International Beer Day at The Best Brews - Four Points By Sheraton

International Beer Day(8th August) was celebrated in style at Best Brews, FPBS. Lots of beer cocktails and a master class with Chef Sanjay Mitra and Chef Michael Swamy on doling out amazing dishes out of your kitchen, using beer! A few bloggers and people from the media were invited to the event.

It all started with their star bartender Abhishek presenting us with a welcome drink - Badge of Honor. It was quite yummy, considering that it was beer infused with Murphy's, passion fruit and caramel, with some vanilla foam, served in a shot glass. It was quite a bold attempt of adding vanilla and caramel flavors to a beer shot and it did work wonders!


We were later presented with some more interesting beer cocktails -some infused with fresh fruits, ginger, star anise and other spices. I'm not quite a beer person, so trying out these quirky cocktails shots worked for me, But I doubt if serious beer lovers would go for any these beer cocktails. :) Nevertheless, it's a good attempt by Best Brews to showcase their innovative side when it comes to serving beer and it's variations. My pick out of the ones we tried is The Bud Twist - Budweiser infused with some fresh orange, thyme and cinnamon. I loved the hint of orange and cinnamon in the drink. It was quite refreshing, to say the least.


The master class was started by Chef Sanjay Mitra cooking a dish called Drunken Beer Butt Chicken. The end product itself looked gorgeous. It had whole chicken, except the neck, marinated in some special seasoning mix. A entire beer can is used for marination and the empty can is shoved into the chicken, bottom up, before grilling it away to perfection. Vola! Drunken Beer Butt Chicken is ready to savoured with
some sauce.

Chef Michael Swamy illustrated another exquisite dish - Ale Cooked Lamb. Marinated lamb chops cooked and served with a colourful couscous of coloured peppers. The marination mix was quite an intersting mix of ale, garlic, grapes, pomegranate juice and some fresh herbs.

We also had some popular dishes from The Eatery - Ajwain Paneer Tikka, Chicken Kolhapuri, naan and some pasta. I savoured the paneer tikka in particular.

All in all it was a fun evening with lot's of conversations over good food and beer! Cheers!
(PuneFoodiez were invited for the event)

Hotel Gavran Kolhapuri

I must admit I'm not a big fan of Kolhapuri cuisine, thanks to my average experiences until I visited Gavran Kolhapuri. Some of my work colleagues highly recommended this place and I finally made it on a Friday afternoon.

As was advised, we booked a table in advance. It's a tiny home run joint, very close to the EON IT park. This place is quite a hit amongst the IT crowd of EON. A Kolhapuri family run this tiny joint from their verandah! The family is completely involved in the cooking process of all the dishes on the menu, hence the homely touch to all their food. The masalas are home made.

It's a tiny garden-verandah kind of alfresco area with 4-5 tiny tables, neatly and sufficiently spaced out. We went for a veg thali and a chicken thali. The chicken thali came with a choice of 2 'bhakris' or 3 'chapatis' and rice alongwith egg masala, Kolhapuri style chicken,' tambada' and 'pandhara rassa'. We were also served some complimentary onion-lemon salad. The veg thali came with a rustic style dal and a chana masala.



The chicken curry was quite impressive. The masala had a burst of Kolhapuri flavours but was surprisingly not too high on the chilli content. Lots of coconut and authentic Kolhapuri masalas blended into a thick gravy with lots of succulent chicken pieces. How I wish they had used country('gavran') chicken instead! 

All my previous experiences of Kolhapuri cuisine made me believe that Kolhapuri food means highly spicy, oily and hot food. But this lunch certainly changed my perception completely and introduced me to some authentic food from the region.  The 'Sol Kadhi' that we ordered for, was served chilled and went very well with the food. I loved the Sol Kadhi! The 'tambada rassa' was bright red in color and was quite rich in terms of flavors and spices. The 'pandhra rassa' was it's milder cousin - white in color and very subtle in taste. The egg masala was pretty average and tasted too much of masala. It consisted of boiled egg halves in a thick spicy gravy.

Overall the food was pretty good. For those who like Kolhapuri cuisine and work/live in this part of the city, do give this place a shot. For others, you may drop by only if you're in the area. It's not worth a drive from distant places. Nevertheless, once you're here, be rest assured of home cooked taste :)

"Thalitalia" at Dario's

Dario's is probably one of the most popular European joints in Pune. When it comes to Italian food, they have enough competition in Pune - The Little Italy, Squisto, Prego etal. Nevertheless, they seem to excel in doling out amazing vegetarian Italian fare out of their kitchen.

Chef Dario Dezio is the owner of Dario's and hails from Sicily, Italy. He certainly knows authentic Italian food quite well. The food served at this joint is as authentic as it can get in Pune!

Nestled in one of the by-lanes of lush green Koregaon Park area, adjacent to Osho ashram, it is definitely well-located. They have an indoor as well as an alfresco dining area. There are a lot of peacocks in the garden and their voices certainly add to the overall dining experience at Dario's. We were seated in the garden area.

A unique take on Italian set menu has been conceptualized at Dario's. They call it "Thalitalia" and it draws inspiration from the Indian thali. It consists of 5 starters, 2 salads served with assorted bread, 3 pastas, 2 pizzas, 1 risotto and 2 desserts. Well that's quite an elaborate meal at Rs.590 only! This menu is available only on weekdays i.e Mon-Fri, 12 noon to 6:30pm.

The starters were all served in a single plate, at a single go - Bruschetta, Polpette di lenticchie, Crostini, Arancinelle, Pate di ceci.

Crostini with the bell peppers topping was quite a let down. It tasted sour and appeared as if the peppers were not very fresh. Bruschetta with the tomato-onion topping was quite good. The use of herbs like basil was bare minimum and was thankfully not overpowering. The starters were served with a generous helping of yummy hummus(standard version) and a salsa based tangy dip. A basic tomato salad and a Mellucci salad also came alonger. The Mellucci salad consisted of some greens and sliced butter beans. Without any frills salad, yet so refreshing! The portion was large enough to more than fill you up.

The main course consisted of a variety of pastas, a risotto and pizza slices. Surprisingly all were served in a single plate, where the pizza slices, risotto and pastas blended together into an 'Italian Khichdi'. Not to my taste! The pizza slices of a Siciliano and a Margherita are my picks form this platter. Penne Arrabbiata, Gnocchi ai formaggi and Fusilli Fiminati were rather very average. The Risotto(Al limone and rucola) was the black sheep of this plate. It was milky and not creamy, lacked flavor, body and had no lime whatsoever, unlike what the name suggests.

Two desserts were served - Tiramisu and a classic chocolate mousse. The mousse was quite good - smooth and just like a choco mousse is supposed to be - delectable. The tiramisu was nowhere close to my favorite dessert - a Tiramisu! The cake was way too dry and they obviously hadn't used mascarpone and used a rather very grainy home made cheese. The dessert barely tasted of coffee and it's bitterness can't be attributed to the presence of coffee. It was probably because of the cake/cheese used.

I judge an Italian joint by it's Tiramisu and based on this factor, "Thalitalia" was an average experience for me. Nevertheless, a statutory warning to all you food enthusiasts out there - The portions of  "Thalitalia" are quite large and it's tough to polish it off, all by yourself. ;)

Overall an average experience. Try it only if you're really adventurous/curious!
(Review conducted on invite)