I MUST MUST Eat @ BBQ Nation, Kalyani Nagar!

What a wonderful day! After another pathetic journey to Mumbai the previous night(man I need to find a better way to get home than the 6 1/2 hours long one I take now), this morning I woke up to the soft and tender hands of my nephew probing my cheeks and nose. There is no better sleep than that one. Really.

I finally got time to sit down in peace, think, remember and jot down the words I have been wanting to write since Thursday.

NOT JUST ME, WE SHOULD ALL EAT @ BBQ NATION!

Oh my god, here we go. So, I went to BBQ Nation as part of an outing with my mentor at ZS. At ZS, each employee at ZS has a mentor who guides him/her through his life at ZS, work..*goes inaudible*...long story short: free - lunch - hog - budget - high.

We had to go someplace nice, kind of pricey but let us have a good time. And my word were we right about BBQ Nation! It has everything a guy thinks of before going to a buffet worth Rs. 486.

Ambience? Super!
Starters? Way too many!
Veg starters too?! Yes yes!
Loud? Very!
Salad? Make your own boy!

A lot of people have already been to BBQ Nation before. Not me. This was my first visit and I am raring to go back again. Now, as a blogger about restaurants, I should point out things that make BBQ Nation unique even if you already know.

Right in the center of your table is a cavity in which the waiter first puts an iron container open at the top with holes on two sides. Next, he drops in a dozen odd burning charcoal pieces and covers it up with a grill. And voila! You have your personal live barbeque counter with unlimited starters. Out of 44 veg and 44 non veg starters, I believe they offer 14 each day and vary it throughout the week. 8 are vegetarian (ahan! 8 veg starters that's right!) and 6 non-veg, including the super famous Prawn preparations on skewers for you to turn, rub with random sauces and enjoy. Keep asking for more!
Advice 1: Don't ask for the gilafi nan. They'll make you wait for it and it tastes pathetic.
Advice 2: BBQ Nation generally gives you a free mocktail, including beer. *stop grinning, read on...*

40 minutes later, after it suddenly dawned upon you that you're so full that you wont be able to enjoy the rest of the courses, you get up and walk over to the salad and soup bar. Choose your soup, make your own royal salad, try the pasta or the noodles. Then, you go back to your seat, take a deep breath, look up to the heavens for strength and resilience and dig in. 10 minutes later, you almost give up. Then you remember its a buffet, its free and you won't come here often. You must make most of it. You tell the prompt waiter (oh did I mention the service? Impeccable.) to clear your plate, he smiles and understands you're in for another round.

You turn your head a full 180 degrees and realise you shouldn't have hogged on that mushroom tikka so much. So, you become picky. You reject half the stuff and still end up with 4 curries, 2 daals, pulav and burnt garlic noodles.

Damn I am hungry.

Am I sounding like a blogger hired by them? I should be! The place is darn good! Desserts mein kya bolun? Mast tha! [desserts - in- what - I - say? amazing it was]

Now, when I rack my brain to find something I can criticize BBQ for, I seem to remember asking for a finger bowl at the end. He brought one that wasn't hot. BUT! He realised it was cold and replaced it with a hot one in 30 seconds. See? Now that's why I love the place!

I wasn't allowed to click photos inside, so this is all I have:

Aargh, the pics are so n00bish. But I make my point no? Go go to BBQ if you haven't. Go again if you have already!

I Dont Have A Choice. I Must Eat @ DC

After a hopeless, crappy, dirty, bumpy and absolutely eventless 7 hour journey from office to my home in Mumbai, I thought I wouldn't write a review this weekend. Last night, I thought I'd quit everything. Including mangoes.
But then, there is nothing like that joy-filled shout from your 10 month old nephew on his first sight of rain from the balcony, or the fluid motion of Federer on a tennis court, or the first bite of bhabhi's bhindi. And I changed. It sounds better with background music. Aah forget it.

So anyway, since I was not in Pune, I thought I'd write a different kind of review. Not for a restaurant, but an entire complex of restaurants! A place where there are probably 15 odd places to eat, ranging from absolutely shabby with good food to fancy with good food. The important thing is pretty much all of them serve good food. The complex is named Destination Center and its kind of like the only busy, non-green and noisy place in all of Magarpatta. Here, every day, atleast a thousand folks from the area come to buy their groceries, take out cash and eat.

For people like me who are new to Magarpatta, there is clearly a need for a guide to good and economical dinners. So, I'll try making one.

First up, comes the very famous Ghar Ka Khana (GKK). This is where you literally get ghar-ka-khana. 65 for a thali that consists of 4 rotis, one vegetable curry, dal and rice. But the thing to rememeber is, if you order this thali, you can easily keep half of it for tomorrow. The quantity is just amazing. Taste is good too. But, GKK's real fame comes from the daily tiffin service for 60rs, paid wholly in advance. Completely veg. Only let down - doesn't deliver/serve on Sundays.

Next is Vandana, another thali restaurant for 60rs, this one seems a bit gujarati-ish with kadhi, chaas, papad and more variety in veggies. But, equally nice. You can pay 20rs more and get unlimited dal and rice. But, that just seems stupid.

Both these restaurants are on 1st floor. Majority of the restaurants are on the ground floor. And that is where we are suddenly hit by this uncanny Incredible India feeling, with restaurants named after states. Bengal, Punjab, Andhra, Hyderabad and Bombay. And Chinese too. All of these restuarants are good, but pricier. But then, you have to keep in mind that I am comparing these restaurants with Vandana. In absolute terms, they might  not seem too bad. Chinese Box's hakka is particularly good, loaded with veggies and in enough quantity.

Right in the center of DC lies Mini Punjab and in its back end, is Smokin Joes. Both are probably good to try once. Mini Punjab is very expensive with DC standards. It is also full of nonsense meals and reviewed with similar criticism for Kapil Sibal. If you want to have a nice, cheesy sandwich made with coriander chutney and a jug of fresh mango/pineapple/watermelon juice, you should head to Juice Destiny run by an extremely talkative sardar. But somehow, the prices on the menu aren't what they charge. No no, don't get all excited. They charge  more. x-( Again, total cost should be <= 120.

Smokin Joes is situated behind Mini Punjab and is like any other smokin joes. You should instead probably go to Chinese In Box, WOW Kolkata or Hyderabadi Zaika, which are a bit higher on the price range but offer much more variety in their respective cuisines.

After all this, you must head down to Kwality Walls. Ha! Don't. You won't find any ice cream for less than 50. Which only makes me wonder why there isn't a Gelato or a Baskin Robbins in DC, coz Kwality Walls just isn't worth it. Instead, try Amul, which is adjacent to the veggie vendor.

And since a friday evening calls for it, a huge Fosters sign hangs near Juice Destiny. And...

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I Must Eat @ Roopali and Drink at TJ's

What do you do with a few thousands of your newly earned money and an entire weekend? Do you go to The Westin Koregaon Park? Or do you go to Malaki Spice? No, thats where employees go for a team dinner on client money.
Instead, we went to Roopali, 15 kms away from Magarpatta on FC Road, near British Council Library. And, the experience was, as they say, so-so. (I am not particularly proud of using so-so, I hope you know.) We ordered South Indian, AGAIN! Which pushes me to rename this series to "I MUST EAT SOUTH INDIAN @".

But before Roopali, I must tell you the epic fails 12 hours before.
*Scene blurs into a black and white animation*

After sharing one Pazzta around 9PM, we felt we could devour a horse at 1.30. So, we set about trying to recreate this:

 (We had cooked this the previous Saturday.)

But, all we got was a cracked bowl, debris in the microwave, burnt garlic and some discoloured butter. We lost hope, but not all of it. At that moment, our gaze settled upon bhujia. So we mixed oregano and lemon juice and tried as much as we could to enjoy it.
This morning, we woke up with vengeance. We felt we deserved a lunch buffet at Marriott. And we expected an awesome lunch at Roopali.

*Scene blurs and we enter reality*

Roopali sure is famous as a quick sit-eat-pay-run place, but its fame is largely because of its sister concern Vaishali. Silly us, we didnt go to Vaishali. At Roopali, we had to wait for 5 mins to get a place and such is the rush that in a table for 6, he accomodated us and another couple of girls. That didnt bother us much, but what did was the food. Masala Dosa for Rs. 50 wasn't a delight, nor was the Sambhar. Then, with courage we ordered a Tomato Uttapam, and my word were we delighted!

Fancy huh? It tasted amazing, and with a little bit of butter floating on top, this was the moment of the day. Naturally, we ordered extra sambhar and chutney. And Roopali wiped our smiles faster than they do in the Tide ads. We were charged for extra Sambhar and chutney!

So, if you skipped the entire story to read the summary, here it is:
Roopali - FC Road, Famous, Didnt live up to it, Uttapam is good, Reasonable on your wallet.

So, I change my title to: I Might Want To Go To Roopali.

Now, another place I wanted to tell you about was TJ's. Its reviews have been in the papers recently. TJ's Brew Works is a restaurant with a brewery. Literally! They call it Microbrewery.

And they have a genius plan too - Prepaid Beer Card.
Yes. Yes. Just like your phone.
You have to buy a "card" for Rs. 500 and you get Rs. 500 as balance. Then, you go to any of the beer stations, that are linked to the brewery, swipe and choose your beer and pull the lever to fill up as much as you want! Simple! And new! And it counts the amount of beer you drink in a month and simultaneously shows rankings. The leader at the end of the month gets some reward. I asked, "A free litre of beer?" And the waiter said "No dude, its not that small a reward." :D

I don't consume alcohol so I wouldnt be able to give you personal reviews, but a friend tells me that you should avoid the wheat beer and try a particular black-colored beer.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, I move out of the guest house and into a flat nearby. I will try and continue this series and move away from South Indian food! Hope you are enjoying it. If you don't, well, Moo to you!