Restaurants of Pune

You cannot be in Pune for long and not taste its multiple cuisines, Indian as well as international. One of the most obvious in your face change that has enveloped Pune are the number of eating options available to people of every economic level. I mean seriously!! Now the vada-pav has always been a local favorite and need I add, a personal one too. If you can imagine – after staying in the US for so long, one of the first things I ate at a food mall on the drive from Mumbai to Pune was a vada-pav with garlic chutney – yummm…I was proud of the fact that despite my immune system having gone through a relatively peaceful time in the US, it still had the stomach to (literally!) devour a vada-pav…Jai Maharashtra! I digress.

So anyway, moving on from the vada-pav, since I’ve been in Pune, I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy eating out at a number of places. Among the first ones was Panchavati Gaurav on Bhandarkar Road or the vicinity. I visited this place with my entire family except Madhu of course since she was at work but the rest of us, including my older sister’s in-laws and daughter were with us. The specialty of this place is its thali lunch and dinner. Thali meals are typical in almost every part of the country. I’ve had Maharashtrian thali, Punjabi thali (coincidentally at another Panchvati Gaurav but in Ahmednagar), South Indian thali and so on. The restaurant in Pune offers a Gujarati thali which I really enjoyed – as I do most food anyway. Below is the a copy of the 31-items menu from the day we visited and another image of the actual thali – now you know how much I can eat ) and mind you, these thalis are unlimited (of course you can choose the limited versions as well where you get a pre-decided portion on every item on the menu already served for you on the thali).

The 31 items include: Welcome Drink (Jaljeera), Two types of desserts, Two kinds of farsaan (1 fried, 1 boiled), Four kinds of vegetable sabjis, four types of rotis and puris, three kinds of daals, one kadi, two kinds of rice preparations – plain rice and khichadi, chutneys and a whole lot of condiments as well as papad, and curds.

Panchvati Gaurav menu for the day

The actual thali

Then another restaurant we visited was Silkroute at Koregaon Park. Sure it has some great reviews online but I wasn’t quite impressed. Sure the crowd was among the upper middle of society and the ambiance was good but it failed miserably in a number points important to me – first the restaurant did not have a child seat for my 2.5 year old niece which obviously didn’t go down well with any of us…but then being Indians, we just did what most Indians do best, just adjusted to the situation, second – the plates had a distinct stink to them. Of course since I was the only one who actually smelt them and found the smell disgusting, it could just be me and my over sensitive nose. The food was alright. People have raved a lot about the food there but I wasn’t too impressed. Okay the food was good but I won’t go as far as to say it was great or the best restaurant meal I’ve ever eaten. The best thing about the restaurant though is the availability of multiple East Asian cuisines under one roof – Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indonesian – from what I can remember. Perhaps the next time I visit, I should go for the sushi as has been recommended by several reviewers. Then again, having tasted authentic sushi in Japan, I won’t be surprised if I turn my nose up again )

A third place we visited when my sister, brother-in-law and niece were back in town was Mainland China. Now this place, I really liked. We went to the one on Senapati Bapat Road. I have absolutely no complains about this place except the extremely strong insecticide kinda smell in the wash room. So strong in fact that when I was sure people around me could smell it. Anyways, the food was great, they actually had a child seat, the ambiance did get a little noisy toward the end of our meal but overall this was a great experience and I would highly recommend it.

Earlier this week, we visited Moti Mahal, a restaurant on Dhole Patil Road. Now the name Moti Mahal isn’t exactly appetizing, nor is it very tempting. The food however was excellent. My sister and I enjoyed our Latino and Margarita drinks and the meal itself was great – rightly spiced, appropriate food quantity, clean (and non-smelly) plates, courteous servers, and a good ambiance all over. One negative factor however (yes, there is one) was the fact that people could actually smoke IN the restaurant. I didn’t get this – such a wonderful place and then one major spoiler – there was this guy at a table across from us smoking – imagine!! I actually thought of walking up to him and snatching his cigarette but restrained myself. Not that the smoke or his smoking per se were bothering me but the complete lack of concern for the patrons around him as well as his about one year old kid sitting on the mom’s lap right next to this smoker was what was getting my blood to boil.

Much earlier in the visit, we had visited Flags, the restaurant next to INOX. This restaurant served international cuisine as well and the food was great, really wonderful and we all enjoyed a yumm meal. The only problem however was a housefly that had gotten near our table and found the perfect person to victimize – me. Other than that, no complaints. The ambiance was good and the food was great. The staff was alright.

Besides the ones mentioned above, a number of restaurants have mushroomed around town, including international fast food chains such as McDonalds, Subway, as well as Papa John’s. Not to mention the likes of Pizza Huts that have already consolidated their position in the local Indian market. Overall for those with the money to spend, the energy to hop restaurants, and the willingness to try new cuisines from local fares to international delights, Pune certainly stands proud and tall as a food connoisseur’s paradise.