When your oldest BFF comes to town it becomes a special
occasion and if she is here for a few hours then it becomes even more important
to enjoy every moment to its fullest. She had work near the airport so looked
for eateries around there. I choose South of Vindhyas as I had never been there
and she is game to try new places too.
We were really excited to see each other but even more
excited to try out the new place. She is a big foodie and has her own business,
yes food business but with a difference. She serves nutritious home cooked food
for pets – especially dogs and cats – isn’t that great. It’s called PetFeast
and is based in Pune. Though we keep telling her that her talent will be better
utilised if she started a home delivery venture for humans but she chooses to
cook for the furry kind….and there is a story behind it. You can read all about
it by clicking the link at the end of the page.
Sorry I got distracted from the main agenda.
So after our greeting – in the lobby of The Orchid – we were
off to the restaurant.
The very first thing they did was offer us a big bowl and a jug of water to clean our hands. I liked the gesture.
The very first thing they did was offer us a big bowl and a jug of water to clean our hands. I liked the gesture.
Then they wheeled in a trolley laden with various pickles.
There were 9 in all and it was really tough to choose one or two, there was no
way we could have tasted all 9 of them. I tried the chicken pickle and the
bitter gourd pickle. Both were excellent.
The dinner was a set menu. So moving forward all we had to
do was eat without expending any more energy on choices.
Next on the table was rasam dal peppery. It was good.
This was followed by the starter, chicken cutlet covered in
breadcrumbs. It was good but we had really hoped for more non-veg starters.
Then arrived the ‘main-maal’ as we say, the thali. Eight
katoris were nicely arranged on the banana leaf covered thali. Starting from
bottom left there was plain curd, salad, curd rice, payassam and starting
bottom right was fish curry, chicken curry, mutton stew and veg stew. The fish
and chicken curry were ok, veg stew was ordinary, didn’t like the payassam; till
now the thali had been unsatisfactory, but it was the mutton stew that took the
thali to a whole new level of yum-ness. We gorged on it with appam followed by
kerala paratha and yet again followed by kal dosa.
The other thing that helped turn the tide around was the red
rice and sambhar. It was phenomenal. We were truly sad that it was the last
dish to be served. After the mutton there was no way we could eat any more.
We washed it down with ginger curry cooler, it was a very refreshing drink. Curry leaf mixed drinks are
emerging as my new favourite otherwise it was the good old pina-colada earlier.
A Kerala meal would have been incomplete without kapi. It
was perfect.
All in all it was a mixed experience. The lack of varieties
in starters and the regular taste of chicken and fish curry (even though they
were good, it wasn’t as if you could not get such curries elsewhere) were the
dampeners. It was the mutton stew and sambhar that saved the dinner from being ordinary
and despite the two excellent dishes we felt the place was pricey. For two
people with one alcoholic drink the bill was Rs 5600+. May be if I visit them
next time I will try the a la carte menu and simply order the mutton stew and
sambhar.
For PETFEAST click here.
PS: Later I checked the bill, the buffet was called the
Keralite Buffet.
