S ordered some chicken dish which looked like huge spring rolls. He said it wasn't great. What I really liked about the place was that it was reasonably priced. The cocktails are all for Rs. 200. Some are even for 175 like the plain Mojito. Beer is for 95 - Fosters and 140 - Carlsberg.

Once the bands started playing we moved outside, only to bump into some really old friends. It was a ball after that. The first two bands that played were so-so. The third band was okay and the last band, the only one whose name i caught, Groove Junction, was really good. The solo guitar pieces was awesome. The vocalist and keyboard guy turned out to be S's school friend.

And, the best part. This place has a TT table. It is awesome to play TT to live music and to win too :) It was such good fun. We played two games and then it was time to shut down (pretty early really...1120) Then we just chatted for a while before heading out.

High Spirits is a fun place, easy on the pocket. I hear they have live music every Wednesday. Leslie Lewis is playing this Wednesday, with his daughter (an aspiring singer). I guess I'll be going. They have nice, strange art on the walls inside. I forgot to click them, maybe next time.

P.S One strange thing was that they don't have small tables. So we had to sit inside b'coz they couldn't give up large covers for just two people. Never mind, wasn't a problem. Also the food was served a bit late. Else, I had a great time.

Hard Rock Cafe, Pune - a review

I love this place. I celebrated my 23rd birthday here and simply loved it. I dig loud music. S isn't too fond of it coz he says then you can't have a conversation. But, I still love it. HRC is the place for great music and loud, just like I like it.

So I went there again last week. New dress, now shoes, high spirits...nothing could stop me from having a good time and nothing did, thankfully. They have a new policy of taking down all your details - name, address, phone no., etc. No problem. Anything to stop terrorism.

We entered and a favorite Bon Jovi song was playing. I was thrilled. We were quickly shown to our table. The place was quite packed even though it was a Wednesday night. We settled down and looked at the menu. We ordered a Sex on the beach, a LIIT and a Berry-something. The LIIT was potent. Starters were - batter fried prawns and some chicken dish. I don't eat meat so can't say how that was, but the prawns were great. For the food, we ordered a burger - good I heard and I ordered a calamari dish. it was okay - a bit chewy. The portions are quite large (for me atleast) and so value-for-money.

My second drink, which wasn't on the menu but the sweet (and cute) waiter got made for me was a Cosmopolitan. Nice. I have always liked the service at this place. I've never been disappointed. they hire really good, pleasant and friendly chaps (on the good looking side too *giggles*)

Where should I begin about the music. Everyone who has been there knows it rocks. They place all kinds, from soft rock to hard. Only, they refused to play SOAD so S was quite bummed coz of that. But then they played Metallica for him and he was joyous again. They said they couldn't play SOAD coz the crowd wudn't like it. Ha ha !

The place is on the expensive side. Cocktails are about 250-350 bucks. Food is also slightly pricy. They have recently started happy hours from 4-7 pm where they serve 3 beers for 210 (that's good, if only I drank beer) the food is priced down too. So you can make the most of it.
They have live bands playing every Thursday though there is an entry of 150 bucks. I still haven't visited on that day.

Again, I love this place. I love the decor. The music. The cocktails. The staff. oh did I tell you, the guy who escorts you to your table wears skates. I found that so cool. I wanted to try them on, its been so long since I skated.

P.S. A guy seemed to be staring at me and so I stared right back at him. Ha, it was funny coz he had to look away then and was embarrassed.
I clicked many many pics, also one outside alongside Shakira :) I am a photo-addict, so ya !

The Calamari rings

Flags - a review

We go out for lunch every month. Usually its for a team member's birthday or farewell. Once it was just coz the team morale was low. My boss is really sweet and takes us out to a new place every month. She's a real sweetheart.

This time we decided to go to Flags. It is a slight distance from the office but we okay-ed it with her and booked a table. It had been a while since I last went there to eat, maybe a year or two. I think it shut-down in the middle for renovation or something. I didn't see much of a difference. It looked rather lackluster. When I entered, it seemed dull. There was no music (they generally play soft music) but it was put on half way through our meal.

One thing I don't like about this place is the table height. It is rather weird. The sofa seats sink in and the table becomes really high unless you're a tall person. So anyways, we start ordering stuff. The food, I'd say, was good. Slightly over-priced, but good. The portions were a lil small but flavorful nonetheless. We ordered some salads, which were good. I ordered prawns in a spicy tamarind based sauce. It was quite spicy (as described) and tasty. Rice and mashed potatoes on the side. The others enjoyed their food as well. I had quite a tough time deciding what to eat, fewer options now that I've stopped eating meat.

The desserts were tasty. Brownies and apple pie. I ordered the Nutty Coffee, which was really good.  Coming to that, the coffees were really overpriced. I mean 200-250 bucks is a bit too much for a coffee. So were the drinks. Iced tea was - 125 and fresh lime - 75. The Strawberry smoothie was also nice - Rs. 200 (if I remember correctly) Also, the only bottled water they had was Evian, which was like 150 bucks a bottle. Thank god it was a team lunch and my boss was footing the bill. We were all quite taken aback by the total.

The service was good. Pleasant staff. they served us lil chocolates with the bill, though we were quite stuffed already. The AC was the right temp. I mention this coz I hate places where I freeze to death. We did have a good time. Conversations revolved around traveling, US foreign policy (My boss is from the US) and office stuff.

P.S. They have a lunch buffet at Rs. 250 + but not much variety on that menu, very limited.The a-la-carte menu has dishes from all round the world. From China to Mexico to Portugal to Japan. they Even an had an Ethiopian dish (Pardon me, but I thot they didn't have much food there)

P.P.S We also got these discount cards. If you visit five times, on your 6th visit u get a flat 50 % discount !! I took one, just in case :P

An All-American Dinner

Last weekend, my boss invited us over for a turkey making session. We had all urged her to teach us how to make a turkey since we had never eaten one. I was thrilled. I wanted to eat a turkey ever since I saw it on Tom & Jerry when I was little. And all the movies I later saw, added to the excitement. Thanksgiving was celebrated really early this year :) 

 

So, my sweetheart of a boss bought all the stuff (it cost a LOT) We were gonna be cooking in her friends place. It was a penthouse in Koregaon Park, overlooking the canal. The house was super-fab. It was huge, had a lil swimming pool, a glass-walled room on the top floor, lavish bathroom, et. al. Only the kitchen was tiny, and that was the part we used the most :D Oh, did I mention was awesome the fridge was, it doled out crushed ice at the press of a button. 

So the turkey making was fun and tiring. I must have had about 6-7 glasses of different kinds of juices that were stocked in that dream fridge. When I reached home, my arms were aching from all the stirring, mashing, carving :P But it was great fun. A day well-spent. The turkey turned out delicious. And so did everything else. So we leart two things that day - how to make a turkey and never do that in the peak of summer :D hahaha !! Thank god for the AC (which did not work in the kitchen) else we wud have melted away.

IBIS Pune

Very rarely you find someplace which has excellent service. But last night I did.

We just happened to go to the new IBIS Hotel in Pune, which is on the Nagar road, very close to home coz my sis had to use the wifi to download some official mails. We weren't even sure if they would let us, but they had some coupon system for the wifi so all was good.

We drove into the parking lot. Its a budget hotel, so there are no valets. parking was a bit tricky with a big car and no one around to direct us. Also they had those, what do you call them, machines which makes it a two level parking. Whatever you call it. The car didn't really fit on that, but since the parking lot was almost empty, we figured they wudn't really use that anyways.

So we went up the elevator into the lobby. Its a pretty hotel. Interiors are well done. All this coming from my bro-in-law who's been in the hotel business for like ages now. So we went to the coffee shop. It was decent, with a red theme. We settled down after having a look at the buffet. they have a Goan fest going on. We ordered two cappuccinos and a tea. Well, I must say, if you go there please don't bother to order the above mentioned things, coz they were, I have to say it, crap. Ok, the tea was passable but the coffee...it tasted like mud water. ok, actually it tasted like those instant coffees, those sachets to which you just have to add water. Bad bad bad and tasteless.

Now the good part. We asked them to change it once and make it stronger coz it tasted like milk water and a hint of something faintly coffee. They got us another round. Hmm... this time it was worse. It was as if they had just mixed coffee upar se. :P Now we were really cheesed of, coz we were really in the mood for rich, strong COFFEE. We mentioned it to the head waiter and he took away the cups. We said we dint want anything else. He seemed quite disappointed.

After a while, my sis had finished her work, so we signaled to the guy to get us the cheque. Now, instead of the cheque he comes up with 3 glasses of some pink colored liquid. We asked what that was and he said it was some mixed fruit something, which was recovery service for the bad coffee. It was a sweet gesture, as we weren't even in-house guests. We said we really dint want to have anything cold and just wanted the check. He insisted and told us to try it. So we all took one sip (I took about 4 :P). Then he informed us, after we asked again for the check, that everything was complimentary and they were really sorry for the bad coffee.

I was quite surprised at the hospitality as it was a budget hotel and they are not known for such stuff. at the most I would have expected them not to have charged us for the coffees, but the entire bill. That was something. The guys at the coffee shop were really hospitable and sweet and really made me glad. It was after quite some time that I felt good.

P.S. I just found one thing strange, if we had ordered coffee and tea, why would they give us something cold as a recovery? Ahh..but lets just forget about that and concentrate on the good service part of it !

P.P.S. BTW after, we went and got our fav coffee from the neighborhood Coffee Day ! Coffee Day zindabaad !

P.P.P.S The IBIS is an international chain of hotels. You can check out their site by clicking here. I ought to give them some publicity, I did like their service ya !!

Gastronomic weekend !

Eating out again ! This time I went to two old haunts. One was Bamboo House (JM Road) and the other was Curve in ABC Farms (Koregaon Park).

Bamboo House - I used to visit this place quite often when I was in college and hadn't been there since 3 years ! It hasn't changed is all I can say. The entrance is still dingy and smelly and food just as good. We had the yummy fish tawa fry and crab gassi. I just kept licking my fingers. The butter chicken was really not up to the mark, but anyways I wasn't there to have that. I had my fill of the crab. It was spicy and tasty like hell. Sadly they didn't have the new lichi breezer which I wanted to try, so I settled for a cranberry. Overall, I would say 3.5/5 !

Curve - this was a treat. A friend has recetly been placed with one of the biggest law firms in India. So we went to celebrate ! We didn't wanna eat much, both being small eaters, so we ordered one starter and one pizza. The garlic mushrooms weren't what we had expected. They were better fried, while we had thought the dish to be sauteed. Anyways, I loved the mayo sauce that came with it so no complaints. I had a minestrone soup which was real yum, while she settled for a cream of mushroom. She said it was good. We ordered a hlf n half pizza, she being vegetarian (boring). My half was yummy. I love thin base pizzas and this was just that ! After finishing this we went over to "Swiss Cheese Garden' to devour the much heard of lemon cheese cake. I must say it was heavenly. The right flavor of lemon and not too sweet not too sour. It was a perfect way to celebrate her success.

Dining out

We went to Sigree the other day. The last time I went there was for my 21st B'day. So I have very special memories associated with that place.

I had recently read some bad reviews about the place, so I was apprehensive about this dinner. But all my worries were put to rest, coz I had a good experience. I mean, I didn't like the main course too much, and thought the desserts weren't too many.. but overall I wouldn't call it bad.

It was the dinner buffet and was set up outside. I thought it would be really cold, but surprisingly that night the temperature was higher than before, so I was okay (even after wearing a skirt). We got a nice table near the buffet spread and I was all set to eat. There was a slight delay in the service, but I couldn't blame them, they were packed. Thank god we had reserved a table. There were so many starters. First we tried only the non-veg: prawns in some kind of red masala, chicken, fish, mutton tikkis. I totally loved the prawns. They were super delicious. The rest was ok. Then we thought of trying out the veg starters as well: paneer tikka (the softest paneer ever), palak tikkis (amazing), bhindi in mustard, tandoori aloo and mushrooms. Their paneer was really very fresh which made it all the more tasty.

After the starters, I thought of heading directly for the desserts, but there I was disappointed. They had just 4 :( I am used to a huge spread of desserts at a buffet but all they had was - gajar ka kheer (milky kheer with some carrot shreds), malpua, some bengali sweet and strawberry ice-cream. Sad ain't it !! But I still some of each and overdid the ice-cream bit. Then I moved on to the main-course. I was happy I had my full of the starters, coz the main course wasn't great. The usual sabzis, chicken, biryani. Nothing unusual and nice.

What I tried new was the 'Sangria.' It was a nice wine cocktail made of red wine, port wine, vodka, pomegranate juice and grapes. It also had tiny pieces of apple. It was real nice and very different from what I usually have.

P.S. I really find it difficult to understand why people get agitated and angry when there is slow service. Unless I was dying of hunger or the waiter was just lazing around, I would never lose my cool. If you are in a jam packed place, you can't really expect him to do much ya. Anyways... thats that !

Wined out ;)

My first wine tasting !

Quite nice I would say ... though it still dint have any major effect on my pallet. I still wouldn't say that I enjoyed it. I just let my dear tongue get a feel of what all was out there. And it responded by, "we're not missing much babe !!"

I tried white wine and rose. Red, I've always liked the least, so I just stayed away from it. There were about 12 counters, I tried one wine from most of them. Some did not have rose wines, so I skipped them altogether. Some I had already tried before, like Château Indage, so dint again !

We went early to skip the crowd, and we did succeed. There were just few people there, mostly oldies. Also, it was quite sunny, glad I was wearing airy clothing. Though, I did wish I had carried along a hat ! Soon the place began to fill up, and youngsters started to come in. I did happen to see some good-lookin men ;) Also, there were some people showing of their great knowledge of wine.. there was a guy (Indian, who made wine in Australia) who just went on and on and on ! Uff ! There was a lovely live band. They played some lovely numbers. The vocalist was real good.

The food counters were ok. We tried a Shawarma roll and some kebabs. Both were average, nothing great. there was a gelato stall, which had 2 flavors made of wine - Merlot and Strawberry & Champagne. Both were goooood ! One of the girls at the stalls was wearing black stockings (god I pitied her.. to wear that in such heat !!!)

There was an art exhibition, I loved some of the paintings. They were so simple, yet so damn beautiful. I was left quite inspired. A 'Cooking with wine' show was to be held, but it got delayed coz the chef had an accident or something. We left coz we couldn't wait any longer in the sun. It was a fun outing though, dad n I, after a long time.

Here are some pics from the festival.

"Wine rack"

"All in a row"

"And on the barrel"

"Art exhibition"

Wine-Tasting

I am not yet a wine lover. I have still to develop the liking for this red/white colored strange liquid which has half the world at its knees.

My sis and dad and almost all the people I know really like wine. I have tried to develop a liking towards it, but somehow I haven't succeeded yet !

So I have decided to go to the Pune Wine-Tasting Festival in Koregaon Park to give it another shot. Maybe out of the 40+ wines, I will find one that I will not detest so much.

Whoever is in town, give it a try. It promises to be a fun affair. For a measly amount of Rs. 350, they provide you with a souvenir wine glass, a booklet on wine and you get to taste (or gulp down, whichever you prefer) all the wine. Food you have to pay for. They have stalls by Silk Route, Kokum etc etc. Its a good deal I think. If you buy passes online before end of day Dec 17th, you get a Rs. 50 discount too :) which I have availed :)

So check out the link above and do come !

Lunching out

My boss is going home for Christmas :( I will miss her terribly. She is one of the main reasons I come to work. Shes funny, smart and just awesome. Actually, she's the reason I work here.

So she took us out for an early Christmas lunch since she'll be gone by the time it actually comes. We went to The Oakwood hotel - 5 Senses.

She raved about the food here and we all were looking forward to this day. Sadly, the buffet was anything but great. The salads were good, a huge spread. All kinds of meats, veggies, dry-fruits, cheeses, breads etc. But the good part ended there.

Starters were average - fish tikka and veg tempura (I dont like it coz its deep fried). Main course was disappointing. They had only Indian and Chinese. The Chinese greens were good, but while I was serving myself, the heater plate below the container slipped out and I almost burnt myself. They did not even apologize.
Anyways, There was a chicken dish with some weird name and tasted horrible. I heard that the rogan josh was good, but I don't eat mutton so can't say. The dal makhani was awesome. I loved that.
The desserts were a huge let down. It looked like a big spread. They had mousse served in martini glasses, which I really like. It looks so elegant. But... the strawberry was just too sweet. The litchi was ok. The pastries were bad. The peach pie was horrible and cold. I was sad, coz I love this part of the buffet the most. The saving grace was the gulab jamun, which didn't look so good but tasted otherwise. I didnt try the phirni. Ooh.. I almost forgot the Iced tea. It was tasteless.

I think for 4-something bucks a plate, they should have had something continental. Anyways, I wouldn't go there again. Maybe its the dinner buffet thats better, but i'm not taking that chance. There are so many other places to try in Pune.