W xyz - Hotel Aloft, Ahmedabad

W xyz - Hotel Aloft,
147/1,
Opposite Bhagwat Vidhya Peeth,
Near Sola Police Station,
S G Highway,
Sola,
Ahmedabad
079 66049499

On looking at online menus of restaurants in my wishlist, I narrowed down on W xyz, because of the stuffed whole pomfret (425/-) on offer. Sadly halfway through our order, (we had finished starters and cocktails) we were told that it wasn't available, that in a nutshell is a quick synopsis of our experience here today. More than half the items on the menu weren't available. From the pomfret to the crispy kebab barrels and 4 of the 7 mocktails on the menu.

The BBQ chicken wings and nachos with salsa pico de gallo (275/-), turned out to be nachos from a packet, deep fried chicken lollipops in a manchurian like sauce and a tomato, onion salad with tomato sauce dressing. (no coriander, no lime - standard ingredients for a classic salsa pico de gallo)

Don't get me wrong, the taste was good, but the items were very different from what was described on the menu. This is getting to be one of my pet rants in Ahmedabad - fancy names on the menu turning out to be very different on the plate.

The blueberry mojito (150/-), tasted like a normal mojito. The hazelnut iced coffee (150/-) was interesting though - espresso and hazelnut syrup without the milk. This was the first time, I have been able to drink a whole glass of black coffee and quite enjoy it.

For the main course we ordered the tiger prawns with pommery mustard (600/-). Mum said it was quite good and the prawns were nice and fresh (I'm allergic, so I didn't try them myself)

I had the half corn fed chicken (375/-) with oregano and garlic marinade (turned out to be more rosemary than oregano flavouring in the end) which was ok, but it tasted like normal chicken, I'm not sure if it was actually corn-fed :). Among our sides, I enjoyed the French fries, baked potato and the sauteed greens, but the pilaf rice was average.

So most of the food that was available, ended up being average to slightly better than average.

Service was sweet, but very slow. It took us 2 hours to finish lunch (1 hour is average for our normal meals at a hotel) It took 20-25 minutes to get our drinks and starter once ordered. We were the only customers in the restaurant the whole time. The staff was very helpful, but the time taken to fulfill our orders was too long. Not sure if this was because the kitchen was focusing on the buffet at their other restaurant - Dot Yum. Maybe we might have been better off there, I don't know.

If they had told me the pomfret wasn't available right in the beginning (I told the person who showed us our table, that I was choosing to eat at W xyz over Dot Yum because they had pomfret on the menu), I would have headed to the other restaurant.

The decor is really cool. Love the pool table outside and the seating is quite comfy. Tables are all low (there are no options of "normal" sized tables), so its meant more for finger food and drinks than meals.

It seems like a hip place, the food is definitely better than Java+, but not outstanding. I'll go back again to try out Dot Yum, but my experience today at W xyz doesn't warrant a drive all that way, I'd rather drive over to "That Place"

Also, I have to mention my weirdest experience at this place. They had these "tent cards" on the table advertising a special "FIFA Brazil 2014" menu. The items were the same as the items in the regular menu with prominent footballers names appended to the names of the dishes, which is a pretty standard practice in the food industry (while there are a few restaurants that do develop special menus to go with the season or sporting event) What was weird was that the rates for these same dishes were 25-100Rs more expensive than the original dishes in the "normal" menu.

I would have rated this a 3. The extra 0.5 points is for some of the service staff, who I felt were trying their best, given the resources, that they had to work with.

Rating : 3.5 / 5