KAPILA HOTELS - CAFE BOULEVARD

Kapila Hotels —
Café Boulevard
Dhole Patil Road, Pune.
# 66823084

What I hate about a restaurant is when one of the waiters come up to you at 11.15 pm
and asks, “Sir, last order please. The kitchen is closing”. This fuses the mood and kills the hunger too. No complaints about them, as they are too doing their duty. So we decided this time to visit a place where no such phrase exists! Kapila Business Hotels Café Boulevard is the place to be when you are late to catch on some food. The restaurant is compact with around 40 covers, and a pleasant ambience. I walked in around 12.30 am to see the place half filled already. Once you are here, order a couple of pints as you might get your food a little late. Beer is only served
post midnight. I didn’t expect much as I presumed this place to be where you wont have nice food post midnight. So I ordered fish and chips. To my surprise, I was wrong — two generous fish fillets and chips along with tartare sauce came to my table. The beckti fish
was so fresh you wouldn’t get it anywhere in the daytime. I refused to believe the quality of food, so I ordered kheema pav, Grilled Supreme Chicken with sautéed vegetables and
mutton biryani. Apart from these you can binge on pakoras, kababs, mini pizzas,
open sandwiches, burgers, pastas, paneer tikka masala, chicken curry, rajma rice and the famous kathi roll of theirs. Grilled Supreme Chicken tasted the best. Kheema and mutton biryani
were tasty too. I would like to share some information here with regard to mutton: I have seen many hotels in Pune serve lamb meat, but I personally think goat meat which is less fatty and
more fibrous is easier to digest than lamb meat. Also if you go to rural places in Maharashtra, goat meat is widely used. This place impressed me a lot. The menu is short but varied as priced from Rs 75 – Rs 150. Don’t compare the portions with regular ones, it’s enough to calm your hunger pangs after midnight. When I left the place around 2:45 am, people were still flocking in!

MY OVERALL RATING: 7/10

TERTULIA

Terttulia
Bel Air, Lane no. 6, North Main road,
Koregaon Park, Pune

This place is known to be among top favourite breakfast places in Pune. Moreover, it’s supposed to be famous for bacon and eggs. Terttulia is a Spanish word used in Latin America, meaning — social gathering or scheduled event in a public place. The menu though is not Spanish but American style, with additions of pastas and pizzas. As this time I had gone for breakfast, the
options included fresh seasonal juices, cereals, porridge, muesli, cous-cous upma, eggs to order, Eggs benedict, Eggs Florentine, bagels, waffles, pancakes, French toast and Terttulia’s freshly baked basket. To my surprise there was no option in tea, but for green tea. Even masala chai was not available! Getting to the business, I always like to check on the hardest part of the menu. Many restaurants add famous preparations in their menu, but few manage to dish out
the perfect recipe. This time I targeted Eggs Benedict, Eggs Florentine and waffles.
In the menu, it mentions Eggs Benedict as poached eggs and ham on an English
muffin topped with Hollandaise sauce served with hash browns. To be honest,
neither did I find hash browns nor any ham. The eggs were poached by inexperienced
hands. Also the Hollandaise sauce was too thin, when it should have a creamy texture and the poached eggs should be nicely covered up by the egg whites. Eggs Florentine passed the test and
waffles came out with flying colours. Had it been for baking powder-free waffles, it
would have won my heart! But these were the best waffles I have ever had in town.
And for the bacon, it should be crisp and done from both sides. The add-on bacon
served was done rare, but bacon tastes best if it is crisp. Breakfast is served from 8am to noon. In the afternoon who have a wider choice of sandwiches and hot dogs, which should ideally be incorporate in the breakfast. Also for a tea lover like me, there are no options! Ours was the only table occupied, which showed some signs. If you manage to be in this locality, this is the place to visit after noon. But, I wouldn’t suggest this as a breakfast place.

MY OVERALL RATING: 4/10

SEN5ES - OAKWOOD PREMIER

Senses, Oakwood Premier Pune, 81, Mundhwa,
Koregaon Park Annex, # 41428888

Oakwood Premier Pune opened doors a few weeks back, to a uniquely conceptualized restaurant. Senses, as it’s called, has a food menu comprised of five cuisines for the five senses.

FOOD AND SERVICE
Pan Le Grill, Pan Italian, Pan Fusion, Pan Oriental and Pan Indian are the five cuisines offered over here. Every cuisine is comprised of cleverly picked preparations from each region. To name a few, you will find Norwegian salmon steak, T-bone steaks specially flown in, in Le Grill; pastas
of your choice right from the sauces to the ingredients chosen by you and cooked in front of
you, polenta, rissotto in Italian; sea food Laksa, grilled Thai chicken with mango salsa in oriental;
garam masala seared tuna with sundried potatoes in fusion and a variety of Indian spread
with a mention of prawns and basil biryani. I was amazed by the fact that they have a
similar vast menu in spirits too! I hardly managed to recollect all of them but they sure have some 50 cocktails listed! Here there is a very small change but a commendable one — they have referred mocktails as ‘zero%’ which shows the passion behind building up the menu. No guesses
for quality and taste as the paneer tikka only showed us the difference. Here they stuff
the paneer tikkas by adding spices through a slit (not just dipped for marination).
Tiramisu here is gelatin and egg-free which tastes awesome. What’s more, every staff
even if he is not related to restaurant shows you the hospitality.

VERDICT
Don’t look at left side of the menu as the experience is worth business class. They have a midnight express menu which is a cheaper option, comprising quick grabs. They also have a German buffet — Stammtiseh — every Friday with unlimited beer. After your meal, ask the bartender for an aperitif which is an amazing combo of cognac, triple sec and angostura bitter. If you want to strike a business deal and end it on a high note, you know where to head!

MY OVERALL RATING: 7/10