Le Meridian

Cheese n Bread

Veg Salad

Non-veg Salad

Starters

Grilled Sea-food

Grilled Veggies

Main Course

Desserts

Oye Pape, Amanora Mall, Magarpatta, Pune

I recently visited "Oye Pape" restaurant to have a corporate lunch. The restaurant is located at Amanora Mall near Magarpatta, Pune. It serves lunch buffet on weekdays. The settings of the restaurant is like a North Indian village. The ambiance was a bit smoky due to adjoining kitchen.

Chilly Chicken

 There were two vegetarian and two non-vegetarian starters. For non-vegetarian food lovers, they severed roasted chicken and chilly chicken. Chilly chicken would have fared better if served boneless. The taste was okay. I was surprised to see a Chinese delicacy in a restaurant that advertises of being authentic restaurant for North Indian food. The roasted chicken did not taste good because the chicken seemed inadequately cooked.

Roasted Chicken

Veg Kebabs and Crispy Potato

The vegetarian starters included Kebabs and Crispy Potatoes. Both of them tasted great, way better than non-vegetarian food. The butter-milk served was also great, giving a nice touch to buffet. The soup and salads for the buffet were okay. 

Soup n Salad

Vegetarian Curries

 The main course had some vegetarian and non vegetarian curries with Ice Cream and Gulab-jamun as dessert. There was nothing out of ordinary. The vegetarian food tasted better than the non-vegetarian food. The North Indian feel and taste was amiss. The cook should concentrate more bringing out the authentic flavors that are wide spread in Northern India.

Meal

Pollo Campero, Phoenix Mall, Pune

Last weekend I visited Pollo Campero at Phoenix mall, Nagar Road, Pune. This Latin American chain provides cuisine similar to that of KFC. The ambiance is nice and we did not find it crowded.

Buffet Meal

We opted for the ongoing buffet which was available with Fried Chicken. For vegetarian's, the staff traded unlimited Fried Chicken with single vegetarian burger. But the important thing to note is that soft-drink is also included in buffet.

The buffet included Fries, Salad, Rice, Fried Chicken, Soft-drink and bun. The taste was not at par with KFC but considering the price (199 + taxes) it fared well.

Vegetarian Options

So if you are in mood of enjoying Fried Chicken with friends in some nice environment with lower prices, this one is a good option.

Kasba, Kalyani Nagar, Pune

I visited Kasba by Royal Orchid twice in recent time. This restaurant is located in Kalyani Nagar, Pune. I had lunch buffet and dinner buffet as well in the same.

Chicken Manchow Soup

During dinner buffet, the staff server all the delicacies on the table itself. It gave us a feeling of enjoying a-la-carte meal. We had Chicken Manchow Soup which was good. There were 4 starters which were also good in taste; Fish Fingers, veg Kababs, Chilly Chicken and Crispy Veg. I never expected bones in Chilly Chicken so I was startled a bit with the bones. 

Crispy Veg

Fish Fingers

Chilly Chicken

Later we opted to have veg-salad and Dahi-vada. Both of them were okay, nothing sort of great.

Veg Salad

Dahi Vada

Pasta

In main course we ordered various delicacies. I did not appreciate the Pasta or Chicken Biryani because it was not as spicy as one expects.

Chicken Biryani

Dinner Spread

The dinner spread was good for a vegetarian guest but for non-vegetarian it was just okay. The desserts were mouth watering. Overall the experience was nice. It was a bit expensive considering other available options with better spread.

Gulab Jamun with Ice Cream

Salad Counter

I visited second time for lunch buffet. This time it was almost typical buffet where one is served only starters on the table. The starters were almost similar. This time they provided veg and non-veg pizza. The Chicken 65 was exactly same as Chilly Chicken and again with bones.

Veg Kababs

Veg Pizza

Chicken Pizza

Chicken 65

Veg Curries

The curries were okay but this time desserts were with more variety. I liked the Gajar Halwa they served. Other desserts (strawberry mousse and coconut cake) were okay.

Dessert Counter

The lunch buffet was much cheaper with more options. It was definitely worth a try for once...

Sun-n-sand, Pune

I visited Sun-n-sand on Aug 11. This one was a five star hotel located near Bund Garden in Pune. I planned to have lunch buffet there. I expected a lot from the food but found it nothing special.

Salad/ Live Pasta Counter

The first thing I noticed was the salad counter. They had variety in salad but I always preferred self-service when it comes to make your own salad. I was surprised when I realized later that salad counter was also live pasta counter. They did not provide any tossed pasta/ salad. They also had make your own counter for light snacks. I was unable to differentiate various stuff due to lack of tags.

Make your own

Tomato Corn Soup

I had corn-tomato soup but it was nothing special. Event the presentation lacked the feel of a starred restaurant. The chicken starter was very dry and did not taste good. I was comparing the food here with the food I had at Barbeque Nation. Vegetarian starter (Chilla) was not even worth mentioning.

Chicken

Crispy Veg/ Casuni Potato

There was good spread of vegetarian dishes. The crispy veg and Potato were prepared nicely. They had curries with spinach, leafy vegetables, paneer, okra etc. Most of the curries were nice to have. But the non-vegetarian dishes were not great in taste. They had one dish each for chicken, mutton and fish. Even the biryani lacked the aroma and flavor.

Veg Curries

Bhindi Curry/ Pasta

Pasta was good but the noodles did not do justice with the starred ambiance. I was also disappointed with the veg Biryani. They prepared a nice Daal-makhani but the overall spread lacked the luster of a five star buffet.

Right Mix

Main Course

The consolation lied in the dessert counter. Desserts were obviously the strong point of buffet. There was variety and the taste was very good. They provided options to make your own sundae with variety of ice-creams. Besides there was fudge, mousse, brownie, flavored yogurt, fresh cut fruits malpua and basundi/ rabri.                   

Dessert Counter

Cake Shop

Sun and Sand is famous for its bakery items. I expected great food from the lunch buffet but the food there was in no way lucrative. I may never try the buffet there again. Staff was nice and service was good but the buffet is all about tasty food and multiple options, not about the service/ staff or stars. So if you are planning to go there, first think what you want from your buffet.

Barbeque Nation, Pune

Dessert Counter

I visited Barbeque Nation situation at Kalyani Nagar, Pune on August 04, with my friends. We did not face any issue getting a table as we booked the table in advance. We reached there around 12:15 PM. The restaurant was almost empty. We were escorted to our tables by the staff. This restaurant provides an elaborated buffet with barbeque facility.The one thing that caught our attention was the dessert counters to suit everyone's pallet.

Barbeque

The starters were awesome. The seafood was especially delicious. We did not try much of the delicacies from main course because we had enough starters. Still I tried their Biryani which is considered very tasty. It was not as delicious as one would expect from such place.

Salad Counter

Famed Biryani

Personal Favorite

Desserts..

Desserts..

More desserts...

The desserts were exquisite leaving aside the pastry. The texture was not smooth, may be due to humidity in monsoon. But leaving aside that, it was nice experience having such tasty desserts.