Review: Zambar

Food • • 4th May, 2012 • 9 Comments • Tweet

Verdict: Impeccable service, generous portions. Starters surpass expectations but the main course and dessert are a disappointment in comparison.
Rating: 2.5

Table for 2: Rs 800-1000
Address: 2nd Floor, Phoenix Marketcity, Nagar Road, Viman Nagar (and, West Block, Amanora Town Centre, Magarpatta)

As you step into Zambar, a South Indian specialty restaurant, you will be transcended into the idyllic God’s own country. You could hop aboard a giant houseboat or jump on to a smaller boat that is cut out out to be sofa and irrespective your choice of seating, you will be well taken care of by Zambar’s courteous staff.

Their non-vegetarian platter, has a variety of 5 preparations – Chicken 65, Mangalorean Chicken Ghee Roast, Zambar Pepper Chicken, Kerala Mutton and Andhra Chicken Fry; each of which has subtle yet distinct flavours of the region they belong to. Our favourite is the Mangalorean Chicken Ghee Roast for its rich, succulent flavour and the Chicken 65 because it simply melts in your mouth. The Zambar Pepper Chicken has a subtle yet definite pepper aftertaste, while the Andhra Chicken Fry comes with a spicy, overpowering andhra style sauce. If you’re not a fan of pungent food, try the Kerala Mutton.

For the main course we tried the Mushroom Peralan, the Mamsam Pulusu and the Chicken Stew. What works for the Mushroom Peralan, a typical Syrian Christian preparation is the simplicity of its flavours – the spices are delicate, almost negligible but the flavour of the mushrooms is distinct. It goes well with appams as well as the Kerala parota. The Mamsam Pulusu, which is a tangy Andhra style mutton curry was slightly disappointing as the sourness of the gravy gets slightly monotonous after the first few bites. A little bit of spice could’ve definitely saved the day. A word of advice if you plan to order this one, have it with the parota and not the appam. The Chicken Stew lacked the richness and the flavour of ginger overpowered the preparation.

For dessert we tried the Unnakai which are banana ball fritters which lacked the flavour of banana and although it went well the jaggery syrup that was served alongside, it got too sweet towards the end and failed to work up the magic. If you like to finish off your meal with a cup of filter coffee, we’d suggest you give the one at Zambar a miss and hop a couple floors beneath to Up South (read review here). The one at Zambar is far too milky and definitely overpriced.

All in all, for the size of the portions and the quality, the food at Zambar is reasonably priced and if you’re a fan of the southern spice, it is definitely worth paying a visit to. Their bar is yet to open doors to patrons, till then you’d just have to do with their rasam shots.

Photos by Sahil Khan

  • Manas Sonar

    Nice I’ll try it

  • Guiding Customer

    It was my first visit to this place at Amanora mall, Pune. It was shocking for me to know that being a restaurant even they don’t have a place to wash hand!!!! Can you believe? When I asked the officials, they told me to use the common wash room of the mall that was much distant from the place to wash my hands! How careless?? How can they assume that everyone would come with clean hands to eat??

    Not only that, they also don’t offer normal drinking water, you only have an option to purchase it! The food was also not very good. I ordered veg thali from the menu where they mentioned it includes Rasam and a curry of own choice from available options. When I choose one curry for the order, I came to know from the official that they don’t offer any choice and they prepare one of the options for the day and I will have to go with it. This is just pathetic… Also to my big surprise, I got ordinary sambhar instead of rasam!!! Now that was height…

    This place is just waste of time and money. I would not recommend anyone.

    • http://sahilk.in/ Sahil Khan

      Restaurants in malls do not generally have their own washroom area. They’re paying exorbitant rent rates already along with common maintenance charges and hence all restaurants request their guests to use the common washrooms. It’s regular. Everywhere.

      As for the water, we’re quite surprised since we were given regular water. Regarding thalis, it’s usually a set menu. So being told of the day’s fixed menu for it is quite possible.

      • Sant

        your reply is a complete PAID non-sense. Even after reading bad reviews, I was still thinking of trying out the restaurant once….but after reading your pathetic paid reply, I will surely avoid it at all costs. What are we supposed to do if they are paying exorbitant rents? By your standards, customers might even be expected to clean-up the dishes after they are done….just because its a ‘HIGH MAINTAINANCE’ restaurant!!!

        • http://sahilk.in/ Sahil Khan

          Please do tell me of a restaurant in a mall that has their own washroom. I’m yet to find one in Pune at least.

          And as far as ‘paid nonsense’ goes, we’d give them a 2.5 rating after getting paid by the restaurant? We don’t take any money for anything that goes on the website. This site is a completely volunteer run project which doesn’t make money.

  • Jyoti

    We went to Zambar yesterday, and the service was… Pathetic to say the least. We had to wait 15 minutes to be seated… and the restaurant was practically empty at that time. Then, when we finally ordered..Kids had to wait 45 minutes for a mere Dosa… and it was not even crisp. A roadside tapri waala serves fresher food is more prompt.. No one to fill in out glasses with water… no one to even bothered with a response when we asked for anything even after asking repeatedly. Kids got drinking water refill after I finally yelled at one of the passing staff and lambasted all the ones in an ear shot distance. That was quite a harrowing experience for me as a mother of two impressionable kids.

    Just ambiance and decor is not everything. We go to restaurants for the service. If that is lacking… everything else falls short.

    Worst dining out experience ever for us.

    • http://sahilk.in/ Sahil Khan

      Not surprising. A close friend of mine told me pretty much the same thing last week. Just sad.

  • Guest

    oo sweet. The lemon rice and curd rice were the highlights of the buffet,
    but would you spend Rs 600+ (incl of taxes) on these? Also note that
    buying a bottle of Aquafina water, which actually costs Rs 16, will set
    you back by Rs 75 in this restaurant. What a rip off in every respect!
    The
    buffet dinner at Zambar (Phoenix City) last night was disappointing to
    say the least. We had dined at its sister restaurant, Fresc Co (in
    Amanora), and had high expectations. The evening started well with
    delicious glasses of lassi and rasam as we commented on the restaurant’s
    tasteful decor. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to cheer about from
    that point on. The non-veg starters were tasty but finding any meat on
    the bones was a struggle. This pretty much set the trend for the rest of
    the buffet. The mutton and chicken mains should have been renamed
    mutton bone and chicken bone curries. I have never been to a restaurant
    that is so blatantly intent on saving money on non-veg items. There was
    plenty of fish though, full of fine bones and floating in a gravy that
    had more fish bones. I threw the portion of fish I had on my plate and
    then decided to change my plate to prevent getting injured. The appam
    was far too oily and the sweet dishes far t

    The manager was uncommunicative and clearly lacks basic hospitality
    skills (unlike his counterpart in Fresc Co). The rest of the staff were
    amiable but somewhat untrained. One nearly removed my cutlery from my
    side plate when I requested him to clear the dinner plate and another
    tried to remove the plate of starters while we were still eating.

    All in all, this place is highly avoidable. We won’t be back and certainly won’t be recommending it to anyone.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sohini.dasgupta.92 Sohini Dasgupta

    The
    buffet dinner at Zambar (Phoenix City) last night was disappointing to say the
    least. We had dined at its sister restaurant, Fresc Co (in Amanora), and had
    high expectations. The evening started well with delicious glasses of lassi and
    rasam as we commented on the restaurant’s tasteful decor. Unfortunately, there
    wasn’t much to cheer about from that point on. The non-veg starters were tasty
    but finding any meat on the bones was a struggle. This pretty much set the
    trend for the rest of the buffet. The mutton and chicken mains should have been
    renamed mutton bone and chicken bone curries. I have never been to a restaurant
    that is so blatantly intent on saving money on non-veg items. There was plenty
    of fish though, full of fine bones and floating in a gravy that had more fish
    bones. I threw the portion of fish I had on my plate and then decided to change
    my plate to prevent getting injured. The appam was far too oily and the sweet
    dishes far too sweet. The lemon rice and curd rice were the highlights of the
    buffet, but would you spend Rs 600+ (incl of taxes) on these? Also note that
    buying a bottle of Aquafina water, which actually costs Rs 16, will set you
    back by Rs 75 in this restaurant. What a rip off in every respect!

    The manager was uncommunicative and clearly lacks basic hospitality skills
    (unlike his counterpart in Fresc Co). The rest of the staff were amiable but
    somewhat untrained. One nearly removed my cutlery from my side plate when I requested
    him to clear the dinner plate and another tried to remove the plate of starters
    while we were still eating.

    All in all, this place is highly avoidable. We won’t be back and certainly
    won’t be recommending it to anyone.