Milestone

After driving for long and cutting through heavy traffic, reaching this milestone was a quite a journey. The name initially suggested an up-market pub or at least an air-conditioned lounge bar. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a nice, open air garden restaurant with an attached middle-eastern styled semilounge seating. The upper deck gives a beautiful view, though it is more popular with regular ‘spirited’ guests. Couples will feel more comfortable downstairs as

there is very minimum lighting. Not good for a food critic as it was disappointing for me, but

scores a point for those wanting to have nice time. I was expecting a lot from the menu, but again

was let down as it is turned out to be typical with all the necessary and unnecessary dishes showcased in different avatars. There wasn’t too much to comment on the food preparation. The only different dish we came across — a Paneer Punjabi Chop Masala which is evenly diced paneer sautéed in ginger garlic and pounded khada masala mixed in onion tomato gravy. It was something good and new to taste. Other than that, the Mixed Veg Platter and Prawns in Hot Garlic Sauce were not great. The variety in the platter was appealing though the marination was very spicy as all the items had the same marination. The prawns were overcooked, making them rubbery and chewy. Prawns have their own taste and always remain succulent only if added, when fresh, at the last moment, just before the gravy is cooked. There’s one particular thing I’d always remember this place for — its determined, polite and attentive service. I have witnessed such service only in star hotels, and even there you’ll find a bit of arrogance. But here was service with courtesy. I felt sad when I looked at the expression on one of the waiter’s face when he heard our feedback of the veg platter. He listened to us patiently, but felt helpless as he could not do anything much. If you stay in Undri, Wanowrie or Kondhwa, you have a decent, economic place with good ambience that serves the tried-andtested food items with particularily excellent

service.

36 Mile Stone,

Plot No 969,

Survey No 12,

Before

Corinthian

Club, NIBM

Undri Road

My Overall Rating : 6.5/10

DE KATTA

Written in devnagari script, yet serving English deli preparation is exactly supposed to be up-class “katta”. Having comfortable seating and spacious yet closed out mezzanine gives yet another hangout a different breather. The whacky life-sized painting which depict single dimensional art of a typical college katta, where there is this dude lighting up the stick sitting on cemented blocks, or a havaldar sitting at the entrance enjoying his usual nap, or a normal day to day life scene. Any which way, the art steals the attention. It’s a place where every table is complemented with a three pin socket, suggesting it to be a laid back place. No fusses about early orders, or frisking of guests as soon as you’re done eating.

Opened a few months before, this katta is a bit shaky on its food menu. Serving grilled sandwiches, salads, some more variety of bread preparations and coffee. The content is same old stuff but with some interesting additions being Egg Building (which is a three layered toasted s/w each having scrambled egg, boiled egg and egg omlette) or Chinese omlette (which comes with a small amount of Chinese gravy) The tossed salads are served warm overe here and it’s the blended cold coffee, hot coffee and black coffee only three sole beverages served.

This place has a strong hold of a theme which is depicted brilliantly which makes it worth visiting once. There is a lot of scope to improve on preparation style of sandwiches and variety in food section which can strengthen its weaknesses. May be the top ups in menu would be waiting down the line in coming days. Also whatever may be the reason for excluding this item from the menu which in any katta stands for; I was surely missing a hot piping cutting chai!

id k33a (De Katta,) Dahanukar colony, Main road near circle, Kothrud, Pune.

INDIJOE

The name suggests a blend of fusion of western influenced cuisine with Indian touch. It’s an all day dining destination with lots of variety to choose from. You can feel the weight of the menu card and simply get confused what to order today as you bound to re-visit back to try the full array of delicacies offered. I did not get the hint of the Indian touch as most of the content of the menu is American influenced and partly serves a variety of Thai, American, Mexican, Italian and Lebanese fare. Over 20 percent of my time spent at the restaurant was reading – yes – ‘reading’ the menu. The extensive menu lets you feel exhausted which comprises of fondues, soups, salads, appetizers, main meals, pizzas, pastas, risotto, sizzlers, sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, desserts, shakes and coolers and whole kids menu. I guess that’s the idea to ignite your hunger. Having read for so long time, we had to make discussions across the table resulting in debates, conflicts only over what to order, my eyes fell over one of their writings ‘tired of choosing go for our combos’. Vegetarian combo was the ceasefire. I was happy to go for combo for two reasons. One good one that we got to taste 4-5 different varieties and the bad one was all of them wore battered, coated and deep fried! I guess American cuisine sails on oil!

The Texas favorite chicken wings wore succulent, glazy and tasted well with blue cheese dip and barbecue sauce. Ahead on the global gourmet journey the pizza bombed while chicken chimichanga (supposed to be Mexican) created fireworks! Pizza for its base and chimichanga for its unique creamy chicken filled tortilla with tomato fused Spanish rice. The desserts have interestingly striking similarity with one also served at another famous hangout. The chocolate kill avalanche is more than enough for two persons with around 7 different forms of chocolate almost killing you.

Well the ambience complements the food perfectly. The vibrant orange walls, graceful seating and open kitchen give you the American deli dining feel. Be ready to spend in dollar style to, as it’s fairly expensive. I suggest a one visit is must. For its exiting menu and global fare served under one roof and that to desi style!

IndiJoe

3^rd floor, jewel square hall, Koregaon park, Pune, 020-41224888/9

LE KEBABIERE

This week’s restaurant is for those who had thought about Indian food being monotonously served wherever they dined. Who so ever agree to this, must visit Le Kebabiere. Initially heading to this place, I was assuming to take yet another kebabful ride as the name suggested. The interiors are contemporarily styled. So is the tableware. When I dig into the menu, it was more than just kebabs which happened to surprise me. The content of the food preparation seemed to be very carefully selected, that is why there is no repetition in terms of ingredient or flavor. While there are lots of appetizers in form of kebabs, there is a long list of seen and unseen wine labels too. The preparation is exotic, traditional and sticking to the roots with infusion of some trendy compilations. As I evidently say after having tried mushroom galouti – which was commendable for if any vegetarian have not tried the original meat galouti, should go for this. So was the tandoori mushroom – two mushrooms stuffed in between mixed vegetables emitting perfectly balanced smoky taste. Then there is murgh parcha kebab – a traditional nawabi preparation having shahi jeera, almond paste marination with a touch of saffron and Dakshin year – prawns cooked over the tandoor giving out best taste of lemon and curry leaves. The curries too have divergence in flavors, still we sticked on to the shahi paneer makhani – which again satisfied the taste buds with its silky smooth curry. Having feasted on the kebab and curries it was time for biryani to make way. The sofiyani biryani – the only white biryani packed the punch. The final blow was the desserts - badaam chennay ki kheer and house made gulkand ice cream. With meekly service, the dining experience takes you through a path which is apart from the norm still heading you towards fulfilling and appealing Indian cuisine. Do try the specialty house made cocktail section. I relished the shot of pan flavored vodka and realized; Indian cuisine in any which way is still the best and ever evolving!

Le Kebabiere

Pyramid Complex 81/82 North Main Road Koregaon Park Pune- 411036

Ph: 95521 34400(020) 4103 0333

EATMOSPHERE

The cafés in Pune are now not anymore an orthodox one. It has started to evolve especially being concept driven. Though there wore big giants entering this leisure café segment almost a decade back, now we witness stand alone cafés run by young and dynamic entrepreneurs. Also the stuff served usually in star hotel’s 24 hour coffee shop now finds place in these cafés.

Eatmosphere is one such, with the atmosphere being very unique. The interiors are fabulous and have been done in homely way. Cane furniture, wooden sittings; make shift curtains, and cushions. The menu is sleek and westernized. They have a few on lists as for now, consisting of sandwiches, coolers, salads, soup for the day, crepes and new variety introduced in cafés, as baked jacket potatoes which qualifies as fillers. Those are skin on potatoes having various fillings inside topped up with normally cheese or creamy sauce and baked to perfection. Among sandwiches there is Cheese Factory sandwich having 2 swiss cheeses grilled in three breads and sticking to their name. Other varieties in sandwiches are turkey, chicken salami and tuna. Then there is lettuce wraps which has warm filling inside and crispy iceberg lettuce as wrapping. We have seen refined flour wraps or commonly denoted as roomali roti, as the covering till now. So these wraps are completely healthy.

This neighborhood already have handful of cafés. This one is a fresh entrant (a week old), seems promising due to its innovative menu content and atmosphere oh! Eatmosphere!

Eatmosphere

Shop No. 4 Ashwini Place, Kedari petrol pump lane, Next to Hite bar,9967514019

ABA CHA DHABA

This review was duly awaited. I was reluctant to visit the place which has made a revolution. A cuisine which existed in bottom list of a typical restaurant menu card which had mis-lead people to be the only spicy preparation they had to offer. I am talking of Kolhapuri cuisine. By far the famous purepur kolhapur, has already taken the cuisine to a next level and in a right direction, making me nervous to criticize. This place is its sister property, which has different preparation on the list. It has been re-vamped freshly a couple of months back. The interiors are minimal with maximum seating capacity provided. The menu is just the same as you get at a dhaba. Meaty things maximum on the block followed by variety of egg preparation and summing it up with vegetables and the specialty – the dum biryani! Solkadhi happened to be a strong one, with the zing of garlic almost killing the flavor of coconut and kokum. Moving forward with the chicken sukka and paneer butter masala I noticed that all the dhabas around India love one thing to add in its preparations – the color red!- When enquired here out of curiosity for why it is being used abundantly, the owner clarified that at this dhaba the color comes from the chillies which they use to make the ground masala. Any how you have your fingers colored any ways! The paneer was not so soft has it has to be. The chicken was good enough and also had some gravy which was more tasty. The style in which the dum biryani served here is something to go for. Firstly the rice is soft having the smoky flavor for they serve it in earthern pot with a live coal placed at the centre, the grounded masala being perfectly balanced in terms of flavor and texture and lastly the mutton being succulent and not chewy to disappoint you when you are having the last dish for the night. Also one thing is noted, the biryani is served as a biryani and not like a tri colored pulao served elsewhere and proclaimed as a dum biryani.

The meal at this urbanized dhaba (read urbanized for the hygiene) the meal for two would cost you less than 350/- which delightfully satisfies all your corners! Only drawback would be the waiting, as even on a Tuesday night, this 40 seater dhaba was packed!

MY OVERALL RATING: 7/10

Aba Cha Dhaba

Next to Kulkarni petrol pump

Near Alka Talkies chowk

Laxmi road, pune

(020) 32418877

9921735078 / 9552526347

BOHEMIAN

Usually we visit a new restaurant a few weeks after the opening, however this is the first time we are doing a preview of an upcoming restaurant. Bohemia, managed by the Oasis club, is a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant scheduled to open next month. It is currently carrying out a trial menu, with the chef compiling a new menu everyday, which comprises of starters, pizzas, salads, a main course and dessert. The ambience is in sync with the theme — clay pottered tableware, vibrant varied designs and colors. The starters include Polenta (corn meal) Sandwich, Mezze Platter among the veg and Bombay Duck Fritos, Creole Style Grilled Prawns for meat eaters. The vegetarian food is very authentic and true to their roots and the meats are worth trying too. Among the salads, the Cous Cous and the Balsamic Marinated Beetroot salads were tantalizing. The best thing about the Cous Cous Salad was the contents that justified the name. The pizza’s base was a little unauthentic however its toppings, pesto with olives, were good enough. In the main course, the Charmoolah (four spiced marinade) Grilled Fish was tangy but succulent. The Spanish Veg Paella was the most appealing dish of the evening with its soft distinct flavor of tomatoes. The Apple Crumble was cooked just right and the Lemon Cheesecake had a balanced flavor of lemon and cream. The service was knowledgeable, for every preparation being served was backed by a detail description. As these trails often cost Rs 500 per person, with a complimentary glass of either wine or beer, I can’t really comment on the price. However, even if you do find it a costly affair to dine here, one thing is for sure, the preparation and the menu compilation is the best and it offers authentic Mediterranean cuisine. If they manage to remain consistent after the opening, which only time will tell, this could become the place to visit to enjoy a Bohemian life!

MY OVERALL RATING: 8/10

Bohemia

Club Oasis, NDA Road,

Chandni Chowk