It’s Mapro ;)

Mapro is a farm on the way to Mahabaleshwar. The restaurant there is perfect to sit in. It is a semi outdoor setting, with glass top tables. It is beautiful to visit during cooler climates. Do not miss the opportunity to visit the place when strawberries are in season! Grown in the farm, there are a variety of fruits and a few vegetables available for sale. Mapro is very green and very beautiful, with sights worth seeing, and a nice place to take a romantic stroll around.

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They have a chocolate factory; the chocolates made are used in the food that is served there. Everything has an “au natural” feel to it. We ordered both Strawberry and Chocolate Milkshake. The milk is obtained at the farm, and the ice cream is processed at Mapro. The strawberry and chocolate syrup are both freshly made at the restaurant. The milkshakes were thick and creamy, and very filling. Like we mentioned, everything is on the spot, and everything hits the right spot!

We ordered veg sandwiches, and the price was slightly on the higher side. We ordered pizza as well, which was made in an open Italian style oven. The vegetables apart from the olives were grown in Mapro.

 Visit this place for a treat where nature meets the pleasure of food. Or if you’re on a road trip to Mahabaleshwar, definitely drop by!

For more information visit : http://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g635749-d2254306-r120649923-Mapro_Garden-Mahabaleshwar_Maharashtra.html

KADHAI !!! :)

Time for snacks. The evening time? Or wait, do we just have snacks in the evening anymore? Want a snack? Then Kadhai is the right place !!!

Located in Aundh and frequently visited by students, this place created a buzz in our minds. The entrance is artfully decorated and really reminded us of a “pakka” Indian style restaurant.

There is a huge seating area where you can go with large crowds in the evenings after class, or after work, and eat food and gossip. It is a self service restaurant, which will have your calories burning and for us worked to build up our appetites.

Sandwiches, south Indian breakfasts and chaats, available all through the day. Fresh food that refreshes your mind. The speciality of this place is that there is a SEASONAL dish, called Ghewar, and over here, it is available ALL through the year. But if you want to grab it, you need to hurry- made in smaller quantities and in GREAT demand. Everything like mentioned before is made fresh and even the bread is freshly baked!

Reasonably priced and excellent in taste, we ordered Raj-Kachori, Dahi Papadi, dosa and Paneer Gobi paratha. It set our taste buds on fire, in a fine way. Sweets are also available, and if you are in a hurry and just want to go home, order a take away…! We ordered Jalebi though, to satisfy our sweet tooth!

If you don’t want to take our word for it, have a visit, decide for yourselves but we kind of promise you, you’d be happy with what you see!

For more information , visit : https://www.zomato.com/pune/kadhai-aundh

http://www.burrp.com/pune/kadhai-aundh-listing/367151

\\Spice and Ice//

Where does an Arabic food lover go in the land of vada-pav and bhajiya?

When we sought out to seek such an eatery joint, we stumbled upon this still unknown hidden place – much undervalued and underestimated – considering the brilliant food they serve!!

Welcome to Spice and Ice!

Well, even we though the name is kinda cheesy..or cliche. But the fact remains that their name has nothing to do with their food.  Like they say, don’t judge a book by its cover.

Located in Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune, India – near Big Cinemas, under Mc D and beside a huge shopping complex – this place doesn’t get much attention mainly because of the bigger brands’ locations nearby!

The place is very small, but they can accommodate 10-20 people indoors+outdoors. With their limitation in space, they try and make up with the food offering. For an Arabic food lover- this is a must go-to!

Take a look at their menu!

Pretty impressive na?

The food looks fresh, it tastes yum and it is completely worth your money! Their wait time is pretty low, mainly because there aren’t more than 3-4 tables to be served at a time. (We never found more than 3 tables occupied-and we’ve gone here thrice).

There is so much on the menu, you would want to order more than your capacity to eat in one sitting. And don’t forget – Arabic food is much more filling than it looks. The deliciously cooked Humus, Falafel rolls, pita bread just makes you wanna have more and more – even though your tummy says, that’s enough! 😀

We rate them high on customer satisfaction.Just Eat, Zomato, Zoot Out vouch for this place as well.

Do visit it some time folks!

P.S: We found this cool thing there. 😉

A veggie @ Mainland China

Challenges. We all love them. Don’t we?

So when I was told I CANNOT enjoy a meal at Mainland China because it is a place for non-vegetarians only, I said – CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Mainland China. A place you would expect the chefs to bring down the culture of China to our plates. And so they did.

Located in Hinjewadi, this outlet is a mini-china on Indian soil. Okay- that may be an exaggeration, but we were swept off by the food, decor, ambiance, music, colors, service, booze – basically everything!!

As we were seated waiting for menu, these bowls with salad appeared. They clearly understand customers are really hungry – and this gesture compensates for any delay in main course.

We ordered. It came. We clicked. We ate. We loved.

The food was master-chef level, the service was impeccable, the quantity was suffice and the vegetarian in me was happy.

CHALLENGE COMPLETED 😀

To celebrate this we ordered two desserts, and both were to die for. Seriously, I would kill my friends for a dozen of these 😉

All-in-all, it is only a myth that Mainland China is for non-veggies only. Veggies in town – DO VISIT. You’re in for a surprise.

See what Zomato, Zootout and Burrp have to say.

(.)Polka Dots(.)

A while back we got a chance to visit Polka Dots. Located in Aundh, Pune, India – this is a heaven for foodies.

We ordered both veg and non-veg dishes and I don’t want to say anything about it – have a look !!

From the look of the menu, we felt the dishes will be exotic – since the names were pretty fancy. And when these dishes arrived, we had to force ourselves to wait for a while – to take pictures of the splendid serving.

Sophisticated, stylish, professional looking food – we were happy even before we ate.

And then it all felt just. The hype, the price, the wait. For these yummiliciously delicious dishes!!!!

The ambiance is cozy, you can find friends, families, dates, youngsters everyone having a good time here. Considering the area isn’t much large – they have done good for themselves.

As you would expect, we were much full after the main course to have dessert, but we could not resist clicking a picture.

All in all, it’s a wonderful place to check out. For those who haven’t done yet, we strongly suggest you drop by here SOON!!

See what they have to say to us – Here.

See what other have to say: Zomato. Times City. Trip Advisor. Burrp. Evening Flavors.

“Rolla Costa”

Rolla Costa is located amidst the renowned Subway, Peter’s Pan, Hyderabadi Biryani and Chaitanya’s Parathas on the famous F.C.Road, Pune.

This place has actually won a user’s choice award by Zomato. Isn’t that great?

We were enthralled by the menu. They had such a variety of pastas, we made a tough call. Actually, we just chose the ones with known contents and fancy name 😉

When the first pasta came, we were happy. The taste was good, the texture was amazing and the price was just apt.

But when the second one came, we were kinda surprised because it was sort of mediocre in taste. Well, this maybe for the reason that we had two pastas back to back, or maybe cuz they tasted similar. Well, not similar, kinda like just-another-pasta.

So, we ordered drinks. A lime juice and cold coffee. An again, the satisfaction level went down a bit.

What we feel is, the place is good to hang-out, you can order dis-similar items, taste a bit of each and just don’t judge much. Prices will not hurt your pocket and you’ll leave with a full stomach. 😀

We liked that you can see what was being prepared, it is all fresh, made right in front of your eyes. The service is fast and you won’t have to wait much for hogging.

Munch along people!! Let us know your reviews.

Read more on Zomato, Times City and their own website.

Lavasa Diaries…All about it.

Set over 7 hills, Lavasa calls itself “India’s first planned hill city”. We talked about it in our previous post.

Lavasa city is in the midst of many mountains and almost every part of Lavasa has its own lakeshore (dam backwaters).

How to go to Lavasa city from Pune (Magarpatta City):

Go to Chandni Chowk. Proceed towards Mulshi Dam. Once you climb down Pirangut ghat, you would start seeing big blue colored signboards for Lavasa. After Pirangut, you have to take a left for Lavasa. Once on this road, you would cross Temghar dam. Keep going on this road until you see an arch on the right, which is the official entrance of lavasa. From this point, the road goes down to the dam and the city.

Our road map here.

The distance to Lavasa from the turn on Mulshi road (after Pirangut) is around 30 kms. The road is very smooth (too smooth for Indian roads) and the curves on the road make it a biker’s paradise.

The lake shore has been modeled on old Europe with many stone bridges criss-crossing the waters. This makes it an extremely scenic place for photography.

To know more : go to Wiki.

10 Excuses of going to Lavasa :

1. You’ve lost faith in the world.

2. You want to pull your (or someone else’s) hair off – in short – everything bugs you.

3. You’re moody.

4. You’re adventurous.

5. You love riding bike. And want to show off your skills.

6. You want to feel wind gushing through your hair.

7. You want a break.

8. You love to meditate.

9. You love water sports.

10. You love nature.

With that, I hope some of you would go to Lavasa sometime. Leave a comment, if you want more details. Do tell us your experiences, specially if they vary from ours. 🙂

Cheers!

Lavasa Diaries..Continue

Google is one helpful tool. And so is an android phone.

Not just from gossips, we did know a bit about Lavasa, India‘s planned hill city. (Read more here) And we were ready to know more, or at least validate what we had heard/read.

On route to Lavasa :

The beautiful sun could be seen rising on the lush green hills…

There are not just 2 or 3 but 2-3 dozen spots where you would want to just stop, take a break and breathe in.The astounding beauty compels the travelers and tourists to make this journey a sort of stop-here-stop-there tour.

Many waterfalls can be spotted too 🙂

Of many such famous stop-over places is the Temgarh Dam. Some of us gutsy people even crossed over this gate to get a view captured in our memories. 🙂If the water level is low (which fortunately it was, when we went), one can climb down to the water level. There is a small spot here too. Peaceful, indeed.

Not to forget, where there are tourists, there are local businesses. You will be surprised to find the number of corn-on-the-cob “shops” en route.

Once you enter the main city gate, the ambiance would completely change. You’ll clearly see much more foggy hills than you saw on the way up. You can see the city’s development so far, standing miles above its ground level.

The colourful houses give a European touch to the city’s panoramic view.

It is equally exciting to see water sports happening in the artificial lake at Lavasa. On reaching the city, you can opt for a tour on hop-on-hop-off bus, which is too trendy by Indian standards 😉

The city is not completely developed yet, but the parts which are, will not leave you complaining.

A long walk on the streets around the lake midst the mountains, will definitely make you forget the rest of the world for a while. Lavasa gives you a good 8-10 hours getaway from the daily monotonous and hectic life. The experience is soulful and connects one to nature in a spell bounding way. How to reach Lavasa?

Wait for our next post! 🙂