Food anatomization : Balaji Snacks, Magarpatta City - Pune

The goto place for early morning breakfast or curbing your junkie food eating radar. Located in the back alleys of Destination Center - you would find devious amount of crowd near the place.

They have the kitchen inside the shop, where you spot the samosas, kachoris, gulab jamuns, poha, wada pav,jalebis being freshly made and served to the customers.

Never a fan of poha - but I have always eaten it to curb my morning hunger pangs. 😈
I have always adorned totally the SAMOSAS and the JALEBIS - always my spot for the weekend snack grabbing place. Jalebis - crunchy and sweet to the right amount. And the SAMOSAS with the crispy edges and wondrous potato filling - just perfect to go with a piping hot kullad wali chai.
Need not ask for more to satiate your taste buds with the street food items.

Don't expect an epitome of cleanliness around.

Pictures:

~Bon Appétit!!


P.S All the pictures have been taken by me. J

Food anatomization : Hotel Royal Park Plaza, Rameswaram

After we were done with our darshan and out little wandering stunt at the Pamban Beach - we were in dire hunt of a restaurant that could serve us lunch at around 12-ish.

And finally Hotel Royal Park Plaza came to our rescue.

It is a hotel with an in house restaurant. The interiors were quite traditional, The Ram-Sita statues with the Shiv linga - the story of the foundation of Rameswaram. There were the lamps placed beautifully in the reception with flower decoration. The wall bore a painting from a courtroom - with dancers and musician.

The restaurant houses about 8-10 tables. There was a beautiful aquarium - always happens to cheers me up. The interiors have been done in shades of blue - dimly lighted and comfortable. I loved the wooden textured blinds on the windows.

They were still setting up for the buffet, so we ordered for the Thali and for the food that was served - it was damn expensive.
There were couple of items like the ALU SABJI,PONGAL,RASAM,SAMBHAR, PAPAD,BOWL FULL OF RICE,PAYASAM, PARATHA,CURD. The food tasted about so-so. There was salt missing in almost every item.

Few pictures from the visit:

~Bon Appétit!!

Food anatomization : Denny's, Town Center - Champaign

After a tiring day of shopping through all the Thanksgiving sale - this was one of the few places which was open for dining in.

The place is like most of the casual dining places in the states - sofa seating with an ability of accommodating more than 40 or more odd people. The walls were beautifully decorated with a number of wall posters of simple objects or figure and seemed really interesting. The wall posters were evenly distributed over the walls. They have the TVs mounted at each corner playing some matches or videos.

They have a dedicated games area for the kids. :)

Hungry yet confused - I jumped into the GRILLED CHICKEN. Their menu was vast - you could easily get lost between what you want to eat and what you would want to order. 😜
They serve American food, omlettes,pancakes,grilled food and more.

Started with the GRILLED CHICKEN - 2 pieces of grilled seasoned chicken breasts served with loads of zucchini and hash browns.
Now the concept of hash browns is very common here - they are the pan-fried wonders made from the grated & shredded potatoes in the style of a Swiss Rosti. It was an interesting side and I enjoyed it thoroughly with my grilled chicken piece.The grilled chicken breast pieces when combined with the fresh sauteed zucchinis and a bite of the hash brown seemed really perfect until - until it got cold, the chicken pieces seemed tad bit dry and got little tough to bite onto - a little some seasoning to hold onto the moisture of the chicken pieces would have been the savior. Actually both the mains and sides were dry dishes.

The BUTTERMILK PANCAKES - fluffy pancakes with a generous dose of maple syrup, heavenly!

The service was good - albeit there was a little mix up with the dishes but the server rectified at the earliest. We had to wait for quite some time for our food - they were running very busy that day.

Few pictures from the visit:

Grilled chicken with zucchini

Vegetable burger with patty and french fries

Vegetable burger with patty and broccoli

Fish skillets with french fries and hash browns

Pancakes

~Bon Appétit!!

P.S. All the above photos have been clicked by me J

Food anatomization : Cuba Libre, Magarpatta City - Pune

Cuba Libre an interesting name - almost makes you feel a part of some kind of liberalization and gives you sense of freedom already. 😉 

Cuba Libre is dedicated to celebrating the Cuban heritage by exploring the Cuban flavors,music,art and traditions. It's tagline goes by:                                                           

                                        "Escape into the Cuban culture, liberate yourself"

Furthermore more on web hunting found that Cuba Libre is actually a caffeinated alcoholic cocktail made of cola, lime and rum - intriguing!

We were here on a Monday, and I was aghast to see this place bustling with people even on the first day the week.

Loved the decor of the place, very aptly done - first noticeable character is the man playing the saxophone just waiting by the entrance to welcome you!! Perfect...

It has two seating arrangements - one in the inside, where there is the bar and nicely themed seating area, with wall hangings and wall decors put up.They have the lounge seating, bar seating and the normal table-chair seating in the house.

They have a dedicated dancing space too with the DJ hanging on top. :P 

The seating arrangement on the outside is where you can enjoy a nice view and sit in a relaxed way, right under the starry night. The only problem is sometimes you get to hear a mixture of music, due to the close by restaurants playing loud music. 

But I loved the music they were playing here - mixture of hindi and angrezi songs, kudos to the DJ!!

The place can accommodate a large crowd easily and  is fit for all kinds of groups.

Coming to the food - we ordered for the CAJUN CRISPY CHICKEN STRIPS. It was a good dish juicy crispy chicken fingers fried in cajun spice, albeit I found all the pieces slightly burnt at the edges - not sure if that was meant to be the part of the crispy-ness or else..... The mustard mayo that it was served with was damn tasty.

As I wanted a red base sauce pasta, the server suggested the  CHICKEN MAFIA PASTA  - pasta in red based sauce and what can I say it was fabulous. I could also say one of the best pastas that I have had off late - beautifully cooked,peppered and presented. Just loved the dish.

But I was disappointed, being a restaurant which serves only American style khana, were missing on the burger - they did not have burgers. :(

So we had limited options to chose from their limited menu - pastas, sandwich or pizzas for the main course.

They do have extended happy hours which goes on till 2200 hours, so that's a treat.

Coming to service, little laid back and also lack of information on the food items by the guys taking the order.. :(

The service lag and the missing case of burgers - is the reason for a 3.5.

But I would still recommend this place, to enjoy a nice evening with music, food and good ambiance.

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Recently, I happen to come here again after ages - and wow I was stunned by the crowd on the Saturday night. It was jam packed and I would consider it one of the most happening places in Magarpatta now:)

We ordered for the CHILI CHICKEN - the usual perfectly fried chicken  which had been marinated aptly and then tossed with loads of onions and bell peppers. 

Then the PEPPER CHICKEN - chicken pieces cooked in an assortment of pepper and spices, a good starter I would say with the pepper seasonings. 

And the CILANTRO FISH - fish as is so delicate, and to be able to coat the filling in a batter and toss in cilantro pesto is an absolute art - the fish bites were soft and they just melted away in the mouth.

The place is just thumping with loud music and people just dancing and enjoying to glory! 

Few pictures from the visit:

CHICKEN MAFIA PASTA

CAJUN CRISPY CHICKEN STRIPS

CHILI CHICKEN 

CILANTRO FISH

Pepper chicken

~Bon appetite!!

 P.S All the photos have been clicked by me. :)