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!

Oriental Spice, Thane

Often you may visit certain restaurants which offer exceptional quality of food, but you come out of them thinking why you went inside in the first place. Oriental Spice in Thane is such an example.

I will share my views in a different way this time and will focus more on my experience with the place rather than putting up everything into points. Here’s how it went:
I knew this place is often jam-packed on weekends, so I called them up to reserve a table. A very rude sounding man picked up the phone and said, “We don’t take reservations, you have to come to the restaurant. All we can do is write down your name in the list.” What was the purpose of that list??

I still decided to go (my bad luck) and I was not surprised to see people waiting outside. I went inside to get my name on “the list”. I had to wait around 15 minutes to get a place, which was acceptable enough.  The real part starts now:

We were handed the menu cards and the waiter said, “Sir please hurry up and order, as there is a waiting outside!”. This really pissed me off. Are you seriously concerned about the waiting more than the customer sitting inside your restaurant and eating his meal? How unprofessional. I ordered soup and starters and decided not to create a scene for such behaviour. The order was served in time and tasted good. I will not mention anything about food in this post because rest assured this place serves one of the best and authentic Chinese cuisines in Thane area.

I have read a lot of reviews about this place and each review has one particular point about its restrooms. This is 100% true. An average sized man can’t fit into the restrooms at Oriental Spice. I had to bow down as I couldn’t stand straight. I didn’t pay heed to this as I was already disappointed at the management there.

After having my meal, I decided to order dessert. Waiter made the same point this time too. I hadn’t even looked at the menu and he asked me too hurry up. I had actually lost my cool this time around and spoke to his manager about it. To my surprise he was too busy to come to the table and hear me out.
Now comes the showstopper. In my entire life, I have never had such an experience, which I’m going to write about now.

I was handed the cheque and I decided to pay by my debit card. When I gave my card to them, the manager came to me and said, “Sir, we don’t accept debit cards as they require a pin to be entered.” I assured him that my card won’t ask for a pin as it was a VISA international debit card (which doesn’t require a pin at the time of transaction.). He still continued arguing with me about the same issue, and asked me to pay by cash. I literally shouted at him and said I won’t pay by cash and it’s up to him either to swipe my card for payment or find an alternate solution to it. After around 15 minutes of discussion he swiped my card and as expected, it didn’t ask for pin. They should write in bold letters, on the restaurant walls that we don’t accept debit cards.

After going to this place I realised that only good food and good ambiance for that matter doesn’t make a good restaurant. It’s the hospitality, the management and ethics that matters. Although the food I ate was delicious, the first thing that will come to my mind when I think of this place will be my bad experience with the staff. I hope this improves with the course of time else the restaurant will lose its glory within months.

Friends, the events which I have shared with you are those which I experienced. You can choose to go to this place for its food but beware of the service you get. You may end up spoiling your evening.

Cheers!