Recipe - Nested Eggs

Ingredients
1. Eggs - 3/4 as needed
2. Onions - 2 big
3. Chilli powder - 2 tsp (as per taste)
4. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
5. Garam masala - 1 tsp (optional)
6. Salt - 1.5 tsp (as per taste)
7. Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
8. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
9. Ginger/garlic paste - 1 tsp
10. Oil - Preferably peanut, but any not too strong oil will do - 1 Tbsp

Method -
1. Cut the onions into half and then along the the length into 2-3mm thick pieces
2. Heat oil in a flat pan
3. Put mustard and cumin seeds. When they start splitting, put the onions and ginger garlic paste and mix well. Cover the pan and keep the flame low-medium so the onions cook well. Remember, the base of this dish are the onions so you can put more if you wanna increase the quantity.
4. Once the onions are golden brown, put all the spices and mix well. Let it cook for another 3-4 minutes on low-medium flame
5. Put 2 Tbsp of water and mix well. Then spread the mix properly in the pan while the flame is set to low.
6. With a spoon, dig out the mix at 4 places in the mix. Break the eggs and fill the holes with one egg each. Ensure that the egg yolk doesn't break while doing this.
7. Cover the pan and let the eggs cook for 5-7 minutes
8. While serving, cut out each egg with some onion mix on its side. Serve with hot chapati.

Recipe - Bleeding Hearts (Poached apple in red wine reduction)

Ingredients
1. Apple - 1
2. Sugar - 5 Tbsp
3. Red wine - 5 Tbsp
4. Star anise - 1/ Cloves - 4
5. Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
6. Water - 500 ml

Method -
1. Cut apple slices in about 5mm thickness. Carve into heart shapes.
2. Take a pan and mix water, red wine and sugar. Start heating on medium flame.
3. Put star anise or cloves (both give different taste) and cinnamon powder.
4. Once the water starts to boil, put the apple slices and reduce the flame to low.
5. Poach the apple for 15 min and take them out.
6. Continue boiling the sauce until it reduces to about half of the original quantity. If you want lesser and thicker sauce, reduce it further.
7. Serve the apple hearts with the sauce poured over it 

Restaurant Review - Incognito - Phoenix Mall, Pune

Ambiance - 3.5
Menu - 4
Taste - 4.5
Service/Price - 3.5
Overall - 4

This place is located in Phoenix mall, so parking is of course not at issue. It's a small place but there are enough tables squeezed in without compromising much on privacy. The decor is decent, a bit classy too.

I like the menu. Different cuisines are available though a bit heavier on Italian side. For other cuisines there are limited options available but that's the good part. Concentrating few good dishes is better than offering everything but not doing justice to any of it. We had Chilli Potato shots (that looked suspiciously like the frozen ones we get from McCain, though the taste was slightly different) served with Mayonnaise, Phuket style fried chicken served with peanut sauce (this dis was amazing, chicken was juicy, seasoning just right, but tasted better with the mayonnaise rather than the peanut sauce), Malaysian Laksa curry (again very well made), Sicilian veg pizza (thin crust, just the right amount of cheese), Chicken Lasagna (Very well made, but heavy to eat) and Chicken Cacciatore (another stunning dish, the baked potato on the side was even better). The fact that they did not forget the "no mushroom" instruction from me is commendable (i have had bad experiences in other places in the past).

Service was good, price is a bit high. They need to serve more quantity in the starters for the price they charge. Also, as mentioned earlier, change the sauce on side for the Phuket style chicken. Oh and the charge for sprite at 100 rs + taxes??? just too much.

Overall costly but delicious.

Restaurant review - Gokhale Mala, Alandi road, Bhosari

Ambiance - 3
Menu - 3.5
Taste - 4
Service/Price - 3.5
Overall - 3.5

This place being very close to my office (and pretty much the only decent place closer to office) we go there often for lunch. Dinner is also available here and weekends are very crowded. There is usually enough parking available, at least during lunch.

There is a big, hall like dining place (open from all sides) in the middle of a guava plantation. There are many charpais kept below the trees for you to relax after the meal or to wait if you don't get a table immediately. A few swings as well.

Seating is like a usual dining hall. You don't get a separate table. The menu is also fixed. There's a smaller hall towards the entrance of the place itself where you can have snacks, but no one usually comes to this place for snacks. It's meant for meals and that's what you should go for. The menu usually has pithla, one dry vegetable, matki usal, kadhi, chapati, bhakri, rice, dal with ghee, butter, different papads, some pakoda and pickle. The green chili kharda is very hot, so be careful. Also, buttermilk and sweets are available (usually shrikhand and gulab jamun) and you can pay for it after the meal if you haven't already paid for it while entering the place (pre-pay model).

Taste of all the dishes is consistent no matter when you go. It's good. During peak times, serving is a little slow. But other than that, they are fine. Price of course is something that is slightly on the higher side considering that they are so out of the way and taste wise it's not exceptional, nor from variety of menu wise.

If you are bored of the run of the mill restaurants in the city, this is worth an outing.

Restaurant Review - Jovos - NIBM Road

Ambiance - 3
Menu - 3.5
Taste - 4.5
Service/Price - 4.5
Overall - 4

Wanted to try a new place for lunch on my birthday. After looking around on Zomato, decided to go to Jovos as it had good ratings and the menu looked interesting. It's on NIBM road in Bizz Bay mall. The mall itself looks deserted, and there were 2-3 restaurants there that have shutdown. When you get into Jovos, that's the kind of feeling you get initially. The pic on Zomato and the reality of the decor/interiors is very different. Some things are falling apart some have been intentionally kept that way - which is not bad. Some interesting ideas in terms of decoration are being tried but some look very tacky. But at least they're trying something different, which is good. The way the menu is presented or the fact that they put bubble wrap in place of table mats, are some of the things I liked about the place. It's different. But need to make it better. more classy.

The menu is not too big. But that also makes it possible for them to have things that are different from the usual run of the mill dishes. Most of the dishes that they serve are named differently, made differently and served differently. We tried quite a few dishes including Chicken Tikka in mason jar, Chicken fingers in orange sauce, Dal gosht, etc. Each of them tasted quite well. The tikka was juicy, dal gosht was perfectly cooked, and the orange sauce was just stunning. We also had a bite sized chicken cheese fries that was not on the menu. That was also very good. Loved all including the long island iced tea that was served in a huge measuring jar :)

Service was good. Everything was served well within time and everyone was very courteous. No one breathing down our neck with "over concern". Price is very reasonable. 

Definitely try this place out. Forget about everything else, just enjoy the taste.

    

Restaurant review - Global Grill, Chinchwad

Ambiance - 3
Menu - 3
Taste - 3
Service/Price - 3.5
Overall - 3

Global Grill is by the same management as Sigree. I didn't know it until I got here. It's located in a shopping mall at Chinchwad. Not sure how many people go to the mall, but that also means there's usually enough parking space available. 

The decor of the place is good. Not cluttered and the tables are also not too close to each other. So overall it's fine, However, unfortunately, the washrooms stink. STINK. I usually don't comment about washrooms in my reviews, but this one merited a mention - for the wrong reasons.

Menu here is nothing impressive. The usual stuff. They serve unlimited starters on the grill on your table until you ask them to stop. The starter options were very limited. Tasted alright. Since this place is in direct competition with Barbecue nation, I can't help but mention that the starters (which is the most important course in these restaurants) are better at BN compared to this place, both in terms of options and taste. The main course was ok as well. If you're a pasta lover there are a few options available in main course. Desserts were alright too. Nothing much to write about. One thing that I should definitely mention - Lychee flavored cocktail (Margarita? Not sure since it's not listed in the menu on Zomato) was amazing! and quite potent as well I must say.

Service was fine, no real complaints there. Price was decent as well, though I would like it to be slightly lesser.

So this is it. Give it a try and hope they have improved by then.

Restaurant review - Turque - Sayaji Hotel - Wakad, Pune

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

Turque is located at Sayaji hotel so parking is never an issue. There are three restaurants there, BBQ Nation, Portico - which usually has a buffet lunch/dinner and Turque - ala carte restaurant. The menu here changes depending on the "festival" they are celebrating. The last time we went there it was Chinese festival, so everything was decorated in red. Looked nice. There's a swimming pool here around which the tables are placed. Overall nicely spaced out and you get enough privacy. If there's a party going on in the grounds next to the hotel, then it is quite loud here. Also, wedding receptions etc. are also usually on in another area next to it - but that shouldn't make a difference. Another thing about this place is the live music performance. The singers are really good and sing songs on request too.

Menu is pretty standard but as I mentioned earlier, it changes slightly based on the festival going on. There were some interesting dishes that we tried there. Not all of them good. The soup was bland. And the starters we tried, though sounded interesting (i don't remember the names anymore) were blander. There are few Turque special cocktails. We liked two specifically - Lust and Naughty desire. The latter was especially nice watermelon based cocktail which is quite... potent. Otherwise, the food was not good enough for me. Too bland. Maybe next time I will have to try something different and see if it works for me.

Price is definitely on the higher side. Service is good - non-intrusive and polite. In fact, they didn't charge us for one of the dishes that we had because we didn't like that dish at all. No complaints there, but the price brings the overall rating down in this area.

Worth a visit for the cocktails and the ambiance. Definitely.