Restaurant review - Cafe 1730

Ambiance - ***1/2
Menu - ***1/2
Taste - ****
Service/Price - ***1/2
Overall - ***1/2

So, decided to have our anniversary lunch at Cafe 1730. Reason? no particular reason actually. Just looked up on Zomato, saw a couple of good reviews and decided to give this a try.

It's located at the end of Lane 6 in Koregaon Park. Parking is on the side of the road, i suppose it should not be an issue even in the evenings. Also, they have valet parking if needed. The restaurant is "music theme" based. From the moment you walk in, you see a lot of photographs and posters of various singers and musicians with some tidbits about them. The restaurant is tastefully decorated. I liked the way the ceiling is done - sort of half complete look, but still quite nice. The windows on the front - though have curtains - need to be cleaned. With the curtains open, the place is much better. Just below the window, on the outside, there are some horizontal beams. I would suggest that the restaurant management puts some Italian flower beds there. would look amazing.

As soon as I opened the menu, I was reminded of Ms S Roy Choudhury's comment on her review - multiple personality disorder. They menu, is a mix of continental, North Indian, Goan, etc. But then many places have that kind of menu, so it didn't really bother me. Something for everyone, right? :) The menu also has some interesting tidbits about musicians and, as the menu cover says, chefs - since they are celebrating the art of cooking too. There's place for live band performances as well. So music theme stays, food gets added - but only on the menu. The interiors are still about music. Some of the stuff on the menu is interesting to read. I liked the one about the scottish word for the panic you feel when you need to introduce someone whose name you have forgotten! :D. Oh I still don't know why the menu card says, Cafe 1730 - Surf and Turf?

We tried a lot of different cocktails there and all of them were made correctly. No mistakes or missing items in it. The starter we ordered was Crunchy chicken with Garlic-Chilli dip. Was very good. In the main course, we had Non veg Moussaka and Bacon and Cheese burger. Both the dishes were excellently made. I didn't like the carabeef in the burger - the patty was slightly drier than needed. everything else was very good - and that's not just the alcohol speaking ;)

The total bill for everything was on the higher side - around 2800INR, out of which majority was for the alcohol.

All in all, a good place to visit. Good ambiance. Good staff. Decent menu. Good food. The Italian flowerbeds will just make it better ;)

     

 

Mainland China - Hinjewadi - Restaurant review

Ambiance - ***1/2
Menu - ****
Taste - ***
Service/Price - ***
Overall - ***

Mainland China has many outlets in the city and I have visited most of them. This was the only one I had not visited. So, since it was a day off, decided to give it a try.

As always, the ambiance is good. All Mainland China outlets have similar feel about them. This one is no different. What I didn't really like were the earthen pots kept as decoration items near the buffet section. they looked more like.. they were holding someone's ashes. Not exactly appetizing.

Menu, service and price were decent. Very similar to other outlets. The let down is - the most important aspect of any restaurant - the taste. I had gone at lunch time on a weekday. So decided to try that. They serve the starters at the table and main course is to be taken from the counters. There were very limited non-veg starters - one fish, one chicken, one shrimp. chicken was OK, fish was strictly OK, shrimps were bad. The main course wasn't too different. Again the same three options - looking uncannily similar to the starters I had. The taste was also not much different from the starters. The fried rice was not properly cooked and assorted pastry plate had just one type of pastry. One dessert was good - chocolate wrapped in rice paper (I think) and fried - forgot its name. Oh and I had ordered a kiwi daiquiri that came in after my main course started - and it was just too sweet.

So overall, not a good experience especially with the kind of expectations we (I) tend to have from Mainland China. I still think the outlet on SB road is probably their best.

North2South Restaurant review

Ambiance - ***
Menu - ****
Taste - *****
Service/Price - ****
Overall - ****

Located in the busy Viman nagar area, this is a small place that serves - no prizes for guessing - north Indian and south Indian food. Now, serving one good cuisine itself is a tough task, so I was naturally curious to see how good they are in serving two diametrically opposite cuisines. Everything about the two is different - the spices, the dishes, the taste, the texture, the items... so the foodie in me couldn't pass this opportunity.

Went there for lunch from my office, which is.. not exactly close to this place. It's a small place as mentioned earlier. There was some set up being done for new Gelato counter that they were gonna start, so it was a little.. umm.. less organized than what I would have expected. The tables and chair etc. were clean enough but the handwash area - that needs some work. It was not unclean, but it can be better set up. They have used the rolling pins to decorate the walls, which is interesting. the best part was the post it wall, where you can write your comments. Good to see what people think about the place - the comments were all good of course.

As mentioned earlier, menu is a mix of north and south indian dishes. There are some interesting options available including different types of dosa and kulcha. some of the options sound a little whacky and you may not be sure about how they will taste. But you gotto try before making a judgement.

We had a few things there. And I should say I was impressed. The fresh lime soda - salted and sweet had the perfect mix of the two tastes. It's always difficult to get this right - I think. The cholla bhatura was good. Very. Bhatura was obviously oily but not too much. And the cholle were perfectly cooked. well balanced with just a little bit of after taste of garam masala. There were just two concerns - the amount of cholle was less (they ofcourse refilled it when we requested) and the pudina chutney that was served it, didn't really go well with the dish. I would have preferred a more onion based chutney or just onions. We had melted cheese garlic kulcha - which turned out to be a surprise. a pleasant one. Felt like we were eating a different version of pizza. tasted amazing. Garlic was not overpowering the taste. Fantastic. The cholle that came with it, were different from the ones served with bhatura. These were without onion. and tasted different too, which was a surprise. Usually, restaurants tend to reuse cholle with different dishes. and this time the condiments with it were perfect. We had creamy matka kulfi too - which was also equally good - though I am not a big fan of kulfi. We couldn't try the south indian dishes so can't comment on it. We were too full with this. Maybe next time.

Service was good, but then it wasn't crowded at lunch time on a weekday. So can't comment much. No complaints though. and price is also good. for lunch for 2 people, the bill was less than 400 INR. so definitely worth the money.

Overall, I think it's a fantastic place to eat. A little more work on the set up and I am sure I will give it a 5 star for the restaurant of its kind.