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!