May 21, 2007 04:26 PM
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(Updated May 24, 2007 09:37 AM)
Food guides have a hard task at hand - that of capturing the essence of many and varying eateries in a city, with multiple cuisines, various styles of presentation and cooking, differing tastes of the audience and the always-seasonal "appeal factor". The task is more complicated in a city like Pune because of the rich tradition and history of the place and also of the people. There are eateries and watering holes in Pune that have become the stuff of legend and have won hearts many times over.
Times Food Guide Pune 2007 tries to take on the Pune food and drinks scene head on, and does a decent job of it. It was released a few days back and launched only yesterday with a big celebrity-attended function pasted all over Pune Times today(Times of India is shameless when it comes to advertising its own stuff). In the same function, awards were given to top restaurants and bars in various categories for 2007 - which gives an indication that the guide could be revised on an yearly basis - a good thing IMO. The guide is a small volume - costs Rs 100 and fits nicely in your hand(you can also carry it easily in your pocket or purse). Its printed on decent quality paper and uses the standard small book binding.
The list of restaurants, bars, pubs, lounges, bakeries, sweet shops, and road-side eateries is quite exhaustive although not at all complete(more on this later). Around 600 places are reviewed - by members of the Times team who visited them incognito and on Times's money(sad fact, why - see below). Places are rated on factors like taste, ambiance/decor, service etc. By default, the guide is organized alphabetically, but there are indexes at the back that sort the places by location(e.g. FC Road, Koregaon Park), cuisine(e.g. Chinese, Italian), budget and broad area(e.g. North, South). They have also picked up the top 3 places in many categories(given the awards) - this list is also quite useful. They even have prepared a list of "must-visits" in Pune, which IMO is a decent list.
The individual reviews of the places are small(on average not more than 100 words) and sometimes tend to just generalize the place.
That was the good part. Now for the bad. As said earlier, the list is not complete. And it misses out on a lot of popular and good places or even whole areas. For example, it does not cover the upcoming Baner area with restaurants like Sadanand Resorts, Wazwaan and Green Park and pubs like Area 51. It misses out on eating places like Khyber, McDonalds, SISA; eateries like Janaseva Dugdha Mandir, Rasoi, Hotel Nagpur, Durga Biryani, Olympia Kati Kebabs, Chef Baghban and watering holes like Varsha Bar and Apache at Chandni Chowk. It also misses out big time on places on the fringes of Pune or even a bit outside of it - restaurants/bars like Banjara Hills, Garden Court, Oasis, Toni da Dhaba, Ambrosia, Chokhi Dhaani, Raanjai, Veer da Dhaba and many more.
Another problem with the guide is that it lacks a factor for value-for-money. Many of the places that are rated highly are also, IMHO, not good value for money. Take for example the Galaxy Grill Greek restaurant in Seasons Hotel Aundh - its prices don't make sense at all and the food and service are, at best, average. In fact this can be said of all the Seasons restaurants - but the guide gives them all good marks! In general, the guide tends to give better ratings to places that are bigger in terms of money power and press friendliness(places whose owners are well known for example). So places like Durvankur, which is always packed and extremely popular with general junta, is given puny ratings while the 5-star Mystic Masala in Taj Blue Diamond(serving same type of food), which is always empty and not even known outside some circles, is given raving reviews. This gives an impression that the reviewers tend to favor more upmarket places than the ones for mere mortals. I feel this issue can be rectified if the reviewers are asked to pay for themselves rather than being paid by Times:-).
Overall, this is a decent guide because even with its omissions and skew towards costlier places - its a comprehensive list of all things food and drink in Pune. Its a good starting effort on behalf of Times and I hope they revise it soon to include many more places and better value.
