La Cucina — Restaurant in Bidhannagar

A Horrifyingly Bad Experience

Dined on: 26/02/2024 Evening

Table no: 42

Bill invoice no: LCO13609

We were a party of four who went to La Cucina for a birthday celebration. The staff member who took our booking informed us that we would be given a complimentary pastry, as it was a birthday celebration.

We ordered fish soup, minestrone soup, and antipasti for starters. Spinach and ricotta ravioli, and a margherita pizza for the mains. And for desserts, well, more about that in the review below.

For drinks, we ordered watermelon juice, and Martini Rosso aperitif. The juice was fine, but I was served a strange cocktail of gin and some martini, instead of what I had ordered. The cocktail was fine, so I did not make a fuss over it and spoil the birthday mood.

Starters: In my past visits, the complimentary bread offering was generous, and second servings were offered without having to ask for them. Now, the first offering itself is miserly, and one has to ask for seconds. Since it is complimentary, I am not complaining too much. But it does foreshadow the entire dining experience that has a strong whiff of cost-cutting.

The fish soup was average. In my past 3 visits, I have always ordered this soup, and it has always come without the mussels, which, I imagine, is the most expensive ingredient. This time was no exception, and the server was quick to point out that the soup would be served without the mussels. If you can’t source a key ingredient, why should you keep mentioning it on the menu, and obviously, keep charging the diners for the same at increasing prices? This is unacceptable for a fine-dining restaurant.

The minestrone soup was average. It is priced comparatively reasonably, so the mediocrity of the recipe is something about which I won’t complain too much.

The antipasti is a miserly offering, is presented artlessly, and therefore, is simply not worth the price.

Mains: We asked for the ravioli recipe to be modified a bit, as we did not want to have gorgonzola. The chef tried his best. But the size of the ravioli has also decreased over time, and therefore, it invariably underwhelms.

The lowest point of this dinner was the margherita pizza, which arrived too late, and had very poor-quality dough (the dough has recently been changed, as a server informed us, and it has changed for the worse). The pizza WAS BURNT TO A CRISP. I have never had such a bad pizza even at Dominos. The pizza is not worth a tenth of the price you pay for it.

Desserts: In my numerous visits to this restaurant over the years, this is the first time when the servers did not even bother ask us if we wanted to order any desserts. Imagine this level of apathy for a fine-dining restaurant. And that complimentary pastry for our birthday celebration, well, that never came. We neither ordered any desserts nor cared for any pastry - complimentary or otherwise - because we simply wanted to be out of there. In hindsight, it is only appropriate that such an underwhelming dinner ended on this glum note.

I have been dining at this restaurant for 13 years. When the chef extraordinaire Maitreya Sen was at the helm, La Cucina was OUTSTANDING. Our each evening was made so special that over the years, our association with Mr Sen evolved into a warm friendship. I have had better food at La Cucina than I have had in some good restaurants in Rome. From those heights, this restaurant has fallen drastically. A year ago, a visit, whilst a far cry from the heydays, was still almost worth it. In the past one year, things have got precipitously bad, and this visit felt like a complete waste of time and money – for the first time in 13 years.

It saddens me that an iconic restaurant of our beloved city has deteriorated like this. I won’t be going back for some years. If you have not tried this one before, and want to take a chance, good luck to you. If you have had fond memories in the past, like I have, and want to relive them, be prepared for a massive...

Review

My husband and I booked a table here for Valentine’s Day. We were really looking forward to our experience due to the already fantastic reviews. We were almost immediately disappointed. Our reservation was at 8pm we were seated but not guided to start with the buffet. We had to sit around and wait for 20 mins then finally someone told us where to start our meal. My husband and I are vegetarians so the buffet options were fairly minimal and not all that tasty to be honest. The best part was the station where a chef makes this special cheese dish for you. So it didn’t take long for us to finish our plate of appetizers then we patiently waited for another 20-30 mins finally a waiter started coming around with different pasta dishes. But the quantity was ridiculously small. One scoop of pasta 2-3 pieces of ravioli one small scoop of risotto a few deep fried vegetables like 3 long beans and 2 little pieces of carrot another small scoop of mashed potatoes. Then we got to choose a pizza. One medium flat style pizza to share. After we finished we were told your main course will be coming shortly. We waited and waited for about 30-45 mins still nothing came. Waiters could see our plates were empty and we were clearly waiting for something. These 2 little pie shaped things were served to us. Seemed like cornmeal cakes or something. They were completely bland. They were so bad we couldn’t even bring ourselves to eat them. At this point it was getting quite late and we thought maybe that was the main course? We were tired of waiting so for another 20 mins or so we attempted to flag down a waiter to ask them about dessert. We were told it’s near the buffet. We searched and couldn’t find any dessert. My husband and I just stood there lost and plenty of staff were around but completely oblivious to us needing direction. So we asked a chef that was standing opposite to us. Where are the desserts? and he directed us to this room separate form the restaurant were there was a pretty descent spread of deserts but only 4 options for vegetarians 1 of which again was not eatable. We left feeling very dissatisfied with our dinner experience here. And when we got home we searched for information about the buffet and came to realize that we never did receive our main course!!! Completely unacceptable! We felt like we didn’t receive nearly enough food! Wouldn’t recommend going here at all very expensive! The service was not good and you were left to feel forgotten about. Bottom line the moment you enter you can feel the vibe that the waiters are just waiting for you to leave. We spent 3 hrs here and probably out of that time we were eating for...

The fact that this restaurant is under the name Hyatt is a sham. I am in disbelief that the staff of this restaurant are not taught basic etiquette - greeting, serving, handling menu, preparing the food, serving food that is not burnt, the list goes on.

This is not my first time at a Hyatt hotel but this is the first time I’ve felt so out of place, looked down upon by waiters, giving me the side eye, my guest also got elbowed by a waiter holding plates trying to squeeze by because they had to close and they were rushing.

The main course that we ordered took so much time. The guests who came much after us were delivered food on time, serviced on time, served on time, and paid the bill before us!

The table next to us had a full service, a waiter running around serving them the food and giving them the best of her time and behaviour as opposed to what she did to us.

I’m appalled by the taste of the food! The carbonara had burnt bacon pieces (trust me you do not want to see the picture) and the steak, which we clearly told the waiter to deliver us the meat (medium to well done) was almost just medium done. Both items were only half eaten.

The manager could not even approach us because he already saw I was fuming! He sent a waiter to ask us how the food was. lol!

A scene could easily be created but I was calmed by my friend who accompanied me to this sham of a hotel!

Hyatt, you need to seriously take in the bad reviews instead of just responding to only the good ones. Huge expectations were met with by abysmal food, taste, ambience and BAD SERVICE! Never...