Elite Restaurant

Ever been in a situation where you were hungry and needed good food from your favorite joint, but yet were not interested in or in a position to make the trip to the restaurant? Didn't know if they delivered home, or if they did, who to call? Or just wanted to try out a bunch of different restaurants but didn't want to take on the increasingly annoying Hyderabad traffic? Well, I've been in all of these situations, and on multiple occasions and wished there was an easy way to order my food and get it home-delivered. Not always was it easy to remember the number of every restaurant, and even if I did, some of my favorites such as Chutneys and Ohris don't really deliver at home. They gave me the option of ordering on the phone but I'd then have to go pick up. i confess to having used this take-out option more than a few times, but surely, life isn't supposed to be this hard. More recently, I discovered this online option of ordering thru Ordermonger.com and it certainly solved a lot of my problems. They list over 50 restaurants in Hyderabad and you can browse their menus online and place the order. I like the general look-and-feel of their site and the menus etc but they certainly need to work harder at making the site more intuitive and easier to use. For one, I'd like to be able to more easily customize my order, right now that seems a challenge. They also only seem to operate in certain areas of Hyderabad, think they need to reach out to Secunderabad, Himayat Nagar and the like. And lastly, they also tag on a delivery charge - i guess this is not such a bad thing because their charge seems reasonable and it would cost me more to go there myself. Overall, a pretty decent option. Call me lazy, but i love the luxury.

These guys take the food business very seriusly and it shows in the final product that lands on the table.

One of the finest pasta I 've ever eaten. Every strand of the spaghetti in white sauce reminds me of heaven. Sheer magic.

Do try their Charcoal grilled stuffed mushrooms.

the honey mint ice tea was a royal way to wash these delicacies down your throat.

Watch out for that waiter 'Devendiran'. He is really good. Knows his stuff and honest.

Planning to go there again to try something new vegetarian.

--- template ---
The Bombay Kitchen is a delivery place that delivers amazing gourmet food at home. There is more non vegetarian food than vegetarian, but there is still a large selection of veg food. We tried the malaysian veg curry which was amazing, coconut rice, waterchestnuts in spicy sauce and malaysian noodles. all of it was great. the food is served in very cute containers, but it's all very expensive.
--- end template ---

Mumbai is known for its kaleidoscope of gourmet restaurants catering to varied taste-buds and ambience expectations. While some of these cater purely to gastronomic delights, others provide for memorable

experiences or simply a “fun-time out”!

Few places offer an irresistible combination of good food, great ambience and “reasonably light-on-your-pocket” experience.SPICES & FLAVOURS (or SNF as it is popularly known)at Worli,Dr.A.B.Road is one of them! Being a neighborhood eating joint, I have frequented it many a times. And have come back satisfied every time!

As one arrives at this joint tucked away at a corner of the Worli Sea Face Rd he cant miss too see it. There is AC & Non AC section. And since the place is new , the waiting time for a table can be quite long on a weekend evenings. They do take reservations on weekdays.

And then as u enter u feel it was worth it! The ambience inside is arabic nd moroccon. Colourful lights and the shamiana look with all walls havin somewall hangin u cant miss and a mocktail bar counter with all marbles in it. They have an Indian seatin with a table made of a big chakki stone. This is the best and most comfortable seating. All the other tables too have some theme in it.The menu has a lot of items indian and italian also. Its purely vegetarian

My personal favourites include the tandoori platter, followed by shyam savera(have never tasted another delicious preparation!) and some lovely kulchaas or missi rotis. mirchi ka salan with spl roti is also really awesome. My meal at Spices & Flavours is never complete without the “dal-khichdi” served with curds, which can be very plainly described as “mind-blowing”!

You cant miss to the hookah at snf They serve the best hookah ever. the pan masala or golden pan flavour. They have a spl fresh fruit hookah wehre they serve the real watermelon as a hookah itself.

The management of SNF seems to have its pulse on the food business knowing well that a good food product is never complete without equally good and competent service standards. This is one joint that I can bank on for entertaining friends to some good, homely food away from home amidst good ambience

The M is an "american grill restaurant" and has an accompanying martini bar.

The entry to to restaurant is narrow and has and open martini bar right at the entrance. the restaurant itself is one level lower. Very nice open decor, big and spread out.

We asked them to recommend some starters, and the came up with a smoked salmon on rice cake, shrimp cocktail and crab cakes. The salmon was the best of the lot, but still pretty regular. Thin slice of smoked salmon were served on a non savoury/non sweet rice uttapam, and the combination wasnt offensive, but didnt appeal either.

The shrimp cocktail was terrible. The shrimp weren't fresh, the flesh was a little frayed, and chewey. there was absolutely no garnish/salt/sauce, and was as bland as bland can get. ebi tastes so much better.

Was expecting something on the line of maryland crab cakes, but that was a let down too. the crab meat was soft, but no flavours, and the breading on top was indian.. didnt have any of the tabassco/mustard/dijon tastes that you'd expect.

main course we ordered some lamb chops and chicken. The lamb chops were excellent. A bit fatty, but nicely done (medium), juicy. the accompanying sauce was nice too. The chicken had an odd orange sauce to, neither american nor indian. very ordinary. The mashed potatoes were ok, loads of butter, but not creamy and fluffy, more grainy and starchy something which i personally don't like.

For dessert we ordered some lemon cheesecake. It was good because it was made from authenic cream cheese (unlike most place which pass off mousse or whipped cream as cheesecake) but it was cold and compacted solid, so not as much fun as it should have been.

The wine list was impressive. But outrageously pricey. a lot of wines were listed but not available. We were ordered a Tarapaca Pinot, and it almost had an off taste in the bouquet. was light bodied, but was a plain jane wine that refused to get better even after an hour of breathing and swirling in a glass. The most annoying part was this attempt to classify and sell wines on the basis of their being "old world" or "new world".. i didn't get the point at all, and wonder why a 5star restaurant would resort to such irrelevant gimmicks.

overall, i'd recommend the place only for its ambience for a quite dinner or meeting. the bill for 4 came upto 10K, and don't think the dinner was worth that much at all.

GREAT PLACE GREAT FOOD GREAT AMBIENCE AND ABOVE ALL GREAT PEOPLE. WONDER HOW THEY MANAGE AN EVER SMILING FACE WITH SO MUCH OF CUSTOMER PRESSURE.
THE NEWLY OPENED PARTY LOUNGE IS ALSO COZY AND CAN ACCOMODATE AROUND 100 PEOPLE.
YET ANOTHER CLASSY OFFERING FROM THE OWNERS OF URBAN TAADKA.

Beijing Bites - Its a Thai Restaurant.

Its a Limited choice and worth experimenting, medium priced. Check out the Chicken staters.nice ones...

You can easily locate this joint. Take Indira Nagar 80 feet road. You need take a right for Jeevanbhima Nagar at the end of the road and you can find this joint in the right hand corner. Just opp. to Fresh@Indiranagar and the Telecom Office.

The sheer variety of parathas or better still, the combinations are huge. But nothing outlandish.
Single filling for abt Rs 81 and Double filling abt 92. they also have a basket of mini parathas 4", 4 in number for Rs. 200-270. You can also have your own combination with upto 4 filings.(Rs. 104) and also Low Cal Tandoor paratha. But then, why will anyone go for an oil-free paratha ?

As, for starters, they have the regular chaat stuff and tandoor . So, we ordered a mini platter (Rs. 162) which had 2 pieces of 4 types, i.e. 8 in all.It was pretty ok, Paneer, Gobi, Potato. Also, some Mocktails. (Rs. 99 each). Now, the one I ordered, Honey Bunch was, simply unpalatable. Too sweet. It was suppose to be with vanilla icecream, which i could never see or taste.
I was kind of surprised at the size of the parathas. They were smaller than the ones I had at similar joints. The parathas are served with dal, chana masala, raita, onions and achaar. We had ordered 3 parathas of mix combinations and managed to sample all 3. But, as I found out, nothing exquisite about them. The chana was too salty, the stuffings were less than filling. The parathas in themselves would have been insufficient if we had not had the tandoor platter earlier and the mocktails.

The ambience is nice, spacious and well lit. The service decent. Surprisingly, no finger bowls. Now, you are eating parathas, not pizzas. Got to use fingers, else it wont taste the same. So finger bowls should have been there.

Meal for 3 would cost in range of 600-800, including taxes.

Finally, as I said earlier, the size of the parathas was dis-appointing and so was the filling, (tastewise and quantitywise). So, what else is there in a paratha ? The tandoor platter, i believe, was highly priced and mocktails unpleasant.

In all, a below par experience.

Now, I am comparing this with one I had at Real Parathas, Nr. Vasant Vihar, Thane(W). That is what I would call a real north indian paratha experience. There would be very few people daring to beyond 1 paratha, and yet the taste so enchanting that it would tempt them to do so. Thats what keeps people bring them back there.

Rohit
http://thepunefoodie.blogspot.com/

If you're looking for a nice place to unwind in the evening and of course - if you have much cash to spare, Bennigan's is the place to go to.

The first time I went there, it was because I had never been to a 'Tavern' and the name fascinated me. Great ambience, very prompt service and good portions of food...

If you're there, do try their Daqueries and Martinis (the Death by Chocolate Martini was what brought me back to Bennigan's thrice) The crisp chicken wings are very tasty and so is the chicken platter - grilled to a tangy perfection... I also enjoyed the fetuccini alfredo which was quite delicately laced with a taste of garlic and mushrooms. Quite nice I tell you.

You might come out feeling a big dent in your pocket though... but if it's a once in a while affair... it's worth it!

This place is all about the fine dining experience. I'm sold.

While the food does not venture beyond the good, to being called exceptional (or maybe after Moshe's a conti place would have to be really good to be called exceptional), the ambiance and attention to detail is fantastic and elevates the whole experience to a new level of sensous pleasure.

The Ambiance

There are three types of seating.

1.) A well lit room with bright walls, glazed wood tables, funky cushioned beige chairs. It's a large hall without any pillars. Good for a family lunch or dinner. I sat here since I was with family.

2.) A section in the garden outside with dim lighting. Perfect for a date.

3.) A cosy and comfortable lounge bar on the first floor.

The Food

Did I say not exceptional? Well it's still pretty darned good. It's just that with the pricing and small portions you expect something more.

We had the following. All of which were good.

Sunny's Special Golden Fried Prawns x 2
Grilled Seafood Platter
Mushrooms & Shitake Mushrooms with Garlic and Thyme
Mushroom & SPinach Quiche
Nori wrapped around Puffed Shrimp
Mushroom Tomato soup
Sear Fish in White Wine, and Cream Sauce
Caramel Cheese Cake
Chocolate, Strawberry, Walnut Cake

The total bill was about 3500/-

This was among 4 people but with my mom hardly eating it was more than 1000 a head without drinks.