Pizza Hut, Inorbit Mall, Vashi

Never had I imagined I would write a blog post criticizing one the most famous pizzerias of all time, pizza hut. I visited an outlet at Inorbit mall, Vashi this Sunday and following is my horrible experience.

This place is always jam packed on weekends and you often have to wait for around 15 mins to get a table. Since me and my friend went around 4 in the evening we got a table easily though the pace was relatively full. Unfortunately this was the only good thing happened to us and what followed was a completely frustrating and mood spoiling experience one could ever have.

We ordered the following things which are considered as some of the best dishes, pizza hut serves.

• Cream of chicken soup
• Masala lemonade
• Caesar salad
• Chicken Mexicana big pizza

I will get to the reviews of all the things one by one.

Let me say that whenever you pay a visit at a pizza hut outlet, do make sure to try the cream of chicken soup and masala lemonade. I am a huge fan of the masala lemonade, and I was not disappointed at all. The soup was consistent and had chunks of chicken in generous proportions, which made the soup wholesome and delicious. If you are a spice buff, don’t go for it as you’ll be disappointed by it, but it is for sure a signature chicken soup.

Now let’s get down to business. If you order a Caesar salad in a restaurant of Pizza Hut standard, what would you expect? A salad having lettuce, steamed/baked chicken chunks, mayonnaise, and croutons to say the least! Well, our so called salad had no croutons at all. Those are a part of a signature recipe and still they were missing. The sad part is they couldn’t match up to the description given in their own menu card. That’s kind of a blunder you would say. I immediately called out for a replacement, which took its time but was done.

Coming to the main course and a pizza hut speciality, yes you guessed it right, A PIZZA!!
I have never been a fan of pizzas here and I prefer ordering from Dominos whenever I feel like having a pizza. But I had never imagined that pizza hut could do such injustice with their signature cuisine. To start with, the pizza was cold, as if it was prepared around 30 minutes prior to serving. This is not acceptable at all. They charge much more than that of dominos but the quality of base and toppings of their pizza is too poor. The so called BIG pizza was a medium sized pizza which was adequate to serve two people. The base was thin, hard, difficult to chew and almost impossible to cut through. I almost tore the pizza apart to slice it into pieces. The topping was disappointing too. I could not find more than one miniscule piece of chicken per slice. It felt like a veg pizza which had chicken accidently sprinkled upon.

I would like to mention some points about the service. Although the place was 70% packed, the service was way too slow. We had to wait 15 minutes just to place our order. It took a lifetime to call a waiter for complaining about the salad. Staff there just avoids an eye contact with the customers as if they hate being called upon.

To sum it up, if you ever have a craving for a pizza, save yourself some money and time by ordering at the likes of Dominos or Smokin Joe’s for that matter. I feel, this place has lost its touch and needs to revamp their strategy to remain in business.

Thanks for reading the review. Stay tuned for more. Happy dining!

The Food Studio, Mulund

Location:

Opposite Runwal Green project, Mulund Goregaon Link Road, Mulund West, Mumbai

Cuisines:

Italian, North Indian

At office, whenever we plan to have a team outing, we end up being in an anomaly. There is always a difficulty in deciding which place to go. We had to go for a lunch on a Thursday afternoon and as usual we were stuck to the likes of BBQ Nation or Mainland China. A friend suggested visit The Food Studio in Mulund as had heard a lot of good reviews about the place. Thus we decided to try it out! What follows is my experience with the place. Check it out.

Ambiance:
Let’s stick to the basics first. If you are driving to a restaurant, you would certainly encourage ample parking space. I’m afraid you won’t get that here thanks to the narrow roads in the locality. But rest assured your car will be parked safely thanks to the valet parking facility provided by the restaurant. A very thoughtful thing indeed keeping in mind that parking space is less.

The place is easy to spot as it is just opposite Runwal Green project on Goregaon Mulund Link road. It is in close proximity of the Fortis Hospital as well. That makes it easily locatable. At first, the place looked small to me while standing outside but when I set foot inside it looked quiet spacious.

The interiors are quiet flamboyant with loads of wood and metal used. Thus the place doesn’t give you a boring fine dining restaurant look and feel. It is more like a restro-lounge. This place offers both indoor and outdoor seating which is a plus, especially in this weather. The place is tastefully designed including tables and chairs, menu cards, the bar etc. I feel such things are necessary which make a restaurant stand apart from the others in the same league. It’s an age of competition after all and presentation does matter a lot these days. The music was perfect, as they were playing famous numbers of Yves Larock, Rihanna, Far East Movement, LMFAO etc.

Food and Beverages:
Coming to the most important part of this review, the Food!

I had done some research prior to visiting this place and I had heard a lot of people saying that the portion size is small and the food is overpriced. But I decided to try it myself and avoided jumping into any conclusions.
Here was our order:

Appetizers: Nawabi Murg, Jamli Kebab, Cajun Fried Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken

The Food Studio Signature Poulet Pasta

Grilled Chicken Sizzler

Butter Chicken with Breads

I’ll start with the things I liked the most. If you ever visit this place, I strongly recommend Nawabi Murg. Imagine perfectly cooked (in a tandoor) chicken chunks stuffed with molten cheese. The moment I dig my fork into a piece, cheese came oozing out and my eyes were filled with joy. What more does a person want after all. The dish was so delicious that we ordered it for the second time. Cajun fried chicken may remind you the classic fish n chips recipe of Great Britain. It was served with a handful of French fries and tartar sauce. Teriyaki chicken and Jamli kebab were good too but nothing special about them. All the appetizers were good in quantity with around 8 pieces of chicken in each dish, which is acceptable.

The pasta was completely bland with no distinct flavour at all. It disappointed me as it was arguably the best pasta dish in the house. This place offers sizzlers with good variety of sides varying from corn, fries, mushrooms, tortilla chips, veggies etc. we opted for sautéed mushrooms and tortilla chips. The sizzler was good and it served 2 people which is decent. Grilled chicken breast was not up to the mark though and it lacked taste. I am not a huge sizzler fan thus my review for sizzlers can be biased.

For me, a meal is never over till I have had butter chicken and tandoori roti. No offence given, but I have never had a decent quality butter chicken in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. My search for the same went in vain here too. I enjoyed the taste but I was not overwhelmed. Portion size was less in case of butter chicken I must say. So order wisely!

This place has happy hours and gives one plus one offer on IMFL’s. We ordered beer towers and got one on one. It is worth mentioning that liquor prices here are steep so one should be prudent while ordering a few extra rounds.

Service:
Management here is very friendly and warm. The manager came up to me frequently and inquired if we were comfortable and everything was fine. These things are very important in hospitality industry as they leave a mark on the customer. The service was prompt which is always a plus point.

Cost:
After enjoying our meals, it was time for the cheque. Liquor bill was around 2000 bucks which was more than one would expect from a decent place. We could get much more at half the price in places like Pop Tate’s. Food bill ended up costing us around 400 bucks per head. Given the quantity of some of the items, it may pinch you.

The Bottom Line:
This place is worth giving a try and thus I give it 3 and a half stars out of five. The only scope of improvement would be food quantity.

I hope the review was helpful. Happy dining!