Friday, June 08, 2007

Pune Fave Five Meme

Sig of Live to Eat tagged me to write about my favorite five restaurants in any city in the world. While I usually blog about all the places I travel to, I haven't yet written much about the city I live in. Therefore, this post will be about my Fave Five in Pune!

1. Bombay Brasserie: Located in Boat Club Road, this restaurant serves excellent North Indian fare. While neighbouring Sigree has more contemporary interiors and better ambience, the food here beats all the competition. This is the place to be in if you love succulent kababs, dum biryani, moghlai curries, and breads. I recommend the Murgh Kali Mirch and Chakori kababs, the Raan Sikandari followed by Gosht Dum Biryani. I personally prefer their Rabdi over the Phirnee for dessert. Update: Bombay Brasserie is located at City Point, Dhole Patil Road. Ph: 66011101; Sigree is located at the same location. Ph: 66027080.

Mainland China Pune2. Mainland China: This restaurant will easily get the vote from Pune'ites for the best Chinese restaurant in town. However, popularity means the restaurant is crowded most nights, especially the weekends. Therefore, make reservations in advance. I recommend the Mongolian Lamb Skewers for starters, burnt garlic chicken soup, Chengdu Clay Pot Chicken with Vegetable Hakka Noodles. The only dessert I like on the menu is Litches with Vanilla Ice-cream. Update: Mainland China is located at City Point, Dhole Patil Road (Ph: 66013030) and in ICC, Senapati Bapat Road (Ph: 66207777).

Mainland China Pune3. Carrots & Celery: While I don't enjoy the food in most buffets, this one is an exception. If you want to taste a variety of Indian, Chinese, and Italian food during lunch, all of which is freshly prepared, this is the place for you. The Indian selection includes kababs, biryanis, curries, and salads. But most of all I love the elaborate dessert spread that includes Indian and western desserts along with fresh fruits and ice-creams.
Update: This restaurant is located at the Sun N Sand hotel. Ph: 26167777

4. La Dolce Vita: This Italian restaurant in town is the place to visit for a special evening. Authentic ingredients, cosy interiors, and an impressive wine list augment an exhaustive menu of pastas, pizzas, and salads. Please note that this is also the most expensive eat-out in town. Update: La Dolce Vita is located at City Point on Dhole Patil Road. Ph: 26145555.

5. Vaishali: I had t0 include this restaurant which the old-timers swear by. Frequented by college students and senior citizens alike, Vaishali serves excellent South Indian and Maharashtrian fast food. They do not take reservations, so the only way to sample the fare is to patiently await your turn. The one dish you must sample here is SPDP (Sev Puri Dahi Puri).

Update: Vaishali is located on Fergusson College Road (also known as F.C.Road), opposite British Council Library and next to the Times of India building.

Pune, being a smaller city than Mumbai or Delhi has lesser upscale dining options; however for a true feel of India, Pune has a variety of choices if you are adventurous enough.

With that, let me tag some others around the world:

1. Kent lives in Cairo, Egypt,travels a lot and writes about his gastronomic adventures at the International Food Blog.

2. Rennyba lives in Oslo, Norway and paints a lovely picture of that country, its people and its food in his blog RennyBa's Terella.

3. Foodette who lives in Los Angeles, California and provides detailed reviews of restaurants she visits on her blog Restaurant Review World.

4. Mel who lives in Melborne, Australia, authors and writes about food on her blog The Secret Foodie.

5. Sank who lives in Twin Cities, Minnesota and writes about life, baseball, and fishing in his blog Old And In The Way.

If you end up participating, here are the rules:

Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
eastcoastlife (East Coast, Singapore)
Tigerfish of Teczcape (California, USA)
Amy of Nook and Pantry (Seattle, WA, USA)
Sig of Live to Eat (Seattle, WA, USA)
Traveller's Tales (Pune, India)

List your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.

22 comments:

Sig said...

Wow Shantanu, wondeful post, five unique restaurants! All the dishes sound amazing, esp the chengdu clay pot chicken! :)

Anonymous said...

Sounds delicious.....Gourmet Chocolate holds chocolates and gifts online.

kent said...

Thanks for the shout out. When are you gonna get on the food blog as an honourary member?

kent said...

Send me an email (kibabin@gmail.com) and i will invite you.

Bong Mom said...

All the dishes sound so good. Indian restaurants here don't come close at least not the ones in the suburbs.
Haven't had good Rabri for so long.
When I was working at B'Bay in my first job and had very little to spend I remember we used to go to some place by train to have rabdi from street side store in a "matir bhar". I miss that so much

Anonymous said...

I like Indian food. Bombay Brasserie looks like they serve great food. Oh.. yeah biryani!! I love those stuffs and not to mention the kababs :D

Shantanu said...

@ sig: Thanks! Yes, the Chengdu Claypot Chiken is awesome!

@kent: So I am a member now! :)

@sandeepa: Yeah, this is probably the only place I find great rabdi now; for those who didn't get it, "matir bhar" is bengali for earthern bowls, and called "kullad" in Hindi.

@velverse: Welcome to my blog!

TS said...

Mainland China in Delhi: Wow!

I don't know much about Pune, but those cookies! Damn I could eat one right now!

Anonymous said...

Shantanu [Now why does your name remind me of Ganga?] I loved your blog. I enjoyed reading the restuarant details. Very nice.. I feel you have a very interesting thread going here. If you can assign an ongoing topic of restaurant reviews and keep at it and make sure you include the lesser known addresses we may see you published in 2 years time...

PS: Interview Me!

foodette said...

Hey, thanks for the meme! This will be my first one - can't wait to participate!!

Nicole said...

My god why is it the places featured here looks way way much better than the places I went to in Bangalore?! Arghh should have went to Pune instead..the food is making me so hungry! And briyani?! MMmmmm
Ps thanks for doing the tag. I hope you enjoyed it.. If you know of anyone else doing it please feel free to send me a message and I’ll update them too on the updated list of tag doers

shikha said...

Shantanu,is it possible for you to fwd me ur email address, needed some advice(if that's not too much trouble)???

RennyBA said...

Thanks for the meme, sorry I'm late in returning the favor!
I hope you forgive me for doing it my way and not follow all the rules, but I like to do it my way. You are welcome over for some Norwegian traditional food served on the streets:-)

foodette said...

So I finally got to it and finished the meme. Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Just visited Pune for first time, and took your recommendation for Sigree - great meal and atmosphere, many thanks!! Will check out some other recommendatiosn over time as i will be here a lot over next few months. Any more "basic" recommendations?

Shantanu said...

@allank: You are welcome! Pune's food options are growing every day. For Indian food, Chingari at the Le Meridian is expensive but good. Whispering Bamboo at the Taj Blue Diamond is great for Chinese food. Koregaon Park has a lot of smaller restaurants and lounges/bars for the evenings (Malaka Spice for South-east Asian cuisine, Arther's Theme for Frnch food with a twist, High Spirits for and Indyaki for drinks).

WindChill said...

All these wonderful options are not doing any good to my waistline!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi SG, Thanks for the info about Bombay Brasserie. Till now I have trusted Sigri and Kwality for north indian food. Yes, Sigri but never ventured into Bombay Brasserie! but I wonder why the table layout in Bombay Brasserie looks so similar to Sigri.

Anonymous said...

@windchill: Heh! Unfair isn't it?

@Anon: You are certainly sharp! Yup, that's a Sigree pic I had slipped in. :)

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