It was at first a pleasant surprise when I came to know that one of the biggest hotel chains in the World have opened their newest branch in Pune. When you hear big names you expect big. This hotel is located on the Pune Bypass Road for Mumbai Banglore highway near to Baner (Near to Sadanand Regency).
To celebrate one of my friends birthday party we thought of visiting this new talk of the town and get our first hand experience of what’s in the air. As we arrived we could see some construction work going on in Parking but that’s quite understandable as its a new Hotel and I cant give any negatives for this.
As we entered the hotel we were enthralled by the interiors of the hotel, especially the lounge.( It was not operational then as they did not have the bar license) but from a distance it really looked like worth spending some time. The ambiance was quite good.
The dining hall is pretty much the size it should be and also the interiors are well done. So we secured a free table and started of with our business that is having food.
We decided to go for Buffet, which was priced around Rs 600. We usually go for buffet, and have tried Lemon Tree, Courtyard Marriot, NJJBTB, Barbeque Nation, Sayaji, Kiva, Fotune et al. so have fair lines drawn about what to expect and at what price. Rs 600 is something Courtyard Marriot or Barbeque nation will charge you. Barbeque Nation has this big list of kebabs that steal the show for them and Mariiot has lot of food variety in terms of types of dishes. Pricing at rs 600 and bringing the Holiday Inn in this league would always raise expectations.
One usually starts with appetizers liek soup, but we spoiled brats don’t think soup do any good to body, so we thought of keeping away from the veg and the chicken soup.
We directly got on with starters. We had a variety Mutton & Fish & Chicken kebabs. From the first glance It gave a blissful impression but a moment later the truth revealed. The kebabs are not made in the kitchen, these are fresh frozen ready to eat available at market and their taste really sucked. It was an awful experience. Venky’s has much better taste than what we were served.
But then you don’t get all goodies in life, so we switched on to next in the last, which was salads. The buffet, so to say, did not offer much. Only a few I guess 4-5 salads pretty much the basic listt, rather the least that you expect. But I liked the past it was well done. After having a go at the salads we moved on to the main course meal. The main course meal had lot of offer in terms of variety. I mean you have three chicken dishes, one mutton, one beef and one pork. I tasted all the three chicken dishes - one was tasteless completely, the other sounded more like an awful Chinese version and the third one is what I really consumed. They had everything to offer but good taste. Either I was the only Indian around and was expecting some taste out of what was on offer or may be they really cook tasteless food. so I made the most of the chicken dish and Chicken Biryani.
In the veg section we had some good variety of dishes but what spoiled my mood was plain rice as the only option available for veggies in rice. I have had paneer dishes in a good amount of hotels and I must say Holiday Inn Serves the hardest of them all. when you have paneer in lemon tree, it would juts melt in your mouth, but here chewing it was the only option. The option of nan and roti for bread was pretty much what you get every where.
Then we moved on to the next part which was desserts. I must say the variety in desserts was pretty much short of expectations, but yes whatever was there for offer was good. There were cakes, mouses, icecream (the best part was you were free to add choco chips, caramel and cone stick to your ice cream)
and probably just one Indian traditional sweet which was disheartening. The service was quick, probably because there were just 4 of the nearly 14 tables filled.
Someone in friend circle asked me did you got value for your money, I replied it was less value and more money. I would always prefer going to Sayaji aur Marriot for buffet than putting my money on this Hotel.
Honestly speaking, when I compare the quality of food and taste I would rank this at the lowest of all I have listed above. I think the chef at the place needs to understand what suits the taste buds of Indian people. This one was a complete flop show.