Bon Homie

Place - Bon Homie
Location - Drive-In
Food - 3/10
Service - 3/10
Ambience - 8/10
Value for Money - 2/10

The family and I went to Bon Homie after a movie to enjoy some good food. The place seemed to be a good one, what will all the decor and ambience. But once seated, it is an altogether different scene. The water glasses on our table were all mismatched. The cutlery was bent and the seats were not clean. We ordered a couple of soups. The soup which was supposed to have spinach packets in it was no different than a run of the mill sweet corn soup. The waiter placed the soup bowl on our table and rammed the spoon in the bowl effectively dunking all the garnish to the bottom of the bowl. The soup also had a couple of tiny pebbles in it. (Aid for digestion, methinks) The crispy vegetables serving portion was huge... Pity, I could not discern a single vegetable in it. Mum and Dad ordered a Subz Handi and roti. The waiters would do well by learning not to bang down the serving bowls on the table. The spices in the Subz Handi was raw (as in uncooked) and gave a nasty afterburn. Poor dad could not stand it and was soon sweating bullets. We asked for some curd to counter the badly spiced curry. A bowl of plain curd was biiled as 'masala dahi' and charged Rs. 50. (WTF!). The washroom basin was overflowing with dirty water and God knows what. Not what you expect from a place that looks like this. For the first time in our lives, we actually left over half the food on the table and left the place. PATHETIC! Visit at your own risk.

Zodiac

A posh looking restaurant situated in an up-market area may be a good place for a nice, comfortable and enjoyable dinner. This is what you will expect when you plan to go to Zodiac, situated near AMA on IIM road. As you enter the place you do feel that the place will definitely meet your expectations. Good ambience, nice upholstery, comfortable sitting arrangement… all these build up the drama.

Last saturday Sathya and I went to this place for dinner. We were happy to find that tables were available and we did not need to wait at all. We ordered food and while waiting I was enjoying the pictures of all zodiac signs on the walls.

Soup was not really great and the starters were nothing but full of maida or corn flour. The chef used spices very liberally and so all the dishes were too hot to handle. After a few morsels our tongues were on fire and then we could not taste much of any other dishes.

Service was bad, the waiter was clumsy in serving the food, dropped some on the table. This is definitely not expected at a fine dining restaurant.

Considering all these points, my ratings are as follows-

Food- 5/10

Service- 6/10

Ambience- 8/10

Value for Money- 4/10

Bawarchi @ Maninagar

I have been to the CG Road branch of this restaurant and I really liked most part of my experience there. Taking this as the reference standard I went to the outlet at Maninagar with family one Saturday. As we entered the place I was pretty impressed with the decor. The food was also much to our expectation. But when it came to service, they didn’t stand up to the mark. I mean when you charge like a fine dining restaurant, you ought to give services accordingly. One will not expect a glass of Lassi that is not properly poured, the Lassi is not served in plastic glasses and the waiters should be well trained to serve equal portions to everyone on the table. And you definitely don’t bring the bill to the table with out the customers asking for it. All in all, great food but not so great service.

Food- 8/10

Service- 5/10

Ambience- 6/10 (had they wiped off the stains from the glass walls and partitions they would have scored more)

Value for money- 6/10(service is an issue)

Location-

Krishnabaug,

Nr Tanishq outlet

Maninagar

Sirkaa

Rated by Sathya-

Location - Drive In Road
Cuisine - Continental, Mexican, Pan Asian

Food - 7/10 (They could've scored higher were it not for the uninspiring Pad Thai Noodles and the stone that mum got in her dip)
Ambience - 7/10 (Again, they would've scored higher were it not for the slightly worn looking seats)
Service - 8/10 (Decent, but that stone killed them)
Value for money - 5/10 (Over priced for the kind of taste offered... again that damn stone ruined everything)

Loved their Soups (esp. the brocolli almond), their kabab platter was awesome, so was the italian sizzler (dude serving it was clumsy and did not apportion well)
Pad Thai Noodles was no better than stuff at CHINESE galla in Ahmedabad

Saffron

Every group of friends has their own way of celebrating different occasions. My group from Axis Bank also had one. Any reason for celebration would mean a treat at Saffron. Someone got promoted, he takes us to saffron. Someone got engaged, he takes us to saffron. There were several reason for this. One being its proximity to our office, next it's unlimited platter would relieve us the ordeal of deciding what to order. And the most important, it's live kebab counters. We used to relish it. Now very reently I went there again but this time it was with my family. We ordered the same unlimited meal course which includes soups, starters, veg kebabs, papads, 2 subzi, raita, roti, dal, rice and ice cream. But I was dissappointed this time. the kebabs were under cooked, paneer was stale, soup was not great. I definitely felt let down.

Now, I have heard some similar experiences from my friends whio visited this place later on. While others who have gone to another branch of the same brand at drive in road seemed to very happy with the food there. As for me, well one bad experience is enough for me to stay away from here.

Taste- 6/10

Ambience-8/10

Service- 7/10

Value for money- 7/10

Location- Samudra Annexe, Near Navrangpura Telephone Exchange, Off CG Road.

The rating given here is based on my last experience.

Saltwater

The missus and I decided to eat out on Valentine's day. A quick search over the internet (burrp.com in particular) pointed to this place called Saltwater that apparently served Mediterranean cuisine (among others)

So we went.

The missus had already reserved a table for two. True to our habits, we turned up well before the regular crowd turned up. At the entrance, once I had parked my car, the valet took over the keys and assured me that he would take care of the rest. Phew!

The place is a new and upcoming restaurant with huge space tastefully done in the mediterranean style. The mosaic tile work on the floor, the small water bodies, the roughly finished walls - all contribute towards giving a feel of a rustic mediterranean place. Nice.

The menu had quite a good selection of items with mediterranean, mexican, oriental and Indian items.

Our brocolli almandine soup was quite yummy. The Souvlaki left much to be desired. I thought I detected a hint of stale tomato. The stroganoff was also not what I thought it would be, although it did turn out to be quite delicious. (how could I expect a quintessential beef dish to be true to the original in the land of the veggies!)

The pasta was a welcome delight. The sauce was awesome, so were the chunks of veggies mixed with the penne.

The blueberry cheese cake at the end was an absolute wonder. While the cheese and cream topping was smooth, yummy and out of this world, the crust at the bottom was tasty too.

All in all, a good place to go on a date

Taste- 8/10 (would've been higher but for the souvlaki)

Ambience- 10/10

Service- 9/10 (perceptive waiters, wife liked the guy who seemed to be either the owner or the manager)

Value for money- 8/10 (a sizeable dent in my pocket but worth it :) )

Souq

This place serves Lebanese and Arabic food. They have tastefully done the interiors. The entire place has a feel of the middle east. So when you enter the place and settle down, your hopes have risen. But once you have ordered the food you have to be ready for a long wait. The taste was ok-okish, though some items were very good. Also you don’t find some to take your orders quickly, in spite of the fact that not many tables are to be waited upon. We also got a wrong dish, which we thankfully realized soon enough and sent it back. The place needs a better management as this is not one of those bad days. Some friends of mine had been there and even they came across such an experience.

Taste- 7/10

Ambience- 9/10

Service- 6/10

Value for money- 6/10

Wish the efforts put in for the interiors was also shown in the food and services.

Location-

Vijay Cross Roads, Next to Titan World