Places To Eat In Pune

The Bounty

2006-02-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

Location: Viman Nagar; a few meters away from Gold Adlabs, Pune
Price Range: Rs 250-300 per head (drinks included)
Ambience: 7/10. Ventilation isn’t very good here. Expect lots of smoke and coughing.
Quality of food: 9/10

Now this is one place for a good sizzler! First heard about this place from a friend who kept referring to it as ‘Bunty’ which made me think it was a dhaba.
The service is good and quick.

Being a total beef fan I have tried the variety of steaks available on their menu. Sadly all of em turned out to be tough and chewy. They taste good but give you a complete jaw workout on the way down.
The Chicken Sausage special is very good both in quantity and quality so you might wanna try it out.All the sizzlers are served with generous amounts of vegetables and potatoes (fried/mashed).

Nothing compares to the Chicken Cordon Bleu! It’s a crisp chicken fillet with a layer of melted Cordon Blue cheese in the middle. This according to me is the baap of all things sizzling. I haven’t come across a sizzler this good in all my years of eating solid food. It beats anything that the other sizzler joints in Pune can dish out. (The beef steak BBQ at Zamus comes a close second). This is probably the only reason I gave this place an 9/10 rating.

Like Zamus, Bounty too doesn’t serve Tabasco but a cheaper Indian version of the sause that doesn’t taste too good and is very mild.

Suggestion: If you aren’t into hard drinks, these guys have amazing iced teas to go with the meal. They are sponsored by the Frams dudes so they don’t serve Coke or Pepsi drinks sadly.

Secret Dish: Heres something that I doubt many people know. These guys serve pork too but they don’t mention it on their menus.(So as not to hurt the religious sentiments of their Moslem customers. A waiter told me this.) They call it Pork Ribs and you may have to persuade the waiter a bit if you want it. Believe me, its worth it. You get nearly 6 to 8 big ribs on your plate and its very filling and tastes amazing.

The place gets a bit crowded at around 8:30-9:00 so you may wanna make reservations in advance. Its open til quite late. I’ve eaten there at 11:30pm but by then the beef steaks were all over.

The Wok

2005-10-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

Went to The Wok after a really long time.
Its on the main Salunke Vihar road.
Somewhere close to the slaughter house. Which is wierd 'cos yesterday the chicken was'nt fresh!!

Small place which is nicely done up.
I love the falling sheet of water at the main window but don't sit anywhere close to it.

Service is pretty ok. Nothing to write home about.

The vegetarian sizzler with extra mushrooms (we asked for them) in the tomato sauce was very appetizing.
My chicken sizzler in pepper sauce was a little stringy as mentioned before but the pepper sauce made up for it.

The Wok makes a very good pepper sauce (which they never give me the recipe for).

I very strongly recommend the Gingerale.

In totality : 8 / 10

Cheesecake

2005-10-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

tried my hand at lemon cheesecake yesterday.
Man! what a disaster.
Everything was going fine till the base of biscuits just broke for no apparent reason!!

I was so cheesed (pun intended) off that I just dumped the entire broken base into the batter.

So now we have a huge bowl of lemon cheesecake with the base mixed in it!!

tastes pretty good though.
And next time im not worrying about the base.
I just want the batter.

Thank god for cream cheese!!

I'd forgotten my recipe for chocolate brownies.
Spent half of yesterday remembering what goes in there.

Yaana's

2005-10-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Somewhere on F.C. Road - bang on the signal.

I'm way too tired to type so im just copying what I've said about it somewhere else on the net.

Pretty decent.
liked the decor.
Liked the service.
Liked the option to select different sauces. not many places offer that.
Didnt like the pepper sacue too much.
Really liked the girl sitting on the adjacent table!
Loved the Ice tea.
Meat(lamb) was a little underdone.
Liked the whole load of potato fries in the sizzler.

Overall 8/10

Sangli

2005-10-11T03:07:00.000-07:00

I know this blog is about places to eat in Pune. And that by writing about Sangli, I'm not adhering to the blog title itself. But it's my blog so bugger off!!!

1. BBC
So, if you happen to go to Sangli, for whatever godforsaken reason, drop in at Shivneri (just off Maruti road - walking distance from the bus stand) for BBC.
Nope, no world radio there. BBC - boneless butter chicken.

and for 75/- the quantity and taste is totally worth it.
Just the right sweet and chilly content it's perfect on taste.
But too much butter (Sodi complained, not me) and too much colour (i still spell it the British way) gave it a few negatives.
Overall 8/10

2. Chicken Tikka
High on taste, low on succulence.
7/10

And if any one has had the Bhadang there pls tell me what is it.

Also, try the Nimbu Paani from the hand cart guy outside the bus stand.
He's definitely going to heaven!!

Shee

2005-10-05T02:03:00.000-07:00

It's been around for a long, long time. It used to be the best chinese joint in this area but now has withdrawn to the oblivian of 'ok food for high prices'.
I havn't had the oppurtunity to go there but have the free home delivery menu with me (don't know how i've come to possess it).

It's in Kubera Park, Lullanagar on the main Kondhwa road. You'll See a signboard in red neon
There's a lot of variety on this menu with the sea food section catching my attention.

I didn't want much to eat and didn't feel like experimenting so I ordered the Veg Triple Schezwan.
Yes.
You read it correct.
Veg.

There's a religious thingy happening- 'Navratri'
9 days, 9 goddesses.
No Meat.

The Fine Print (read: Missing Print) under the Free Home Delivery says 'for minimum order of Rs 100.'

So, I had to order a soup too.

1. Triple Schezwan
Ok. A whole load of color and not too much taste. I really detest the huge chunks of cabbage in the gravy.
A good thing was that they delivered the Fried rice, the crispy noodles and the gravy seperately.
One more thing: It's triple Shezwan. Doesn't that mean Shezwan gravy, Schezwan fried rice and Schezwan noodles?
Well, another 'in-house' variation.
Cost : Rs 85.

6/10

2. Lung Fung soup.
Pretty good. A whole lot of quantity.
Cost: Rs 35

7/10

They delivered the food on time and in plastic jars (for no extra cost!!) which i can reuse at home.
yay!!

Great Punjab

2005-10-03T00:22:00.000-07:00

If you're ever looking for a late night drive and dinner, look beyond the boundaries of the city.
Saturday night saw us guys head out to Great Punjab beyond Aundh.

I'm not very sure of its location. It's on the road connecting Aundh and Hinjewadi. Take a car with a good suspension. Bad roads.

We had to choose between Great Punjab and some place on the Expressway where the booze sells for lesser than the retail price. Unfortunately, money saved on the drinks wouldn’t have covered the cost of diesel to go all the way out there.

So, Great Punjab it was.

10:30 Saturday night and the place was packed.

We are 'starter' people. i.e. we have roti/ nan/ parantha with the starters itself and then have one dish from the main course(if we're still hungry).

1. Tandoori Chicken

Ordered for me. It's what started me off on meat a month ago after a 4 year hiatus of eating shrubs and roots.

There were a lot of small pieces, unlike some places where they give you 4 huge pieces. They were nice and fleshy.

However, there was way too much color in the chicken. Its Monday morning and my fingers are still red. Of course, it can also mean that I haven’t washed my hands since then.

Also, it wasn’t spicy enough. There was another thing missing which I can’t seem to recall now.

Overall: 5/10

2. Sholay Kabab

Cubes of chicken. Red in color with fluffy egg whites on top. It was very good. Ranks among my top favorite kabab's after chicken tikka and sheekh kabab.

Overall : 9/10

3. Mutton Bullets

I have to give them a 10/10 for presentation.

Mutton Balls in very little gravy on a sizzler plate (I think). Just before putting it on the table, he(the waiter) poured some alcohol onto it and set it on fire. So, we had flaming mutton balls which were still ablaze when he served us.

The gravy was very good. The downside was that the outer surface of the balls was pretty hard. It's not usually so. We just got unlucky.
Overall: 9/10

4. Garlic Nan

Thin, slightly crispy and still soft. Very Very good.
Overall: 10/10

5. Dal Fry

Don’t remember it. I just took a bite.

The service was pretty slow with the Nan’s making an appearance after the show was nearly over.
But the place was overfull and Deepak(our waiter) did the best he could.

Also, I didn’t even look at the menu or the bill so I have no clue about the cost of food there.

Whiskey was pretty expensive though. Rs 160 for a nip (thanks Nikhil).

The ambience was funny. There was a guy playing a dholak while parading up and down the restaurant.

I liked the place.

In totality: 8/10

In Search of the perfect 'Wada Pav'

2005-09-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

Wada -Potato Cutlet
Pav - The Bun

The first bite into the 'wada pav' is the best. If the wada is cooked well, you'll go through a variety of sensations:- the cold pav, the chutney within, the crispy outer surface and finally the hot potato inside of the wada.

I personally believe that a wada pav MUST have a chutney and that the outer suface of the wada should be nice and crispy.

Amongst the various hand-carts and 'Wada-Walle' shops I've had wada pav's, the two places worth mentioning are listed below.

1. Joshi Wade Walle (aka Joshi Wada Pav)
This is a proper chain of shops all over the city. Theres one in nearly every locality; though they're more abundant towards Deccan.
The chutney inside the pav is a weak 'imli' (tamarind) chutney.
The Wada is pretty good. However, the chillies served alongside are not salty enough.
A major plus point about Joshi is the crushed peanut and chilli chutney (the powderish type) which comes along with the wada pav.
It really boosts its ranking.
I've been told that this variant is more Maharashtrian than the one described below and hence is more true to the orignal wada-pav's
However, wada-pav's are meant to be eaten hot. Joshi's wada-pav's rarely are.
But when they are, I'd give them a 7/10.
Cost: Rs 5/-

2. Garden Wada-Pav (aka J.J. Garden wada-pav / Shastri wada-pav)
The right crispness, the perfect salinity of the chillies, the steaming wada's and the most perfect chutney is what constitutes the most amazing wada-pav I've ever had.
The main shop is on Buffalo-Street and has tables outside the shop where people can stand and eat. The Wada's and the chutney are made here.
However, the main buisness is done by the hand-cart parked a hundred meters up on the main road.
It's right next to the J.J.Garden behind Hotel Aurora Towers on M.G. Road.
With a perpetual crowd around the cart, you cant miss it.
What i really appreciate about this guy is that if the wada's are cold and there's another batch coming up, he asks you to wait a while.
The best aspect of this wada-pav is the afore-mentioned chutney.
I have absolutely no idea of what's in it but it is by far the most amazing chutney i've had in a wada-pav.
I'm being a little biased, but I'm giving it a 10/10 (I've not had better so can you blame me?!)
Cost: Rs 5/-

What this is about

2005-09-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

Since i seem to have a lot of time and nothing to do, i'm putting up food reviews up here.
I'll also put up recipes as and when i try them out.
and no-i'm never putting up my brownie recipe. that goes to the grave (rather crematorium) with me.
So if you're from pune or visiting, check these places out.