After having spent over a year on preparations, The Irish Village opens on the evening of 12th April to customers. We’re not entirely sure as to why the menu says that the beers on tap on will be Lager, Wheat Beer, Ale and Stout, since both the Wheat and Stout are ales as well. Anyway, we did get the chance to try just their Premium Lager the day before as the other beers were still in the carbonation tanks. While we’ve never been much of a fan of TJ’s, the Premium Lager gives us hope to cheer for a brewery well within the city limits.

From Friday (ie 12th April) onwards, one will find the Wheat Beer, Irish Red Ale, Stout and of course, the Premium Lager on tap – at Rs 180 a pint. Amit Mishra, the brewmaster, when asked what his plans with the beers are, oddly went on a tangent about how he’d like to introduce Punekars to good craft beers (ahem), while we just wanted an idea on what’s the next batch that he plans to brew.

The slightly long menu at The Irish Village will include kebabs, bruschettas, burgers, sandwiches, pizzas, salads, soup, pasta for appetizers; grilled chicken, fish & chips, lamb chops, prawns, drunken potatoes, bangers & mash for the mains along with a few standard Indian curries like the butter chicken, rogan josh, tikka masala and dal. Most of them are priced between Rs 250-400. Unfortunately, there aren’t any beef and pork options on the menu.

For desserts, you’ll have lemon tart, mousse and cheesecake. The beverages menu will see beer cocktails like Stout Cola, Tomato Juice & Beer, Irish Cream & Whisky with Stout from the on-tap beers. Hard liquors will be served eventually.

The Irish Village opens to public on Friday, 12th April, 2013 at 6pm. It replaces the previous properties Chillies and Night Owl, across the road from Hard Rock Café on Mundhwa Road.

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If you manage to catch hold of the enthusiastic Chef Milind while at the buffet, you might want to get a tour of the buffet with a touch of history behind each dish, and in particular the Safed Maans – though the prep being served at the festival is not as royal as it’s intended to be, originally the goats are fed a diet that includes saffron to lend it’s taste and smell directly to the meat instead of being added to the cream and cashew-based gravy while being cooked. And oh, get that Thandai welcome drink while you take the tour.

While traditionally, Rajasthani cuisine hasn’t had fish as part of its fare, areas around the Dhebar lake have adopted the freshwater fish, and that gives way to the Machli Jaisalmandi that’s on the buffet. Other starters include Maans ke Sule – meat picked from the ribs which is usually far more tender than from other parts, Lehsoon ke Kofte – don’t worry about a pungent aftertaste of garlic since it isn’t very strong, and Kurkuri Gawarfali – one of the very few dry greens that grows in Rajasthan without much irrigation.

We’re hardly the fans of boneless chicken since it’s left dry from within by most kitchens, and unfortunately that was the scene with the Murgh Banjara. There are pieces with bones as well, so you might want to give that a try.

Do not miss the Safed Maans, which is the highlight of the buffet and worth the money that one pays for the buffet – tender enough to break away from the bones by the touch of your fingers, and calling the meat succulent would be an understatement.

For the Raabodi and Chakki ka Saag, we guess one needs to develop the palate for it – very strong and sour flavours; and the rather chewy texture that the pure-gluten based Chakki ka Saag is something most non-vegetarians wouldn’t be used to either.

Masala Baati and Churma with Dal Mewari – don’t suppose we need to say much about it, Bhindi Moongfali Shekhwati – while the dry peanut sauce is the main ingredient, the garlic is prominent enough to put the Lehsoon ke Kofte to shame.

Stick to the Rabdi Jalebi and green chana-based Jhanjharia ki Barfi for desserts.

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Table for Two: Rs 1200-1500
Address: Near Krishna Hospital, Jai Bhawani Chowk, Paud Road, Pune

An industry as huge as the branding & advertising one exists because a huge chunk of the population judges a book by its cover; and we’ve grown to corelate the term “fine dine” with a certain expectation of food, service, interiors and of course, a “classy image” to say so. If you particularly stay in and around Kothrud, please ignore the first impressions from Susegaat’s ill-designed ads in the papers, because you’ll be quite surprised the moment you enter the place as we were. The team has spent time and effort to good effect on the interiors and while they’re not quite yet spot on with the menu, here’s to hoping for better days.

Partner and chef, Akshay Nayak, comes from Karwar and due to the town’s close proximity to the Karnataka-Goa border, Karwari cuisine is heavily influenced by that of Goa’s. The menu features some typical Goan preparations like the Cafreal, Vindaloo, Balchao and Xacuti. We found the menu to be seemingly large and Akshay does plan to cut it short eventually after getting some feedback from the guests. Since the place is primarily a seafood restaurant, Akshay is looking at doing a fish festival soon enough and get some more options than the already present Surmai, Rawas, Pomfret, Bangda, Mandeli and Halwa.

Solkadi is the de facto start at a coastal cuisine restaurant for us and it’s good enough for a second round. We started off with some rawa fried prawns and mushrooms – the prawns were crisp, with their texture and taste intact; the mushrooms, not so much. The meat in the Kharda Mutton was delicate – exactly how we like our mutton and the kitchen was mindful of our request for not preparing the typical over spicy Kharda.

A subtly marinated and pan-steamed Pomfret Potli later, we had to stick to a light main course and decided to try out the Podni chi Dal and Karwari Prawn Curry with some Malabari paratha and appams. Both the dal and prawns curry were mild, with hints of coriander and coconut, respectively. Susegaat still needs to work on their appams – they were thinner than usual and easily stuck to the plate.

We’ve missed the custard caramel that Café Caramel in Koregaon Park used to make before shutting down, and with Susegaat’s Custard Caramel, seems we’ve found our replacement. They’re still perfecting it – Akshay had specially got out a slightly stronger flavoured caramel than what were initially served and if you prefer your coffee strong, this is perfection.

Yes, Nisarg and Masemari are pretty much in the vicinity and a much better option for seafood, but Susegaat’s Goan and Karwari specialties along with the slightly lower prices, guess they’re here to stay for now.

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Table for Two: Rs 2500-3000
Address: Courtyard by Marriott City Centre, Next to Jehangir Hospital, Bund Garden Road, Pune
Contact: 020 67248260

Everyone loves a rooftop lounge, but their abysmal scarcity in the city is quite disappointing, given that on a weekend there’s nothing more a young Punekar would do rather than party, apart from the other only options being – dinner and movie. Paasha by Pune Marriott is a lovely property with an equally lovely view but one pays quite the premium for it. Penthouse, though the latest craze amongst most youngsters (younger than usual), hasn’t managed to impress us yet. All this while, there’s been a gap to be filled between the two and it seems Courtyard by Marriott Pune City Centre has got things figured out.

Evviva, perched on the property’s eighth floor, is a lot more affordable than Paasha and a definite notch above Penthouse. This side of the river much needed it and one can drop by the place around sunset and enjoy the view of a bustling city below you, hills beyond it at the horizon and the sun taking a trip downstairs; of course, with a drink in hand.

In the evenings, Evviva manage a pretty decent breeze even for this unexpected warm weather and the music is just loud enough for you to continue the conversation with your group yet veiling you from the chat next to you.

The menu is primarily based on the Indian tandoor – quite few kebabs with a few throw ins from across the world – salads, mini burgers, bruschettas, risotto and ribs. The chef, on learning that I’m from Lucknow, seemed confident enough about the Galouti Kebabs from his kitchen; and let me assure you, they’re pretty much the best galoutis I’ve had in Pune. Just that, the rest of the evening fell pale in comparison to the galoutis. So you might want to save them for the end – the cherry on the topping, if you’d like to call it that.

By the end of dinner, we had tried the Tomato & Basil Bruschetta, Anari Paneer Tikka, Tandoori Murgh Tikka, Galouti Kebabs, Tuscan Risotto with some mushroom shavings on it, Nalli Nehari – a delicately done lamb shank is always to rejoiced upon, and Dal Makhani. What remains on our wish list now are – Mini Beef Burgers with Duck Liver and Roast Pork with Swiss Cheese. We like that the menu is particularly short.

For desserts, we had the Cassata Siciliana, Soft Centered Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice-cream and Naomi Bar – chocolate & custard cake on cookies and dessicated coconut. But as good as they were, the tastebuds could only crave for more galouti kebabs.

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First, The Good Part

As much as we were skeptical about the ‘international’ flavours, we were quite surprised by how good they were. The Old Trafford Away Combo has four non-veg mini burgers – Indian, Lebanese, Thai and Mexican, along with fries, salad and five different dips. We can let the Indian one aside though – why would someone want to spend Rs 350 on a chicken tikka burger?

The Lebanese one had a lamb patty with hints of feta, olives, sour cream and mint. You could taste the individual flavours in each mouthful. The Thai burger was slightly spicy since they use the ever favourite peanut sauce with the grilled red Thai chicken breast and caramelized onions. Salsa, chipotle mayo and jalapenos unsurprisingly found their way into the Mexican burger, but left us quite happy. Though the ingredients used were pretty standard when it comes to the respective cuisines, balancing the flavours is the key.

A special menu at any restaurant is generally priced a little higher than usual, but we think the Rs 350-450 is a good price point, since each of the burgers come with side servings of fries, wedges, nachos, etc. depending on the country option and some dips as well. Their options to add-on beer – the one serving or unlimited – to the meals seem pretty decent as well.

Now, The Bad Bit of It

The mini burgers combo that we had is too high at Rs 850 (Rs 700 for veg). The burgers are 2-3 bites large at the most and sorry, no amount of fries and salads can cover up.

As much as we liked our mini burgers, we hated our regular ones. The English beef burger which the menu mentioned would be thin slices of beef came as a good sized patty. While ordering it, we asked for it to be medium-to-well-done and much to our amusement the host asked us if well-done would do instead. The burger came looking good, but tasteless.

The American chicken patty burger was pretty much tasteless as well, and if we were blindfolded, we probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between this burger and the English beef. The menu we were handed mentioned pork bacon in particular to be present in our American burger. Turned out to be a printing mistake. It was chicken bacon. *cough* And since it wasn’t crisp either, to call it a salami would be a better option.

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Table for Two: Rs 1000-1200
Address: 2nd Floor, East Block, Phoenix Marketcity, Nagar Road

WTF, one of Mumbai’s popular watering holes, even amongst the young starlets of Bollywood, is now in Pune – at an absolutely lovely spot overlooking Nagar Road and a surprisingly affordable menu. Though the theme is street food, as long as you ignore the odd vadapav that finds place on the menu and focus on the pork ribs and naan pizza, you’re good to go.

Though the East Block of Phoenix Marketcity is nowhere close to opening soon, the rooftop setup had always caught our eye leaving us wondering what was to open there. And one fine day, there was a bright red sign telling us that WTF was here. We’re told that one of the partners is a huge fan of Rajnikanth – and that WTF Pune was launched on his b’day. You’ll find his posters amongst the other innumerable posters on the walls of the pub.

With WTF, our search for a place to enjoy a beer while playing pool, and not on those mini sized tables, is finally over. They’re planning to add a foosball table soon. Or else, if most guests prefer otherwise, an air hockey table. The inside space also has four screens showing different sports simultaneously, so that no one’s left out.

It’s always nice to see a short food menu. The one pager includes a good number of options between appetizers and just a handful of main courses (three non-veg vs one veg option). None of the food is overly fancy but the slight twists make for good grub with your drinks. The Naan Pizza, as the name suggests, uses a naan for the base – the hint of aftertaste that the naan leaves, aah! The BBQ Pork Spare Ribs are succulent and, thankfully, easy on the BBQ sauce. Jesse’s Kerala Beef is pretty good, but we wish the WTF team would serve the Korean Beef that they had done for TJ’s Brew Works.

French fries always vanish way faster than the time they take to reach the table, and if they’re the WTF! Masala Fries, that just tends to happen faster. Garlic Mushrooms are pretty much standard. Now, about that vadapav that we asked you to ignore – we tend to look past a non-crisp vada at a tapri, but definitely not at a place where they price two vadapavs for Rs 75.

The drinks menu includes your standard – beer, cocktails, vodka, whisky, mocktails and the likes – at pretty much the regular prices that Pune is used to paying everywhere else.

Though Irish House had opened earlier, it’s an option for those with a bit more cash and the appreciative palate for their imported beers. WTF is a very welcome addition to Viman Nagar, an affordable new option to those who want a change from the regular hangouts of most – High Spirits or Swig.

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From the logo, it seems that Kondhwa residents will be seeing a rather charming bakery open in their neighborhood tomorrow. Mehernosh Musa, who was a pastry chef at Ista’s bakery (read review) earlier, is now opening Fairytale. The menu includes cakes – truffle cakes, mousse cakes, tiramisu tortes, pastries, brownies, cheesecakes, pies, muffins, cookies, breads – milk bread, baguettes, focaccia, and a bunch of truffle chocolates.

For the quality that Mehernosh is known for, the prices seem very decent – cakes ranging from Rs 425 to Rs 625 per pound, an average of Rs 70 for pastries, tarts & muffins and an average of Rs 30 for cookies and chocolates.

The bakery opens tomorrow to public 11 am onwards. It’s located opposite Chai, at Dorabjee Enclave, Salunke Vihar Road.

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We had a quick chat with Mickey at Burger Barn today for an update on why did the PMC take such a move. The boundary walls and permanent sheds at both the properties have allegedly been built without permission and hence illegal. The outside seating will continue as is, which is allowed, at least for now.

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After 2 years we heard about Pune plans, finally! “@akhilashankar: So @thebluefrog is branching out to Pune and Chandigarh this year. Nice.”

— The Tossed Salad (@thetossedsalad) January 17, 2013

Last we had heard of them opening in Pune when Inorbit had just started at Nagar Road. The two brands were then in talks to open an outlet at the mall, which unfortunately never materialized. We’ve asked blueFrog for further details on location and possible opening dates. Will update as we get them.

blueFrog is a fine dine, performance venue and a record label from Mumbai. Last year, they opened their second outlet in the country in Delhi, with the Qutab Minar as its backdrop. Over the past few years, blueFrog has been host innumerable music shows featuring a varying lineup of Indian and international artistes.

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