We moved to Pune from Mumbai and were redoing our house. The natural choice was to go to @Home or Hometown and buy the household furniture. An office colleague suggested Ekbote.
Thus started the search. We used Google maps to get directions from Kalyani Nagar to Ekbote. Its not easy to reach there, I must say.
Once you reach there, its a vast 4 floor bungallow with good variety. However, the the salesman first takes you to the awareness section where there are all types of wood, ply, boards, etc with pros and cons of using a particular type. You are assured that Ekbote uses only wood.
Then starts the engrossing journey into the 4 floors with good informal settings. Its good variety. We chose a 5x6 double bed, a center table, a showcase and a TV Trolley. All solid wood, dark brown coloured with brass fittings.
The real experience was after that. Our Pune house rooms are much bigger than Mumbai and the 5x6 double bed looked too small. We deliberated and requested them to change the bed with a 6-1/2 x 6; expecting a No. Surprise, the salesman returened the call in an hour inviting us to chose the bigger bed. Well, we spent much more but we were satisfied that a Ekbote was sensitive to our long term investment.
We had also been struggling with some minor nails, fitting work etc. When we requested the Ekbote delivery guys to help us with that, they vanished promising to be back after completing all deliveries. And they were back! Helped my wife with fixing the mirrors and some nails here and there.
After this, we have bought quite a few other stuff from other shops like @Home and HomeTown but Ekbote experience, personalisation and going out of the way stood out.
If you have the budget, I would recommend Ekbote. Do have a look at Ekbote stuff before you make major furniture investments.