This post is about Christmas brunch 2012 at Olive Beach…………………….
In a nutshell:
Today’s Christmas brunch got me back to Olive Beach after many years & filled me with some good foodie moments that I wud remember for some time to come.
Meal for 2: Rs. 2000 onwards (usually). Special pricing for Christmas Brunch.
Grilled fish & Grilled Jumbo Prawns
Cuisine type: vegetarian & nonvegetarian
Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:
The advantage of having a huge spread is that people can choose what they like. This is what exactly the situation was like, at today’s Christmas brunch at Olive beach. However what is important is not just the width of the spread but also some winners & some ‘item numbers’/ show stoppers that people take home memories of. The good thing is Olive Beach had more than expected number of winners & of course they had ‘item numbers’ – Roasted suckling pig & Roasted Turkey.
Starters & cold cuts
The Restaurant specializes in Mediterranean cuisine & hence its interiors r done according to the theme. The guys serving us were quite efficient till the peak hours, after which they needed reminding on few occasions. The Chefs at the live counters were very interactive & I enjoyed little chats with few of them.
Roasted suckling pig
Music was obviously Christmas themed.
Detailed description – In case u have the time to njoy reading:
Excellent Bihari food served in a nice setting by pretty warm people – I developed a small temporary potbelly as I walked out of this place after eating loads of irresistible food.
Good place to catch up with friends, a lunch date or just a nice place to hang around.
Like in all other restaurants , I visited this place in anonymity. The climb to the 4th floor thru narrow bright colored (bordering garish) was the only disgusting part. Once up there, it was really enjoyable. I was appreciating the way in which a simple property has been converted to a nice restaurant seemingly without too much expenditure.
Dining Hall at The potbelly
The floor extends to both sides of the staircase. On the Dining Hall to the right, there is a non alcoholic bar:) area – actually a serving counter.
Dining Hall with the bar area in the corner
On the left side there is a small dining area that also leads to a open air area in 3rd floor. The walls r all glass & that makes it good due to plenty of light & also good view outside. The decor of the open air area is good with a great view as well.
Looks of the open air area
The furniture is mix & match – no two chairs around a table r the same. On the wall hang loads of empty frames sans pictures.
The menu card is very colorful & quite informative as well – good explanation to the names of the dishes.
colorful menu cards at The Potbelly
Passion for excellence exudes – I felt this throughout during our lunch at Potbelly. Without the passion, all items ordered during a particular meal cannot b simultaneously good.
Maher – A hot dish with curd, rice & spices, garnished with nuts
The staff member who was serving us was very warm & helpful.
Detailed description – In case u have the time to njoy reading:
In a nutshell: Naga food stall in Dilli Haat that is a good quick introduction to YUMM but slightly toned down sub authentic Naga Food. Address & other details: Dilli Haat. Try to take the metro as parking is a big nuisance. Meal for 2: Rs. 400 onwards Cuisine type: vegetarian & predominantly nonvegetarian Short Description – in case u r in a hurry: We … Continue reading Nagaland Stall, Dilli Haat (Dilli Haat, opp INA Market, New Delhi)
Surely not for the faint hearted, this is a still undiluted, almost authentic & YUMM Naga food Restaurant with a magnificent view of Hauz Khas.
Dzukou
Address & other details: Too complicated to explain. Just call them, book a table & ask for directions. They respond well. Phone numbers that we called : +91 8447703774, +91 9873306174
A huge painting depicting Tribal people of Nagaland
The restaurant had something unique to it – It did not have professional service, had no tap water in the otherwise clean loo & we had to climb the stairs for I guess 4 floors (coz like all buildings in the vicinity, it did not have a lift). What the restaurant had instead was a very warm & efficient service – they were not very fluent at English but good enough to have a decent communication. The guy serving us had a smile on his face almost all the while & treated us as if we were a guest to his house. Most importantly, the Naga food was as ‘non Delhi-ized’ as possible. Super liked it & wud surely get back. Someone had the guts to serve super hot Naga food in Delhi – I guess almost same standard as that in Nagaland.
View from the balcony seat
The entrance to the building is thru a narrow ‘gully’ that had a carved wooden door. Before we reached the staircase, we saw a Latin Restaurant, a Japanese snack counter, a Frankie shop & more unimaginable variety of shops coexisting with each other. No one attempted to beautify the staircase. There were no signboards or arrows of the restaurant either, on the way up.
A huge painting of Naga women standing in traditional attire marked the entrance of the restaurant. As we walked in, we realized there were two sections – a closed Dining Hall with seating area & two additional seats in the balcony.
Painting of Naga women on the staircase landing area
On the floor above there was a marvellous open air seating (with a roof). Both the floors had abundant view of the Lake (For the uninitiated, Hauz Khas means Royal Lake. The word ‘Hauz’ means lake & ‘Khas’ means Royal. This lake came into existence at the time of Allauddin Khilji in early 1300s. Beside the lake, there r many 700 year old Historical monuments in this campus, including Feroz Shah Tughlaq’s tomb)
A view from the open top floor
The Dining Hall has traditional paintings & also Handicrafts made of wood & bamboo. The furniture is basic wooden.
Master of curries, paneer & vegetarian Kababs, one of the best of its kind in Delhi NCR, with scope for improvement in Indian Breads & rice section. Worth a 1.5 hr metro ride for me to get here, hoping that some day they will open a restaurant in Gurgaon.
The concept of food in the restaurant is ‘Food from the different places around the Indus River – From Rajasthan to Afghanisthan, North West Frontier food, etc.’ Though the river does not really touch Rajasthan or Afghanistan, some of the cuisines of those places have been included. Tibet & Ladakh have been left out.
Indus Daal – served in a balti
Leaving Geography aside, the names of certain items are quite ‘for the sake of naming’. E.g. Harappan Aloo – Harappan Civilization existed approx 5000 years back & aloo came to Indian subcontinent as late as less than 250 years back.
A side of the Restaurant’s wall has a very well made Off white colored Mural map of the Indus Valley. The seating is bright Red high sofas, dark brown wooden tables & red seat chairs arranged in a row.
Mural Map of Indus Valley
Tables are a bit near to each other & there is chance that u wud hear the chat in the next table. However that practically is not possible due to piped instrumental music in the right volume – not loud enough to disturb a chat at one’s own table but loud enough to inhibit clarity of chat on the adjacent table.
Other part of the dining Hall
The service is good & it takes a while for them to get the dishes ordered. The finishing (if not fully) of every dish seemed to be done post placing of orders. That helped the food taste ‘freshly made’. The staff were constantly running around from table to table but they were keeping an eye on all tables as well.
The place was fully packed most of the time & I recommend doing a phone booking in peak dinner hours.
All the above aside, Food is the King here. I have never had so good paneer in Gurgaon so far except in very very few places in Delhi. The only vegetarian Tandoori platter I have had is the one at Bikanervala Gurgaon – The one at Indus Flavours is multiple times better than the Bikanervala version. I was told that Paneer is made inhouse & that makes a difference. It left a lasting impression on me – Anything paneer was good.
Staff at Work inside the lit area beside beautifully laid out Dinner table
Detailed description – In case u have the time to njoy reading:
Run by two French Gentlemen & their Indian Partner, this two floor restaurant has a good ambience, serves mostly good & some very good food, offers good service & I am told, they have a good selection of wines as well.
Rara Avis – Tail of peacock, body of horse & face of lion
What struck me as soon as I entered the Restaurant was the warmth & hospitality of the hosts. The elderly Indian Gentleman welcomed us as if we had been to his house for an evening & showed us around the restaurant – the open air partially covered terrace floor with a good view & also the closed Dining Hall. Though the terrace was very attractive, we chose to sit in the Dining hall.
Dining Hall @ Rara Avis
The Dining Hall has a nice decor – paintings on the wall, wooden furniture , very interesting light bulbs & a cake shop counter at the corner. The terrace was half covered & half open – pretty nice place to hang out.
interesting light bulbs @ Rara Avis
The Gentleman mentioned above visited us twice during our Dinner to ask about the food & to check whether we were comfortable. The French Gentleman also came twice to check if all was fine & I was amazed to see that on one occasion he cleared the plates as well – quite unusual in India.
Tenderloin Carpaccio @ Rara Avis
The food was good in general & one of them was wow.
Loved eating paan at this unique paan shop (not a hole in the wall) that sells 41 different flavours of paan, hookas of endless variety, smoking pipes etc.
panchayat – the board outside
Address & other details: On the same footpath as Kake da Hotel, National Hotel, Royal Restaurant etc on outer Circle.
Meal for 2: Rs. 80 onwards
Cuisine type:vegetarian
Description:
After eating loads of nonvegetarian food at the adjoining ‘dhabas’ of Connaught place when it is time for dessert, this shop can be quite useful – in case u r willing to consider eating paan for dessert:).
This is exactly how I came to know of this place. After a dinner with our friends we were looking out for some dessert & came the suggestion.
Panchayat claims to be india’s first ‘Paan Parlour’. Well, at least u can enter this shop, stand in a queue to get ur paan & choose from a variety. For a change here is a paan shop where people do not have to beat the weather while trying to buy the paan.
Perfect value for money proposition with some super YUMM, some just about YUMM & some ordinary food.
Kake da Hotel
Address & other details: Outer circle CP
Meal for 2: Rs. 160 onwards
Cuisine type: nonvegetarian & vegetarian
Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:
As most of my Indian readers wud know, ‘Hotel’ here refers to a restaurant.
keema kaleji at kake da hotel
If good ambience is a must for u stepping into an eatery, Do not go here. U might come across uncomfortable scenes like swarms of flies, a guy lying down in the first floor corner, loud co-diners , heaps of semi processed onions or worst, even a rat. However, if u wanna have good to great food at prices lower than imagination, check this place out.
A restaurant that has been around for 80 years, Kake da hotel has quite a following. Situated in the outer circle of Connaught place, the hotel, like its neighbours (National Restaurant, Royal Restaurant etc), has a tiny seating area on the ground floor & has a slightly spacious first floor. The first floor is supposedly for ‘family’ crowd but I prefer the ground floor as that shows the real character of the place.
A section of the Ground floor dining room & the stairs for going to 1st floor
Very Few ladies cud be seen on the ground floor that is usually packed with individual / groups of men. Unknown people share tables due to lack of space. The area is quite crammed – u can hear almost every word that is being spoken in the table next to u.
The entrance to the Restaurant is beside a Glass front that has become smoky. Behind the Glass wall are a row of 8 – 10 dekchis (huge metal containers) on which meats of different kinds r constantly being slow cooked.
People walk in, order a curry, eat that with as many rotis they want, ask for just gravy coz that costs less (than ordering a full repeat of the dish with meat).
butter chicken at Kake da hotel
As soon as order is placed, the curry is picked up from the dekchi to serving plate & served immediately. The gravy is usually all over the plate & no one bothers to clean that up before serving to the customer.
There are several types of rotis on offer & Roti takes a while to make & serve – ‘garma garam’.
All food is made from pure desi ghee – proclaims a writing on the wall. In some dishes that comes out very clearly, in some others it does not.
By Delhi standards the prices r a steal. Price of the curries is approx. INR 130 – 140 per plate & rotis start at INR 5 per piece!!!
Menu card on the wall of Kake da hotel (click on the picture to see enlarged image)
Service is as fast as it can get. Waiting staff have been around for years & some of them have become numb. They r obviously not ‘Hotel Management trained’ like their swanky restaurant counterparts – just being a normal nice human being yields good results. I tried asking our waiter for a recommendation. ‘All is good’ was the answer. I tried 3 times with interval of 10 – 15 minutes. Answer was consistent. He was however very attentive of the way we were finishing up. As soon as we were left with 25% of the roti, he wud appear – Do u want another one?
Detailed description – In case u have the time to njoy reading:
This is located on the main road between Motinagar Metro station & Ramesh Nagar Metro station. If u r facing Motinagar, the shop is to ur left.
Meal for 2:Rs. 250 onwards if u eat fish & Rs. 100 onwards if u restrict to chicken.
Paramjit Machiwale’s fried Fish
Cuisine type: Nonvegetarian
Description:
I am yet to forget the taste of tandoored fish at ‘Makhan Fish’ in Amritsar. Years back, that was my first introduction to Punjabi style fish shops. Then we discovered Pappu fish in Gurgaon & found it very good till two days back my friend mentioned Paramjeet. We did not waste time & the next day we were at Motinagar driving all the way from Gurgaon. Unlike Pappu fish who sells fish in the winters onlty, Paramjeet’s fish is available round the year.
……………… & let me tell u – it was worth it.
The shop has a chicken shop, a chai shop, a liquor shop & a paan – soft drink shop as its neighbours – As perfect a symbiosis as it can be.
The row of shops
We stuck to the fish menu only as the portions were large + good chicken is available in many places but good fish is hard to find.
The minimum order size for fish at Paramjeet is 250 grams. That meant two dishes between the two of us = half a kilo of fish!!!!
YUMMRAJ’s advice – Take a metro ride to Chandni chowk. Once u r out, come to the main chandni chowk road & take a rickshaw ride to Fatehpuri Masjid. Avoid taking ur car.
Meal for 2: Rs. 80 onwards
saeo paak /seow paak
Cuisine Type:Vegetarian
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
This Sindhi Sweet shop has been around for more than a century & that speaks a lot (though not everything). The shop front is perennially full of customers. What draws one’s attention is the immense number of interesting signage on the wall.
Multiple Notes on the wall
In most of my visits I have come across the owner who sits in the shop & that makes a real difference to the quality of the sweets & also to the overall management of the place. At times the place can be overcrowded & one might have to wait for 15 – 20 minutes as well!!! I guess it wud b better if the shop introduces a queue system – that wud make things easier for the customer but might take away the warmth of conversation with the people at the shop.
Packaging of sweets
All sweets r made from pure desi ghee & the best of ingredients. The desi ghee bit is mentioned on the wall & is obvious as soon as u eat the sweets. The ‘ingredients’ part also becomes obvious as soon as u pop the sweets into the mouth.
‘Please do not refrigerate our sweets’ claims the sweet box & this is reiterated also by the people in the shop.
Notifications on different sides of Sweet box
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy reading:
