Pop Tate's, Vashi

I had been longing to go to Pop Tate’s, since it was opened in Vashi. I finally got a chance this Saturday to try it out. Here goes my review for this place:

Location:

Pop Tate’s is located on the top floor of Vashi’s Centre One Mall. Well, that pretty much sums up the location point as there’s nothing much to say about it.

Ambiance:

A common thing that I have observed in various pubs/lounges/restaurants in a mall is that they don’t have enough room. Pop Tate’s doesn’t fall under that category. It has ample space and is quite vast in size. The interiors are tasteful and well lit. Each table has a dedicated wrought iron lamp above it.  I liked the seating but tables will feel a bit small if you are sitting in a group of six or more. One of the prime reasons behind that may be the presence of an unnecessary cutlery holder (which also holds the table number) which eats up a lot of space.

The place may sound a bit noisy and one might not enjoy the music. Also there’s a big screen with a projector, so you can enjoy your daily dose of sports while having your meals and drinks. That’s a common thing in most of the pubs and bars these days.

Happy Hours:

Happy hours here are called smiley hours. There was a large print out listing rules of the game i.e. the conditions of happy hours. Well put!!

Happy hours start from 2:47 in the afternoon and go up till 7:27 in the evening. Weird timing eh!

Like most of the places, Pop Tate’s offers one plus one on IMFLs and Draught Beer pitchers.
If you are a not regular, you may have to go through the rules while ordering, they are pretty stringent. We ordered a pitcher of beer and one of my friend ordered a Smirnoff with cranberry juice. Smiley hours sure will make you smile at the end.

Food:

Two things must be kept in mind while ordering food here. One is portion size, and the other is cost. Food here is too less in terms of quantity given the price you have to pay for it. We ordered Garlic Bread with cheese and a large BBQ Chicken Pizza first. One great thing about this place is that you can upgrade your from medium to large by shelling out just 20-30 bucks more. However the pizza didn’t impress me a lot. The topping was too simple, with just cheese and small amount of BBQ chicken. Garlic Bread on the other hand tasted great and was fresh and soft. The quantity was moderate as only 4 pieces were served.

The next thing we ordered was Pepper Tossed Chicken which tasted more or less like chilly chicken you get at an average Chinese restaurant. The portion size was way too less.

Every chicken starter here has an average of 5 pieces of chicken in it. So keep that in mind while ordering.

We also ordered chicken tikkis, which were very tasty and paired well with beer. The usual French fries taste good everywhere, nothing can be done wrong with them.

The service was prompt and courteous. Although the place was jam-packed, all our orders arrived well in time.

Cost:

During happy hours, don’t bother keeping cost in mind as liquor pricing here is fairly moderate. A pitcher of beer cost us around Rs 530 and we got one free with it. We had 6 pitchers of beer and paid just Rs 1590 for them. That’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?

However food here is quite expensive and will make a hole in your pocket. To add up, taxes will be a major concern too. So be prepared.
Thus all in all it was a wonderful experience going to Pop Tate’s and I will visit again surely. But that will be after a while as I am badly hung over.

I give 3.5 stars out of 5 to Pop Tate’s. Visit this place mostly for drinking, and preferably during smiley hours. You’ll not regret anything.

Smokin Joe's Pizza, Airoli, Navi Mumbai

Recently Dominos dicontinued its popular One on One Wednesdays scheme. Since then I feel its sales must have taken a hit, especially from the corporate side, as its a traditoon in our office to order pizza on wednesdays. However, this time we decided to try out Smokin Joe's pizza for a change. Following is my experience:

I called up Smokin Joe's pizza to place my order. A person picked up the phone and started yelling at his colleague. He was complaining about his printer which was out of order. Both of them got into an arguement while I was still online. He didn't even put the phone on mute as if he wanted me to hear all that nonsense. I disconnected the phone and called up again. The same person answered but this time he took my order rather than fighting. I must say he was patient enough as the order was huge and I made him repeat it twice. He politely took the order and told me that I will receive the order within 45 minutes.

I had ordered:
Smokin Joe's special pizza
BBQ Chicken pizza
Mexicana Chicken pizza
Fiery Paneer pizza
Chicken Sausage pizza
Garlic bread

I waited for almost an hour and there was no sign of delivery, a thing which is not common with pizza places. Dominos guarantee its delivery within 30 minutes. I called up again and I was told that the delivery boy was on his way. My order reached after an hour and 15 minutes after placing it. When I went down to get it, I was shocked to see that Garlic Bread was not included in the order however it was being added in the bill. We haf ordered 5 portions of garlic bread which cost around 500 bucks and they were missing!! I asked the delivery boy to inquire about the same and he did so. I was told that I had not ordered garlic bread. This annoyed me to the core. Why was garlic bread added into the bill if I had not ordered it??? I felt like abusing the man on the phone who was endlessly arguing with me. At the end he asked me to pay the remainjng bill and not to oay for garlic breads. He said the cook must have forgot to prepare the garlic bread. I refused to pay the bill and asked him to complete my order and said I would pay the total amount once he gets the complete order. He told I'll have garlic bread by 15 minutes.

Meanwhile we started eating our pizzas as we were dieing of hunger. I must say pizza yopoings of Smokin Joe's pizzas are much better than those if Dominos and Pizza Hut. The toppings were generous and delicious. Pizzas had loads of capsicum, mushrooms, jalapenos, and ofcourse chicken. One thing that dissapointed us was the quality of cheese burst pizzas. We couldn't make out the difference between hand tosses and cheese burst pizza. But apart from this, everything was exceptional in taste and quality. Meanwhile, the garlic bread arrived. Surprisingly, it tasted very good and was extremely soft and fresh. It was much different than the one we get at Dominos and was much tastier. Thus we concluded our lunch on a happy note.

Only bad thing in this experience was the lack of professionalism shown by the staff which always ruins the mood of a customer, no matter how good tbe food is.

Well, this was my review of Smokin Joe's pizza. One can try it out to break the monotony of having pizzas delivered from Dominos, and try out other options in terms of pizzas. Although, beware of such customer service !!
Happy Munching!

Kimling, Aundh, Pune

Kimling restaurant is located at DP road (also known as Nagras Road), Aundh. A friend recommended this place to me so I decided to visit here on a Saturday evening.

The place is easily accessible as Aundh houses many restaurants and showrooms of various brands. A very special thing about this place is its seating arrangement. Although its area is not large, it doesn’t feel cramped. One can choose from outdoor seating and three versions of indoor seating. I preferred seating outside. I had to wait around 15 minutes to get a vacant table but rest assured the wait was worth it. Lighting was perfect which complimented the cool breeze of Pune city. I would recommend seating outdoors if you visit Kimling.

Now let’s get down to business. I had heard a lot about the authenticity of Chinese food you get at Kimling, thus I was eagerly waiting to dig into it. I decided to grab some beer first and try some starters. I ordered Tangerine Chicken and all-time favourite, Drums of Heaven along with the drinks.  A pint of beer costs around Rs. 150 here so that’s pretty reasonable. My friend ordered a Margarita which was one of the many options of cocktails you get at Kimling. You can also get pitchers of Beer and cocktails if you want.

Our order came in few minutes. Both the dishes were well garnished and looked mouth-watering.  Tangerine Chicken was a bit less in quantity but nothing could match its taste. It was delicious. To be honest I haven’t had Tangerine Chicken before so I am not the right person to judge it by its taste. As a neutral individual, it tasted good to me. Drums of Heaven had two options, one fried and other was tossed. I opted for the tossed version and I was not disappointed at all. It was regular chicken lollypop stirred in a mix of capsicum, onions and loads of garlic. It was a true pleasure for my taste buds. Quantity was also good as there were eight pieces of chicken in the dish.

All in all I was impressed with the starters and was looking forward for the main course. In the main course I ordered Chicken Chilly Garlic Noodles and Mantolin Chicken. Noodles were thin and quantity was good. Fried chicken chunks in them were a delight. Mantolin Chicken was spicy and tasted awesome when paired with the noodles. The portion size was impressive. This was all I had for main course as I was full after all the drinks and starters.

Food here is not that expensive. I paid Rs 800 for two (without alcohol) and my total cheque including alcohol and taxes came up to 1600 bucks. Every penny spent here is worth it, trust me.

Service at Kimling is very prompt and you’ll not have to wait to place your order or to get your order served. The staff is very courteous which is always lifts your mood.
I give Kimling 4 stars out of 5. This place is worth visiting and I’ll make sure I visit here more often.

Thanks for reading the review friends. Stay tuned for more bites!