On High Spirits - 'The Flying Saucer Sky Bar' Reviewed!

The Flying Saucer Sky Bar is a rooftop restaurant on the 9th floor at the Sky Vista building, near Dorabjee's in Viman Nagar, Pune. The Flying Saucer is a great place for a night to catch up with old friends or just sit back and relax under the stars. It has a beautiful open space to view the city. But since it was raining, the space was covered and thus could not feel the actual experience of the open sky lounge.

Ambience:: There is indoor seating also available but an evening on the terrace is the most enjoyable. The rooftop has been intelligently designed for different types of seating arrangements. What particularly I did not like was very wide centre table as we were unable to pass the servings. We were seated at the edge of the lounge. Quirky sign boards were all over decorating the wall and pillars.

Food:: The food is pretty good and the menu is exhaustive. Everything from Indian to Mexican to Italian, you are going to be spoilt for choice. 

We went there for the dinner by invitation and asked Chef Nick Bajaj to serve his signature dishes. Chef Nick is very professional and focused to serve authentic cuisines. Each and every dish served had its taste as it had to be. No playing with the basic recipe. Before moving on to starters, few mocktails and Apple and Cinnamon Martini were served to us. Mocktails tasted good. On a side note, sheesha/hookah is also available in a variety of flavours.

 

The signature dishes are listed below for a glance, with the ratings out of 5. Details of each dish are explained below.

Being a vegetarian, I reviewed only Veg dishes.

Veg Starters: 

Mushroom and parsley croquettes (5/5)
Lot veg pizza (4/5)
Classic stuffed tandoori mushrooms (4.5/5)
Paneer kali miri tikka (4.5/5)
Chilly cheese poppers (4.5/5)
Beijing crispy cheese dumplings (4.5/5)
Caponata with spiral broccoli and pine nuts (2/5)

Non-Veg Starters:
Chicken tasha with raw tomato salsa
Malaysian pop corn chicken
Koliwada prawns
Chicken shawarma
Flying roast chicken

Veg Mains:
Dal makhani (4.5/5)
Lacha parantha (3/5)
Veg biryani (3/5)

Non Veg Mains:
Butter chicken
Butter roti

Desserts:
Chocolate butter cake (4/5)
Blueberry cheese cake (3.5/5)
Chocolate caramel cake (3.5/5)
Spanish churros with warm chocolate (4/5)

Mushroom and parsley croquettes:: Ooh La La! A super yummy delicacy of Mushroom stuffed with cheese, jalapeños and then beautifully coated in bread crumbs make it my star dish of the evening! A must try.

Lot veg pizza:: Self explanatory name of thin crust pizza served to us with loads of vegetables including capsicum, mushroom, sun dried tomatoes, marinated artichoke, bocconcini. It was drizzled with pesto aioli to enhance its flavour.

Classic stuffed tandoori mushrooms:: Best tandoori mushrooms I have ever had. It had the perfect balance of marination and grill and was served with onion rings and mint sauce.

Paneer kali mirch tikka:: Melt in mouth paneer generously marinated with yoghurt and peppercorns. The taste was out of this world!

Chilly cheese poppers:: Presentation says it all! Eight pieces were served beautifully with salsa. Spicy mozzarella and cottage cheese were crumbed and fried to perfection.

Beijing crispy cheese dumplings:: Crispy fried dumplings tossed in chilli and soya sauce were delectable. Tasted like manchurian.

For main course, chef suggested us to try some desi preparation. So, dal makhani, butter chicken, veg biryani were ordered. The main course in the restaurant is individually portioned and comes with its side of rice/roti.

Dal makhani was authentic and irresistible. Veg biryani was a typical preparation with lots of vegetables and garnished with golden fried onions. It was served with yum raita. 

 

For desserts, Chocolate butter cake was the best! Basically chocolate cake was warm, gooey served with chocolate sauce. It was devoured in quickly.

Blueberry cheese cake and chocolate caramel cake were average with lots of cream, which personally I do not prefer.

Spanish churros were tastefully made and topped with warm chocolate sauce to make it look  more delicious. 

Service :: The staff, while friendly were quite slow. They were unaware of the servings. Overall, it was worth a visit. I would definitely go back there again!

Zomato Meetup - Hidden Place - The Crazy Frog

Hidden Place - The Crazy Frog; what a destination for a much awaited Zomato Meetup. The outlet is located on Dhole Patil Road, slightly off the main road. The place is peaceful from outside but as soon as you enter 'the crazy frog' you become crazy.

Hidden Place is a chain started by Mr. Sunil Chandani, who is an ebullient, lively and happy-go-lucky person. He asked us to order anything from the menu or even out of the menu. Thank you Mr. Sunil for hosting us!

Ambience:: Modern chic decor, complete with quirky posters of rock band, quotes and booze. Hidden Place is a crowd-puller and you are bound to see faces across youth, unwinding with concoctions and tastefully chosen classic rock music.

Food and Drinks:: We were there for a meetup so had a prefixed menu listing veg and non-veg starters and 'lil more' than starters. Drinks offered were Beer (Ultramax, Kingfisher), Vodka (Smirnoff), Sangria (Turning Point). Since I am non alcoholic, I opted for Virgin Mojito, which was good but not exceptional.

In Veg Starters:

Steak Cut Fries (4/5)
Jalapeno Cheese Poppers (4.5/5)
Chilli Cheese Toast (4.5/5)
Paneer Tikka (5/5)
Mushroom Butter Pepper Garlic (3.5/5)

Being a vegetarian, can't comment on Non-Veg Starters. So enjoy photographs! :)
Non-Veg Starters:
Buffalo Wings

Chicken in the Basket

 Fish Tikka

Steak Cut Fries:: A bowlful of salted potato wedges garnished with chilli flakes is enough to lift your mood! :) I have never had such flavoursome perfectly fried wedges so far. Crispy from outside yet tender inside. 

Jalapeno Cheese Poppers:: Cheese! No second thought, it had to be delectable. Crispy poppers with loads of cheese inside. Full marks not given because it could have had more of Jalapenos.

Chilli Cheese Toast:: Another cheese preparation! Wow! Flawlessly made and presented bread with a generous layer of cheese, chillies served with tomato ketchup.

Paneer Tikka:: Full marks for the taste and presentation. It was a melt-in-mouth paneer beautifully marinated and grilled to perfection with tomato and capsicum. It was served with lip smacking mint chutney.

Mushroom Butter Pepper Garlic:: An average concoction of mushrooms, garlic sauted in butter and garnished with basil leaf.

Portions served to us were enough to feed two people per serving.

We were so full by the time we finished the starters that we opted for desserts directly. A rather offbeat choice of Mousse - Kiwi and Strawberry. It was good but melted by the time it was served. Kiwi Mousse was a scoop of icecream drizzled with Kiwi syrup.

Few opted for the famous Hidden Place shots!

Service:: Staff was co-operative and quick. Service was up to the mark.

A must visit place for those who really wanna party hard and have fun! Our gang having their famous Hidden Place shot! 

Mezzanine Italian- American Bistro- Frisco!

Frisco, a 50-seater family bistro is owned by Ranbir Batra, a famous restaurateur who also owns the famous New Yorker in Mumbai. Frisco in Spanish means free. As soon as you reach the location, Lane 7 in Koregaon Park, you are actually free from all shor in the city! ;-).

Ambience:: The minute you walk in you can feel the freshness of the place with beautiful wall hangings, calm environment, leisure plays and a unique bicycle table right near the window. Though the place is not very large so it is divided into lower and mezzanine sections, and is abundant with natural light. Aesthetically done mezzanine floor have sofas and tables with hues of white and blue. What I found interesting was the hanged black board showing the speciality of the day!

Location::In between number of pubs, fine dine restaurants and cafés in Koregaon Park, Frisco is easy to find. It is located in the quite lane no. 7 neighbouring Post91, Brooklyn Shuffle, Mojo buffet to name a few.

Food:: Frisco is an Italian-American all day breakfast bistro. They have delectable varieties in breakfast from Smoked Salmon Benedict to Pancakes. Simple menu divided interestingly into Small Plates, Big Plates surely guarantees to bring back customers. Since, we were there by invitation, our menu was fixed with the signature dishes by Chef Sourabh.

We all started with the Thirst Quenchers (they have not started with alcohol yet). So we ordered much read and heard about - Thai Iced Tea, Hibiscus Tea, Lime Iced Soda- Ice-cream Soda, Ginger Mint Fizz and Basil Mojito.

Thai Iced-Tea made with lemon-grass and condensed milk had cinnamon flavour. It was very heavy to finish. In the first sip you can feel each flavour oozing in your mouth.

Bright red coloured Hibiscus tea is great choice for health freak people. It was a herbal tea infusion served chilled. But unfortunately, I could not find the taste of hibiscus at all!

Lime Iced Soda- Ice cream Soda- It certainly caught our attention- Colourful big glass of soda and ice-cream was making it look beautiful. The taste was also up-to the mark.

Ginger Mint Fizz- Nice taste of Ginger and Mint served chilled.

Basil Mojito- I was bit disappointed as it had loads of crushed ice because of which I was unable to sip and taste!

Soup and Salad:: Potato and Leek Soup and Green Wok Salad. Soup was thick, warm and tasted heavenly. 

The Green Wok Salad had iceberg lettuce tossed in olive oil, lime juice, blanched asparagus, broccoli, with radish round-lets, yellow and red bell peppers julienne served with three different dressings – honey lemon, balsamic vinegar and mustard honey.

Coming on Small Plates, they had both Veg and Non-Veg varieties. In veg we were served Thai Sweet Chili Baby Potatoes, Frisco Nachos and in Non Veg., they had Fish and Crisp and Sicilian Garlic Chicken.

The nachos had a cheese sauce, beans, salsa, jalapeños drizzled with sour cream It tasted exquisite. A must try! The Thai Sweet Chili Baby Potatoes were presented beautifully with crunches of onion, capsicum, garlic and Thai chilli sauce.

Pizza Verdure and Cornish Chicken Pizza was on the table looking delectable. Could not stop myself to dig in Thin Crust Verdure Pizza which had green peas, onion, broccoli, spinach, basil with yum Gouda,Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese.

As soon as Pizza was finished, Mac and Cheese Pasta made its way. A veg macaroni preparation with English Cheddar, Gouda served with herbed bread crumbs and sun dried tomatoes. Cheese was oozing out of the macaroni!

From Big Plates, we were served Potato Lentigiane and Poached Sea Bass. Potato Lentigiane is a 3 layered vegetarian dish prepared with mashed potatoes, burnt garlic topped with lentils, bell peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes integrated with cheese. It was a melt in mouth dish.

Chef's special dessert mentioned was Blueberry Cheese Cake so we opted for it along with Warm Brownie with Chocolate Sauce. Both were better than the other. Extremely soft yet crunchy with mild sweetness. Blueberry Cheese Cake had complete flavour of Blueberry. Loved every bite of it!

Recommendations:: Ginger Mint, Ice-cream Soda, Frisco Nachos, Thin Crust Pizza, Mac and Cheese Pasta, Potato Lentigiane, Brownie and Blueberry Cheese Cake.

Service: The staff was little hesitant but Chef was happy to help. Thank you Chef Sourabh and his team for serving us. Happy news is they have started home delivery so you can reach them at
+91-9637463322 and +91-9637473322.

Special Mention to Shivangi and Carina for putting like minded people together!