Attill, Ahmedabad

I was really keen to visit Attill when it opened in AlphaOne because the Attill in Mangalore (later learnt, this is not part of the same chain) is awesome and Attill in Bombay (part of this Shetty Sons chain) has received great reviews from my friends.

The good part is that Attill serves varieties of fish that aren't normally seen on menus in Ahmedabad - bangdas (mackerels), pomfrets, bombil (bombay duck) and seer fish (which is found on other menus too)

However, the day we visited, they said that bombay duck wasn't available, so we settled for fish cutlets.

The restaurant has 30+ covers, but they took over 20 minutes to get our fish cutlets and 30 minutes from time of order to get our seer fish fry. Given that all the other eateries at Alpha Mall pride themselves on quick service, this delay was even more glaring than normal.

The cutlets were ok, but you couldn't really taste the fish above the crispy onions. It was served with thousand island ready made dressing, that had formed a light crust on the top of the bowl, from exposure to air. The sear fish wasn't bad and my husband said that the prawns (hari mirch tikka) were good. The quality of fish was good, but the time taken for service was terrible. Having just returned from a 2 week trip to Mangalore, the taste left a lot to be desired, perhaps I will enjoy the food more when I am truly craving Manglorean food and been starved of it for awhile.

The egg biryani was very good. Lots of chunks of masala in typical Bambaiyya style. The mutton in xacuti was excellent, but the gravy itself was salty and flat. The rich complex flavours were nowhere to be tasted.

The rotis were really soft and the laccha paratha was one of the best I have eaten in a really long time. So perhaps this is an ok place to go if you want kebabs and rotis, but I would rather go to kebab factory at the Radisson or Awadhpuri for that.

There weren't any types of poli/dosas - neer dosa, appams, sannas, idiyappams etc on the menu which is sad as these are the best accompaniments for Manglorean and coastal dishes.

Attill calls itself  a Fine Dining restaurant, but we were served food in plastic (not even melamine) plates.

Service is extremely slow and the staff don't seem to have become comfortable with the menu yet.

If you have never tasted Coastal cuisine before, then don't let this be your first place to try it, as it does not do justice to the myriad complex flavours of food from the West Coast. If you are craving Konkani food and just need a fix, then you can try this place. But its an expensive place too.

3 rotis, fish cutlets (4 tiny ones), 1 slice of sear fish fried, 1 mutton xacuti, 1 egg biryani, 2 tandoori rotis, 1 laccha paratha costed around 1800/-

I think I'm better off cooking this cuisine at home and requesting parcels from people who visit us from the Coastal regions.

Rating : 3 / 5

Zambar, Gurgaon

Zambar
3rd Floor, Food Court
Ambience Mall
NH 8
Gurgaon
0124 - 466 5590

With a curfew situation on restaurants in Delhi on the 14th, we headed towards Gurgaon and Ambience mall was the first "open" location that we saw. I'd heard a lot of good things about Zambar, so thats where we headed.

Unfortunately, although Zambar was open at 6pm, the chef said that they were only serving dosas, idlis and drinks until 7pm when dinner service would begin. Unfortunate, because the menu we were presented had a lovely selection of food in its a ala carte section, from the coastal parts of India. However, we were restricted to the 4 types of dosas and idlis.

Being famished, we just sat down and ordered the non veg masala dosas. Mutton mince (250Rs) for me and chicken and mushroom (250Rs) for the husband. The dosas are really large and a complete meal, not just a snack like most South Indian eateries. The mutton mince dosa was excellent. In the chicken dosa, while the chicken chunks themselves were lovely, I found the mushrooms a bit on the salty side.

We also ordered the Kanjeevaram idli (215Rs) since we knew the dosas would take a little while to arrive. It arrived in a set of 3 idlis with cashwenuts on the top, a compliment of 3 chutneys (coconut, mint and tomato) and sambhar.

The table also had little pots with 3 chutneys (mint, onion+ginger and groundnut+onion) and some chutney powder.

The sambhar was served at room temperature and we had to send it back to the kitchen to be re-heated. (That's why the bowl is missing in the Dosa picture)

The ginger coconut caipiroshka (150Rs) was average and it was served warm. But the Coastal ice tea (150Rs) was really interesting. It's made with cola, but when we asked if it could be changed to diet cola, the waiter said that we would have to pay the price of the diet cola (150Rs) + the cost of the Coastal Ice tea.

Its this contradiction of being a high priced restaurant, but quibbling and service like a lower end joint that did not sit well with us.

The decor is lovely with muted lighting and simple but stylish seating.

The food was nice, but if I want idlis, I would rather go to my neighbourhood South Indian outlet. Naivedyam, Evergreen and Adyar Ananth Bhavan all serve much superior idlis and chutneys at 20% of this cost. The dosas were "zara hatke", but not worth the drive.

I've heard that their thalis are good and the a la carte menu is excellent. So I will return to check out the regular menu, I'll just have to make sure that it is after 7pm. I'll re-review it at that time, but until then:

Ambience : 7
Food  : 6
Service :4

Swagath, Delhi

Swagath
M-9, M Block Market
GK 2

I remembered that I had enjoyed the Mangalorean food at Swagath, when I was last in Delhi 8 years ago. Feeling homesick for mums coconut curries and some sea food, it was the right time to see if Swagath still lived up to my fond memories of the place.

The Fresh Lime Soda (75rs) was just right and it is a pleasure to be back in India, where restaurants know how to make this perfect. The boneless Chicken 65 (290rs) was a hot and spicy, deep fried piece of heaven. The Squid Special Masala Fry (330rs) had a wonderful Manglorean spicy and tamarind flavored masala and will go great with neer dosas or appams that are oferred at the restaurant. The crowning glory though, was the
Fish Biryani (475rs) served with a little bit of fish curry on the side.This was the flavour of home that I was seeking and I was not dissappointed at all.

With the Service Charge and VAT the bill was around 1500/-. But the food that I had ordered would be enough for 2 people.

I must add that my experience at the Malviya Nagar branch was not as great as the GK2 outlet. The food did not taste as good and the ambience was not as comfortable.