The Great Kabab Factory - Radisson, Ahmedabad

The Great Kabab Factory - Radisson Blu,
Near Panchvati Cross Roads,
Off CG Road,
Ambavadi,
Ahmedabad
079 40501234

This Version of the Kebab Factory is not as good as the Kebab Factory in Delhi / Noida / Dubai / Pune, but its still one of the best places for authentic North Indian style kebabs in Ahmedabad.

As of now, they are only open for dinner in Ahmedabad (from 6pm-11pm), but on Sundays, they do serve lunch too (noon to 11pm).

As with most of the TGKF's, as a diner, you should focus on the kebabs and the accompanying rotis, the dhal makhni and the desserts. The rice, gravies and biryani are ok, but the kebabs and desserts are the best part of the menu.

If you are new to the concept, TGKF operates like a buffet with unlimited portions, but you are served at your seat. You can choose from the veg (949/-) or non-veg (999/-) options. The variety of kebabs and curries changes daily, so you can never be sure what you will have on offer, unless you call and check.

Their galoutis with ulte tawe ka paratha are the best part of the meal. Melt in your mouth galoutis served with slightly crispy and fragrant mini parathas.

The desserts normally have 4 different options to choose from, or you can have all four.

Be sure to take your appetite with you, to justify the price of the meal (quite expensive for Ahmedabad standards)


Rating : 4 / 5

Indian Accent, Delhi

Indian Accent
The Manor
77, Friends Colony (West)
Delhi
011 2692 5151

The Indian Accent Restaurant is located in the modern yet cosy The Manor Hotel. The smell of Marigolds and Rajnigandha waft through as you step into the hotel and tastefully arranged bunches of orange gendha lie along the path to the restaurant. The Restaurant has a bar cum waiting section leading into it. Given the limited seating at the restaurant, it is highly advisable to reserve a table before heading there.

When we visited on the 15th of November, they were still serving their summer menu. They assured us that the winter menu would be served shortly, once Chef Manish Mehrotra was back. (One of the signatures of this restaurant is using fresh seasonal and oranic ingredients in their dishes. Hence the menus change with the season)

While we were perusing the menu, we were served mini naans stuffed with blue cheese that melted in our mouths and tantalised our tastebuds.

Since there were no soups on the menu, we turned to the drinks menu. The Frosty Lavender was my favourite of what we ordered. An excellent mocktail, a combination of Lavender infused coconut water with crushed ice.
Honey Pepper Fizz - a rum based cocktail with honey water, pepper, pineapple chunks and basil was refreshing and fruity, with enough alcohol to infuse a warmth that chilly night.

While we waited for the appetisers we had ordered, we were offered dahi sev puris with an unusual stuffing which included wasabi peas, served in a smoking ladle.

They serve paani puri with  a twist - cous cous filling and 5 different waters: mint + jal jeera, tamarind + date, pomegranate + cinnamon, mango and yoghurt + garlic . My favourite of the lot was the pomegranate and cinnamon water.

For starters we ordered the Meetha Achaar Canadian spare ribs with sun dried mango and toasted kalonji seeds. The meat was not as well marinated as we expected. So while the marinade was tasty, the flavours hadn't penetrated through to the bone.

The vegetarian appetisers were much better. The ash roast sweet potato in herb yoghurt with radish carpaccio and crisp okra garnish (325Rs) had a melange of flavours like a dish of chaat, but they blended quite well together.

The crisp vegetable rings (onion, karela and others) with sesame seeds and Amaranth, was unanimously voted as the best appetiser on our table and was consumed the quickest.

For our main course, the vegetarian with us ordered the Tandoori broccoli that was served on a bed of corn kernels with a goji berry sauces. The dish was cheesy and lovely on a winter evening, it would be a bit heavy for the summer though.

 Both of us non vegetarians wanted the slow cooked pork Goan style served on a bed of red rice. The pork was really well done and very soft with just the right amount of fat. But the dish became monotonous after a while. It would have been nice to have some crunchy vegetables on the side. We ended up decimating our vegetarian friends tandoori brocolli in the process.

 The kaali dhal and fresh naans were excellent and could have been a meal in themselves. While most of the non vegetarian dishes had a portion of carbs on the plate, someone ordering a vegetarian main would need to order extra sides if they needed rice or bread with their meals.

The desserts were truly outstanding. The jaggery and coconut creme brulee was mildly flavoured and served with a melon mosaic that seemed too pretty to eat.

 The old monk rum balls were served with a 70% valrhona chocolate sauce and flambeed on the table.

But the winner of the evening was the tandooried pygmy pineapples with a desi daru reduction and vanilla ice cream.

The menu reads very well. But with some dishes like the pork, we felt the dishes did not live up to our expectations. While the desserts surpassed our expectations. And as anyone in the food industry knows, if you serve your diners an excellent dessert, they will be willing to forgive most of the tiny problems with the rest of the meal.

If you would like to taste a larger number of dishes, when you don't have too many people at your table, the Chefs Tasting Menu is a great option.
Non Vegetarian: Rs1975
Vegetarian: Rs1875
Add Rs1200 per person for 5 half glasses (75ml) of wine

Rough idea of Ala Carte prices pre-tax:
Mocktails 200Rs
Cocktails 350Rs
Vegetarian appetisers 325Rs
Non Vegetarian appetisers 600Rs+
Vegetarian mains 650Rs
Non Vegetarain Mains 800Rs+

Rating:
Ambience : 9.5
Food  : 8
Service : 9

Thai Chi, Dubai

Thai Chi
Pyramids
Wafi City
Dubai
+971 4 324 0000

Lovely decor and ambiance with the frontage of a Thai house sheltering the glass front of the kitchen. The head chef is the stern yet sweet looking matronly Thai lady who presents her dishes with a flourish across the counter at the glass kitchen.

A complementary dish of fried prawn crackers is served while you wait.

A bottle of water will set you back 18 dhs.
We ordered a sampler appetiser platter which came with 2 pieces each of fried shrimps, fish cakes, chicken in pandanus leaf, vegetable spring roll and chicken set in a mussel shell and deep fried. Quite tasty and served with a variety of different flavored sauces for 142 dhs. Everything was tasty. Nothing was over spiced or over flavored. The sauces were a mix of sweet, salty, spicy and crunchy. (as is normal when serving Thai cuisine)

We then had a phad thai chicken (54) which was served in an egg parcel and was excellent.
We weren't too hungry and couldn't eat too much. Will definitely return another day with a better appetite.

Most dishes are in the 50-60dhs range except for the exotic sea food.

The restaurant serves both Thai and Chinese cusine. You can choose between indoor and outdoor seating. The indoor seating has the air conditioning but the outdoor seating allows you to enjoy the (mostly) live music from the amphitheatre right beside it.

Prices are in the Mid Range for Dubai and there were plenty of groups and families enjoying an evening out at the place.

We were pleasantly surprised to receive a 20% discount as we paid with our HSBC cards. There is also a Wafi City Card which can give you similar discounts across the mall which can be purchased from the Service Counters.

Revolving Restaurant, Grand Hyatt, Cairo

Revolving Restaurant
Grand Hyatt, Cairo

The Revolving Restaurant is only open for dinner around 8pm. Prior Reservations are required (even if it is a couple of hours before) Jeans, shorts and open shoes for men are a non-no - as the hostess politely informed us over the phone. Jackets aren't required, but wouldn't be out of place either.

This is a lovely restaurant to take your date to with its awesome ambience, phenomenal food, panoramic view and attentive yet unobtrusive service. It is also a place I would recommend for formal business dinners or if you need to impress your (prospective) inlaws or anyone else for that matter.

The lighting is low and the ceiling is decorated with colored LED's forming asteroids, satellites and other heavenly objects :)


The restaurant is situated on the 41st floor. Access is through a private lift on the 40th floor (where you may be seated for awhile but can use that time to order a drink - Yes alcohol is now being served again at this restaurant) The restaurant completes an entire revolution every 75 minutes, situated as it is on the Nile, its an almost panoramic view of the entire city. To disguise its one blind spot, they have created a replica of an Ancient Egyptian temple on the outside.

The Restaurant has an open chef's kitchen. But there were no wafting odors to dull the experience.
Complimentary fresh baked bread was served along with pate and herbed butter. We were hungry and ordered 2 appetisers each. all of which were outstanding.

The Smoked salmon was served with pancakes, mashed potatoes and a salmon mousse.
The Salad St Jacques was pan fried scallops (slightly crisp on the outside, tender juicy & succulent on the inside), served on a crisp potato pancake with marinated red peppers and some greens. I would highly recommend this dish any day.
The Prawn Salad was a combination of king prawns and Scampi with a basil, lemon and avocado base.
The Carpaccio was other worldly. Some of the best that I have eaten. The green dressing and the cheese served with the carpaccio were an excellent combination with the meat.
For the main, I ordered Australian lamb chops which were done exactly the way I wanted. Not too tough, not too soft. The sauce (lamb jus) served with a white bean salad as a base was excellent.
My husband ordered more prawns . But given the superior quality of all the other dishes, he felt this was a bit lacking. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew something was missing. This is the only dish that needed something more. all the others were beautifully and perfectly balanced. Since I don't eat prawns unless I have cleaned them myself (long story about allergies) I couldn't check on what was missing. This was served with ratatouille which he quite enjoyed.
We ordered 2 sides of mushrooms and pureed potatoes (Fancy restaurants never say mashed potatoes they say pureed potatoes) The mushrooms were FANTABULOUS!. After all the tinned stuff most restaurants serve as mushrooms, this dish was outstanding. It was a mixture of 4-5 different fresh mushrooms and it had a wonderful woodsy yet fresh flavour. I would even eat this as my appetiser or my main course if I wasnt too hungry.
For dessert, he had the creme brulee which came in three flavours. Mango-jasmine and chocolate were familiar flavors, it was the strawberry-basil flavor that was an eye and taste bud opener.
The choclate fondant that I ordered was my other star of the evening. Crisp exterior, molten interior. Words can't desribe how amazing this desert was. The ice cream accompanying it, could have been a bit better, but the vanilla ice cream was a necessary touch to balance the chocolate. an absolute for anyone - chocoholic or otherwise!
My husband was initially apprehensive about eating French food. Although he had been forced to watch a lot of French cooking programs along with me, he had never encouraged me to try cooking any of these dishes as he felt they would be bland. Fortunatley eating at the Grand Hyatt's Revolving Restaurant has completley altered this perspective. French recipe books are next on the shopping list! (Like I need an excuse)

This was supposed to be a treat for me, so my husband did the ordering without letting me look at the menu. But knowing me for over 8 years and knowing what is good for him, he did let me make my own choices after describing each one to me. I'm not too sure of the rates, but what he said was that appetisers were in the 50LE+ range. Mains were between 80-150LE and side dishes were about 25LE.

Portions are a decent size. Slightly small by Egyptian standards. But it allows you to choose an appetiser, main and dessert for yourself.

Definitely a must visit.

Oasis, Chembur, Mumbai

My SIL chose this place for rakhi (a festival celebration of the brother sister bond) dinner with her bhaiyya (elder brother).

The ambience was really nice, inspite of the loud kitty party like dinner going on on the premises. (in one of the other rooms)

The dining hall was a large open space with white tablecloths and muted lighting. Very romantic setting if you take a table for two.

The food was the star. Being back in India after ages, I had decided I would only drink and eat Indian specialities. In keeping with that, I ordered a masaledaar chaas (70) and asked them to add some finely chopped chillies to the drink. The drink was outstandingly flavored and balanced and the chillies were chopped so fine, that they did not catch in your teeth (they were chopped not pureed)

They serve alcohol and cocktails too. The Singapore sling (130) was a strawberry flavored cocktail that was interesting. A small peg - 30ml of bacardi was 190 and the diet pepsi was Rs60. The kingfisher pint was 120. Water was 50 bucks for a liter.

The aloo cheese balls(185) were good, but I still crave the taste of the old Prithvi cafe ones at 1/3rd the price and thrice the flavor. The corn tikki (165) was interesting and tasty with lots of corn unlike most locations which overdo the batter holding it together.

The makhmali tukda (190) was the most outstanding paneer I have eaten in a long time. The paneer itself was soft and tender which had been seared to crispness on the outside in a tandoor, but not over done. Highly recommended.

Chicken Hazari kebab (215) was tender, soft and marinated in a malai'ish sauce. Malai and white kebabs are not my favorite (I like more kick in my kebabs) unless its is a malai-kali mirch combination, but this one was worth having a second round of.

For the main course, we ordered Paneer mazedar (205) which tasted suspiciously like a butter paneer with minimal jazzing up. I'd prefer the kebabs any day.
Murgh hari mirch (215) which wasn't very spicy, but tasty none-the-less.
Kulchas and makai roti were 35. Butter kulchas 45. Kulchas were soft and easy to tear apart. the makai roti was kadak in a good way.

The star of my evening was the kacche ghosht ki dum biryani (220) I ordered the boneless variety and I was in heaven. Right balance of spices, browned onions, tender mutton. My mouth stil waters at the memory.

For dessert, we wrapped it up with a malai kulfi (95) and gajar halwa (75) Halwa was really good, but the kulfi was rather generic.

I'd definitely visit again the next time I am Chembur, but I will stick to the chaas, paneer kebabs and the biryani. My own little version of heaven on earth :)

Patio, Gajalee, Mumbai, India

I have always been a huge fan of Gajalee in Mumbai for sea food. I find their sea food better than Mahesh Lunch home or Trishna. (although Trishna's butter pepper garlic crab topples the scales completely)

My husband too loves the food at Gajalee. There was one branch very close to his office in Vile Parle and most office meetings invariably took place there. The days I couldn't send him lunch, he would order in from there. Its a wonder I haven't reviewed this place before, given how often we have eaten there.

Gajalee in Vile Parle is not extremely fancy but it does have an air conditioned room with cushioned seats for those used to those comforts (at a very slight premium) compared to the wooden mess like tables and benches on the rest of the premises.

Our standard order used to be a starter of solkadi (drink made of kokum - red berry- garlic and coconut milk which is an excellent appetiser, digestive and accompaniment to the food) and King fish fry (a large slice of king fish/eeson - batter fried and served with an amazing spicy green chutney which definitely has green mango in it for sourness)

The main course could be a fish or mutton thali (strangely we never tasted the chicken thali) with prawns achari (shrimp in a pickle flavored gravy, high on mustard seeds) on the side. The thali includes rice, a gravy/curry, a dry dish and some vegetable. Very filling and awesomely flavorful.

Amboli - a thick dosa - lentil pancake and ghawne - neer dosa/panpole - a thin flat pancake were normally ordered on the side to enjoy the curries further.

Given that we were both back in Mumbai for 2 days, it was imperative that we visit gajalee for some spicy seafood after Egypt. Since we were closest to Andheri at that time, we stopped at Patio near NMIMS college which also houses a Gajalee. This is a more upmarket version. Prices are higher and they have a lot of North Indian and Chinese cuisine on the menu. Don't let this fool you into thinking that the standard of sea food would be middling. It is not. In fact, it is quite excellent and this restaurant also serves boneless crab.

You have to forgive me for not taking pictures, the food was smelling so good and we were so hungry and craving spicy sea food, that thoughts of taking the camera out of the bag and clicking pictures never even entered my mind!

Back to the boneless crab. While Trishna @ Kala Ghoda does an awesome butter pepper garlic crab, it comes in a shell and that means the butter solidifies as it turns cold while you take time and effort to eat the crab. So while it starts out awesome, by the time you finish, it gets a bit icky.

Not so at Patio. The butter garlic crab comes boneless, so no time wasted and you can eat it with your amboli or ghawne (expalined above). The sweetness of crab meat mingles with the saltiness of the yellow butter, it is cooked in and the garlic adds piquancy to the whole flavor, that just explodes in your mouth.

The dish is a bit expensive at 1250/- but it is completely worth it.

This time they had an innovation called crab green chilli. Similar to the butter garlic crab but with some green chilli thrown in for spiciness. It wasn't over spicy and the chillies did not over power the mild sweet crab flavor, it was just exquisitely balanced. At 1250/- its a must try

Since we had the green chilli crab, we opted for the squid butter garlic (200) which was also outstanding. Not really deep fried or shallow fried but something in between. The texture of the squid was just right with the buttered garlic hugging on to each squid ring.

Of course, we ordered the Solkadi (25) and it felt so good to be drinking this again.

The prawns achari at the Parle location feels and tastes more authentic than the Patio version(250), but husband proclaimed it good (not outstanding but good) . Reasonably medium sized prawns.

The mutton masala (140) was middling. Neither terrible nor as good as the other dishes. While it may have stood out at another restaurant, here it just blended in without making its presence felt.

They did not have king fish, so we couldn't have that.

Ambolis and Ghawnes were 15/- each, soft and tasty. Mineral water was 15.

They do have deserts, but this is the caramel custard, ice cream variety which are a dampener after such a wonderful meal. So I prefer to leave with the flavor of crab or squid in my mouth. But if I remember right, the gajalee in Parle outsources some cheese cake and chocolate cake which were very good. I'm not 100% sure of this though.

The other dishes we have often enjoyed are the fried bombil (bombay duck - a fish not poultry) and the stuffed pomfret. The bombil is fresh not the dried variety.

The sea food at Gajalee is always fresh and tasty and this place is a definite must-visit for the pescatarian.