Of Good Places to eat..... Round 2....

I'd written once about a place called "Ente Keralam" which left me with a so-so feel.

Over the last one or two months, there were a few places I went to that I somehow thought required mention.

I know I've said this before but Kumarakom is a Kerala restaurant that serves good Keralite cuisine at affordable prices. Took a trip to the place for dinner one night. Fortunately for us, it wasn't too crowded.

Then there was the time we went to the Anise at Taj Coromandel for mum's birthday in December. The service was awesome, and the variety was quite good. But still I feel the Residence at Park Sheraton does have a slightly better spread, though the food tastes really nice (who says 5 star hotels have bad food). To be fair though, the Park Sheraton buffet is a weee bit more expensive than the Taj Coromandel's. Still there was an added bonus that night, at the next table we found Tamil actor Arya - yes I just couldn't resist putting up this picture of me and him together.... :-) (he was quite nice actually - really friendly)

Now a few days after my semester exams got over we were out shopping when we came across an ad for a place called "Osteria". Now an osteria is a place where people in Italy go to have food in a casual manner without any kind of restrictions or having to mind etiquette. After a fair bit of searching and driving back and forth we found the restaurant inside the Deccan plaza hotel (I hope I remembered the name right).

Only after being seated did we notice that they served only vegetarian meals. Still we gave it a shot. They had a nice offer going - something like Rs.250 per head for a seven-course meal. It's actually a 6-course meal cos there are 2 starters. Anyway, 2 starters + 1 extrememly creamy and tasty tomato soup + something made out of ginger bread and tomato and onions (not the kinda premade stuff that passes for it at fast food chains) + risotto of your choice + pasta or pizza as per your choice (again, not the mass-made crap you get at a chain eatout) + 1 awesome homemade italian ice-cream (you can take your pick from among a number of flavours).....

It was quite a filling meal and I topped it off with a mexican Pina Colada (refer wikipedia for what a Pina Colada is)....

That was my favourite drink until Don Pep's shut shop (or did they leave Cathedral Road for a better location ??) and left :-( Tasting it again was like falling in love a hundred times over!!!

Overall, a good deal for the price. Be sure to check this out if you're in the area. They do have a few Lebanese and Mexican delicacies too but I haven't tried any of those.

Bon appetite!