As Christmas approaches, apart from the traditional cakes and pies, add some zing to your festive season with cinnabons or cinnabombs as I like to call them :)They are gooey, chooey and heartwarmingly yummy and the taste quite simply explodes in your mouth! But I get ahead of myself.
To get back to the beginning, the first outlet of the international cinnamon roll bakery chain opened in New Delhi at the DLF Promenade Mall in Vasant Kunj recently. The outlet offers practically everything on the international menu including hand blended frozen beverages called chillatas. However the piece de resistance or in the parlance of the world of fashion; the show stoppers of the menu are undoubtedly the cinnamon buns themselves. These are available in three variants, the classic buns, the chocolate cinnabons and the pecan rolls. The pecan rolls are essentially warm rolls with a topping of caramel, pecan nuts and generous lashings of cinnamon. Delicious?Undoubtedly!However,in my opinion still not a patch on the original Cinnabonn. This is a warm cinnamon roll topped with cream cheese frosting and the delightful cinnamon which is as good for your olfactory system as it is for your tastebuds!The latest variant is a chocolate cinnabon which is essentially a classic bun with lashings of warm melted chocolate.......mmmmmmm!
The buns are available in three sizes: classic (recommended for people with humongous appetites, even my sweet tooth was sated with just half a roll), minibons and small bite sized rolls which come in packs of four. There are also cinnamon stix, dusted with sugar and cinnamon and perfect for a light bite when you are craving something sweet but no too sweet.
So head to Cinnabon for a little bit of heaven, which at prices ranging from Rs. 40 to Rs. 120 is quite reasonable too!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Cafe Style
Methinks that this is one Café which should be renamed Café Quirky! There are quirky little touches throughout the café ranging from the scooters and motorcycle which form part of the décor to the feather boas decorating the merchandise on sale. Even the restroom signs are kind of idiosyncratic with a beguiling Venus adorning the Men’s Room door while an Adonis welcomes the ladies to the powder room…….interesting once you get over the initial shock. Overall the place has the casually comfortable décor appropriate for a café. However the sun-lit ground floor with its glass walls and open kitchen is definitely more cheery and inviting while the first floor is rather dimly lit, dark and depressing.
The USP of the place is that it doubles up as a fashion boutique hence upping the ‘style’ quotient and one can pick up interesting clothes and footwear while one waits to be served. The menu is very extensive culling dishes from across the glove. Apart from the luncheon and dining options they also offer a breakfast menu till 11 am. The fare on offer here ranges from the run of mill English and American (or Obama style as they prefer to call it!) breakfast to aloo (potato) parathas and pao bhaji. As far as the regular dining options are concerned, they have some rather interesting soups including the beer and cheese soup with “serious beer”. However since I was lunching there on a hot summer afternoon I decided to skip the soup and move on directly to the main course. This as it turned out, was a wise decision since the helpings here are generous enough to merit a statutory warning “Monster helpings for monster appetites” (if the promoters are reading this……guys you should definitely warn patrons about the huge helpings!). Not that I am complaining the food was almost uniformly good.
They do a very good cottage cheese shawarma sandwich but what got me really excited was seeing ‘bunny chow’ on the menu. This concoction developed by Indian immigrants to South Africa essentially comprises curry stuffed into hollowed out bread. Though not as good as the Bunny Chow I snacked upon on the streets of Durban, the Café Style version definitely makes a valiant attempt at authenticity and was quite good. However the star amongst the dishes I tried during my visit was definitely the mushroom pot pie. I am not a huge fan of pot pies on the whole but this one was absolutely divine and head and shoulders above the vegetarian pot pies available elsewhere in the city. They have an interesting selection of desserts as well but my vote would definitely go to the ice cream mezze platter which is made up of generous scoops of various ice creams and is a dessert to be shared and enjoyed. While the ice cream was uniformly creamy and tasty, the coffee and cinnamon flavours deserve special mention for their scrumptiousness.
Overall Café Style is definitely worth a visit if you live in Noida or happen to be visiting. With good and reasonably priced food, friendly service and cheerful interiors (not to mention the happy marriage between two of my passions food and fashion) it is definitely one of the better dining options in the Sector 18 Market
Food: 3.5/5
Service:3/5
Interiors:3.5/5
Average Cost for a Meal for Two:Rs. 800
The USP of the place is that it doubles up as a fashion boutique hence upping the ‘style’ quotient and one can pick up interesting clothes and footwear while one waits to be served. The menu is very extensive culling dishes from across the glove. Apart from the luncheon and dining options they also offer a breakfast menu till 11 am. The fare on offer here ranges from the run of mill English and American (or Obama style as they prefer to call it!) breakfast to aloo (potato) parathas and pao bhaji. As far as the regular dining options are concerned, they have some rather interesting soups including the beer and cheese soup with “serious beer”. However since I was lunching there on a hot summer afternoon I decided to skip the soup and move on directly to the main course. This as it turned out, was a wise decision since the helpings here are generous enough to merit a statutory warning “Monster helpings for monster appetites” (if the promoters are reading this……guys you should definitely warn patrons about the huge helpings!). Not that I am complaining the food was almost uniformly good.
They do a very good cottage cheese shawarma sandwich but what got me really excited was seeing ‘bunny chow’ on the menu. This concoction developed by Indian immigrants to South Africa essentially comprises curry stuffed into hollowed out bread. Though not as good as the Bunny Chow I snacked upon on the streets of Durban, the Café Style version definitely makes a valiant attempt at authenticity and was quite good. However the star amongst the dishes I tried during my visit was definitely the mushroom pot pie. I am not a huge fan of pot pies on the whole but this one was absolutely divine and head and shoulders above the vegetarian pot pies available elsewhere in the city. They have an interesting selection of desserts as well but my vote would definitely go to the ice cream mezze platter which is made up of generous scoops of various ice creams and is a dessert to be shared and enjoyed. While the ice cream was uniformly creamy and tasty, the coffee and cinnamon flavours deserve special mention for their scrumptiousness.
Overall Café Style is definitely worth a visit if you live in Noida or happen to be visiting. With good and reasonably priced food, friendly service and cheerful interiors (not to mention the happy marriage between two of my passions food and fashion) it is definitely one of the better dining options in the Sector 18 Market
Food: 3.5/5
Service:3/5
Interiors:3.5/5
Average Cost for a Meal for Two:Rs. 800
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Tasty Tangles
Ah the tangled skein of life! My first post on this blog lamented the wonton err wanton neglect of the interests of vegetarians in most food reviews. Life seems to have come a full circle as I recently enjoyed two excellent meals at a restaurant whose non-vegetarian offerings left my luncheon companions cold!
The restaurant in question is Tasty Tangles, the Indian Avatar of Noodle House, the international chain serving Pan Asian food. The Delhi restaurant at the Metropolitan Mall, Saket is one of the 35 outlets that the Dubai based parent company is planning to launch in India. The interiors are bright and welcoming and the service matches the interiors! The seating is on low benches and shareable tables creating the ‘community dining’ atmosphere of street stalls in South-East Asian cities like Bangkok, Jakarta or Hong Kong. French windows allow in oodles of light creating a bright and cheerful ambience during the day though the restaurant is well lit and inviting at night as well.
Diners at Tasty Tangles place their order by ticking the desired items on an order pad which is essentially a sheet of paper which lists all the items on the menu. The sheet is then taken by one of the ever-smiling staff and the order executed within minutes. In fact the promptitude of the service is one of then USPs of the chain. True to the claims of the company website, the staff is “friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the menu” and makes dining at Tasty Tangles a pleasurable experience. However what rankles is their inability/unwillingness to cooperate on certain minor issues. The server’s polite but firm refusal to substitute one of the ingredients in a soup (although they were willing to eliminate it from the dish altogether) was a case in point. Their refusal to part with one of their carry bags which my dinner companion had taken a fancy to was another (the server did helpfully suggest though that despite finishing our dinner we could order another dish so that she could then pack it in the carry bag!!)
The service, as I had mentioned previously is unbelievably quick. However there are no pre- cooked ‘fast food’ flat flavours in the food. It is prepared fresh right before your eyes in the glass and steel enclosed kitchen which is fully open to view. Though the menu overall and the vegetarian menu in particular is admittedly limited, the restaurant does a good job of the dishes that it offers. The wonton noodle soup with vegetable dumplings was excellent. The quality of the soup stock makes all the difference in the world to the taste of clear soup, and the chef definitely got it right with the flavourful stock used in the wonton soup. The sweet corn soup was good though not exceptional. However the use of vegetable dumplings rather than the traditional vegetables did provide an interesting variation to the traditional version. We followed up the soup with an excellent pad thai, easily at par with the version that I have had in Bangkok. The fact that you get excellent vegetarian Thai food (didn’t even know that it existed!!) was a revelation when I visited the country a couple of years ago (though I had to constantly stress the importance of NOT using fish salt in my stir fried veggies!!) The fact that you can now also get excellent vegetarian Thai food right here in Delhi was another happy revelation! My dinner companion opted for vegetarian fried rice which was decidedly Chin-jabi or Sino-Ludhianvi in taste and the sweet and sour bawang putih paneer, which was excellent. The dish as the name suggested had a sweet and sour taste, but what set it apart from the run-of-the mill offerings was the fact that pineapple was used to provide the sweet flavour. Improbable though this experiment may sound, it actually worked quite well. The broccoli with vegetarian oyster sauce is a good option for people who appreciate subtler flavours.
The dessert section again highlighted the curious contrast wherein both the food and the service oscillated between great and terrible (though I still maintain much to the chagrin of my carnivore friends that the vegetarian food is by and large good). A couple of items on the dessert menu were passable at best. These included the pineapple spring rolls with custard and the banana beignets (fritters) with mango syrup and vanilla ice cream. On the other hand the mango pudding, bursting with the flavour of fresh mangoes and served with vanilla ice cream, was fabulous. Another excellent dessert option is the crispy fried wontons. Though the wontons also taste good with the caramel (or rather good ol’ butterscotch) ice cream that they are served with, they are delicious by themselves served with generous lashings of honey. All in all a visit to Tasty Tangles is recommended especially if you are a fan of South-Asian cuisine. If not, they might yet convert you :)
The restaurant in question is Tasty Tangles, the Indian Avatar of Noodle House, the international chain serving Pan Asian food. The Delhi restaurant at the Metropolitan Mall, Saket is one of the 35 outlets that the Dubai based parent company is planning to launch in India. The interiors are bright and welcoming and the service matches the interiors! The seating is on low benches and shareable tables creating the ‘community dining’ atmosphere of street stalls in South-East Asian cities like Bangkok, Jakarta or Hong Kong. French windows allow in oodles of light creating a bright and cheerful ambience during the day though the restaurant is well lit and inviting at night as well.
Diners at Tasty Tangles place their order by ticking the desired items on an order pad which is essentially a sheet of paper which lists all the items on the menu. The sheet is then taken by one of the ever-smiling staff and the order executed within minutes. In fact the promptitude of the service is one of then USPs of the chain. True to the claims of the company website, the staff is “friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the menu” and makes dining at Tasty Tangles a pleasurable experience. However what rankles is their inability/unwillingness to cooperate on certain minor issues. The server’s polite but firm refusal to substitute one of the ingredients in a soup (although they were willing to eliminate it from the dish altogether) was a case in point. Their refusal to part with one of their carry bags which my dinner companion had taken a fancy to was another (the server did helpfully suggest though that despite finishing our dinner we could order another dish so that she could then pack it in the carry bag!!)
The service, as I had mentioned previously is unbelievably quick. However there are no pre- cooked ‘fast food’ flat flavours in the food. It is prepared fresh right before your eyes in the glass and steel enclosed kitchen which is fully open to view. Though the menu overall and the vegetarian menu in particular is admittedly limited, the restaurant does a good job of the dishes that it offers. The wonton noodle soup with vegetable dumplings was excellent. The quality of the soup stock makes all the difference in the world to the taste of clear soup, and the chef definitely got it right with the flavourful stock used in the wonton soup. The sweet corn soup was good though not exceptional. However the use of vegetable dumplings rather than the traditional vegetables did provide an interesting variation to the traditional version. We followed up the soup with an excellent pad thai, easily at par with the version that I have had in Bangkok. The fact that you get excellent vegetarian Thai food (didn’t even know that it existed!!) was a revelation when I visited the country a couple of years ago (though I had to constantly stress the importance of NOT using fish salt in my stir fried veggies!!) The fact that you can now also get excellent vegetarian Thai food right here in Delhi was another happy revelation! My dinner companion opted for vegetarian fried rice which was decidedly Chin-jabi or Sino-Ludhianvi in taste and the sweet and sour bawang putih paneer, which was excellent. The dish as the name suggested had a sweet and sour taste, but what set it apart from the run-of-the mill offerings was the fact that pineapple was used to provide the sweet flavour. Improbable though this experiment may sound, it actually worked quite well. The broccoli with vegetarian oyster sauce is a good option for people who appreciate subtler flavours.
The dessert section again highlighted the curious contrast wherein both the food and the service oscillated between great and terrible (though I still maintain much to the chagrin of my carnivore friends that the vegetarian food is by and large good). A couple of items on the dessert menu were passable at best. These included the pineapple spring rolls with custard and the banana beignets (fritters) with mango syrup and vanilla ice cream. On the other hand the mango pudding, bursting with the flavour of fresh mangoes and served with vanilla ice cream, was fabulous. Another excellent dessert option is the crispy fried wontons. Though the wontons also taste good with the caramel (or rather good ol’ butterscotch) ice cream that they are served with, they are delicious by themselves served with generous lashings of honey. All in all a visit to Tasty Tangles is recommended especially if you are a fan of South-Asian cuisine. If not, they might yet convert you :)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Cocoberry
Just three months old, this frozen yogurt chain has proved to be so popular, that they have already opened their second outlet in the NCR and one in Hyderabad. Cocoberry started operations with its flagship outlet in Defence Colony, and recently opened their second store in Gurgaon. I visited the Def Col outlet, and the fact that it was jam packed at midnight on a Monday speaks volumes for the quality of their product.
Cocoberry essentially serves frozen yogurt made from probiotic curd (who said everything that tastes good is fattening,illegal or bad for you?;)) The flavours available include blueberry,chocolate and mango.The yogurts are quite delectable by themselves but you also have the option of fresh fruit toppings like mango, blackberries, strawberries etc. If mere delectable doesn't cut it for you and decadent is more your style, you can indulge your taste buds with toppings like Oreo cookies, almonds,marshmallows and snickers amongst other sinful treats. You also have the option of ordering fresh fruit platters, grilled sandwiches,fruit and yogurt smoothies and warm and cold coffee.
Food :4/5
Service: 2.5/5
Prices starting at Rs. 59 for a small serving of yogurt
Cocoberry essentially serves frozen yogurt made from probiotic curd (who said everything that tastes good is fattening,illegal or bad for you?;)) The flavours available include blueberry,chocolate and mango.The yogurts are quite delectable by themselves but you also have the option of fresh fruit toppings like mango, blackberries, strawberries etc. If mere delectable doesn't cut it for you and decadent is more your style, you can indulge your taste buds with toppings like Oreo cookies, almonds,marshmallows and snickers amongst other sinful treats. You also have the option of ordering fresh fruit platters, grilled sandwiches,fruit and yogurt smoothies and warm and cold coffee.
Food :4/5
Service: 2.5/5
Prices starting at Rs. 59 for a small serving of yogurt
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Saatvik
What better way to start a herbivore food review blog, methinks than with the review of a pure vegetarian restaurant. Sattvik, located in Select Citywalk, Saket is a fine dining restaurant providing a plethora of options for vegetarians. The interiors of the restaurant have been done up in muted shades of brown and beige. This combined with the dim lighting; provides an ambience of understated elegance to the place.
Sattvik offers a plethora of (strictly vegetarian) options to its patrons. The menu culled from the cuisine of different regions somehow manages to do justice to them all, though one may be a tad disappointed if one is looking for several options from A particular region. We started with the till walle khatte tandoori aloo (tandoori potatoes with sesame seeds) and paneer basil tikka both of which were quite competently done though I have to say that the basil did not infuse the tikka with any of the extra zing which one would have expected. However it was definitely the flourless yogurt cheese kebab(or dahi ke kabab for the less la-di-da-da amongst us) which stood out as the undisputed champion amongst the starters. Deliciously crisp from the outside, and soft on the inside, the phrase ‘melt in the mouth delicious’ was more finger licking reality than overused superlative when applied to this kabab. Amongst the soups. The tamatar aur pudina ka shorba (tomato and mint soup) was quite nice while the badam aur tulsi ka shorba (almond and basil soup) was superb. I liked the fact that the recipes themselves had a slight twist since traditionally basil is paired with tomato in soups. However at Sattvik it was the almond soup which was flavored with basil to provide a slightly unusual but soul stirringly satisfying soup.
In the main course the nariyal aur dahi ki subzi is a must try especially if you like the cuisine of Kerala. Essentially a variant on the ‘avial’ the reworked dish tastes as good with parathas as it does with the traditional appams. The kadai hari subzi (green vegetables cooked in a wok) and paneer (cottage cheese) jaisalmeri are definitely worth a try though the guncha ki kadai and dal-e-saatvik were both quite average. The deserts were all uniformly good, be it the warm sugar poached gulab jamuns or the cool kesaria phirnee( saffron rice pudding) or rose petal kulfi.
Though I was not very pleased with the service (the staff seemed slightly hassled and unable to cope with the rush) some friends had shared positive feedback when they visited the restaurant on another evening. Hence it’s possible I might just have caught them on a bad night when they were short staffed. However all in all Sattvik is definitely worth a visit, chances are that like me you will leave planning your next meal there!
Food :4/5
Ambience:4/5
Service:3/5
Average cost of a meal for two: Rs. 800-1000
Sattvik offers a plethora of (strictly vegetarian) options to its patrons. The menu culled from the cuisine of different regions somehow manages to do justice to them all, though one may be a tad disappointed if one is looking for several options from A particular region. We started with the till walle khatte tandoori aloo (tandoori potatoes with sesame seeds) and paneer basil tikka both of which were quite competently done though I have to say that the basil did not infuse the tikka with any of the extra zing which one would have expected. However it was definitely the flourless yogurt cheese kebab(or dahi ke kabab for the less la-di-da-da amongst us) which stood out as the undisputed champion amongst the starters. Deliciously crisp from the outside, and soft on the inside, the phrase ‘melt in the mouth delicious’ was more finger licking reality than overused superlative when applied to this kabab. Amongst the soups. The tamatar aur pudina ka shorba (tomato and mint soup) was quite nice while the badam aur tulsi ka shorba (almond and basil soup) was superb. I liked the fact that the recipes themselves had a slight twist since traditionally basil is paired with tomato in soups. However at Sattvik it was the almond soup which was flavored with basil to provide a slightly unusual but soul stirringly satisfying soup.
In the main course the nariyal aur dahi ki subzi is a must try especially if you like the cuisine of Kerala. Essentially a variant on the ‘avial’ the reworked dish tastes as good with parathas as it does with the traditional appams. The kadai hari subzi (green vegetables cooked in a wok) and paneer (cottage cheese) jaisalmeri are definitely worth a try though the guncha ki kadai and dal-e-saatvik were both quite average. The deserts were all uniformly good, be it the warm sugar poached gulab jamuns or the cool kesaria phirnee( saffron rice pudding) or rose petal kulfi.
Though I was not very pleased with the service (the staff seemed slightly hassled and unable to cope with the rush) some friends had shared positive feedback when they visited the restaurant on another evening. Hence it’s possible I might just have caught them on a bad night when they were short staffed. However all in all Sattvik is definitely worth a visit, chances are that like me you will leave planning your next meal there!
Food :4/5
Ambience:4/5
Service:3/5
Average cost of a meal for two: Rs. 800-1000
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Girl with a herbivoracious appetite
I was born with the lust for life and all the good things it has to offer. Art?Yes Literature? Yes. The beauties of nature?Yes.Music and dancing?YES.Food?Ooooooh yes.And though I wasn't born a vegetarian or even bred a vegetarian (at least not where my dad was concerned) somewhere along the way I joined the herbivorous section of the homo sapien population.
Like most other non vegetarians I seldom if ever ordered a vegetarian meal when dining out. This of course changed overnight when I woke up one fine day and decided that I will henceforth be vegetarian and hence be 'accha' (only light hearted bantering Ms. Gandhi, veggies ARE good I know). I still remember what a revelation my first voluntary vegetarian dinner in a restaurant was. Delicate morsels of cottage cheese skillfully baked in a sauce that was mouth wateringly delicious and yet breathtaking in the subtlety of it's ingredients. That opened the floodgates as I plunged myself headlong into the joys of dining veggie even when I dined out.
However one grouse persists.........us vegetarians are a sadly neglected community when it comes to food reviews. I'm willing to wager my last celery stick that both gourmets and gourmands are to be found as plentifully amongst vegetarians as they are amongst our non-vegetarians brethren.Yet your average restaurant review will deal primarily with the non-vegetarian menu with one or two vegetarian dishes registering a token presence. Borrowing the immortal lines from the Bollywood cult classic Sholay, "Bahut Na Insaafi Hai" (It's very unfair).Through this blog I hope to restore the balance of power somewhat in our favour ;) I am not a "trained" food writer but I do know what I like and hopefully my experiences in various establishments will help other vegetarians out there. I hope it will also tempt some of the non-vegetarians out there to explore the joys of green cusine next time they dine out (or am I being too ambitious? :)) Being primarily a Delhi girl, most of the entries are likely to focus on the NCR, but I will definitely be sharing my two cent's worth on restaurants outside the city whenever I travel. First review coming up soon. Till then take care......and stay green ;)
Like most other non vegetarians I seldom if ever ordered a vegetarian meal when dining out. This of course changed overnight when I woke up one fine day and decided that I will henceforth be vegetarian and hence be 'accha' (only light hearted bantering Ms. Gandhi, veggies ARE good I know). I still remember what a revelation my first voluntary vegetarian dinner in a restaurant was. Delicate morsels of cottage cheese skillfully baked in a sauce that was mouth wateringly delicious and yet breathtaking in the subtlety of it's ingredients. That opened the floodgates as I plunged myself headlong into the joys of dining veggie even when I dined out.
However one grouse persists.........us vegetarians are a sadly neglected community when it comes to food reviews. I'm willing to wager my last celery stick that both gourmets and gourmands are to be found as plentifully amongst vegetarians as they are amongst our non-vegetarians brethren.Yet your average restaurant review will deal primarily with the non-vegetarian menu with one or two vegetarian dishes registering a token presence. Borrowing the immortal lines from the Bollywood cult classic Sholay, "Bahut Na Insaafi Hai" (It's very unfair).Through this blog I hope to restore the balance of power somewhat in our favour ;) I am not a "trained" food writer but I do know what I like and hopefully my experiences in various establishments will help other vegetarians out there. I hope it will also tempt some of the non-vegetarians out there to explore the joys of green cusine next time they dine out (or am I being too ambitious? :)) Being primarily a Delhi girl, most of the entries are likely to focus on the NCR, but I will definitely be sharing my two cent's worth on restaurants outside the city whenever I travel. First review coming up soon. Till then take care......and stay green ;)
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