Little Italy Restaurant, Chinchwad Pune — Restaurant in Maharashtra

Since people have rated this place 4/5 I decided to give it a try. Expectations of authenticity and quality were as high as the prices. Firstly, the name is absolutely misleading. "Little Italy" also serves Mexican. The two cuisines are actually poles apart. We were hosting a guest who had stayed in U.S. and who had very good knowledge of authentic Italian food as it is available in "Little Italy" area of New York.

We first ordered Minestrone. Our host was flabbergasted to see the Minestrone served to us. Minestrone is supposed to be a very busy soup with pasta, beans and other diced veggies with Italian herbs. There is supposed to be so much stuff that a wooden stick can stand in the soup. But what we got was mostly clear veg stock with two to three pieces of cauliflower, potato  and carrot floating around. Minestrone : Authenticity very poor Value for money - very poor Strictly avoid Minestrone

Nachos with cheese: It seems the restaurant did not have yellow Cheddar so they actually mixed turmeric in the cheese to make it yellow. Not done. Authenticity: Average Value for money : poor Avoid if you can

Next we ordered Caprese. Sliced tomatoes and mozzarella with green olives with three slices of bread. Authenticity- Good VFM : Very poor Avoid ordering Caprese

Pale de potatato :   fried potato skins. Better than throwing them away. Authenticity: poor. Totally indianized by using aamchur. Value for money : Very poor Avoid ordering

Pizza's Napoli and Alla vodka Authenticity: Fair Value for money : Poor

One thing I have learnt.. never expect value for money and authenticity in restaurants touting as Italian or mexican run by Indians. If you want VFM and authenticity look out for famous European or American  branches opened in India. Like Chilli's for Mexican in phoenix city mall and Pizza hut /...

Little Italy Offered a Lunch Box for two for a reasonable price of INR 600 plus taxes via Zomato. There were good options for the pizza, pasta, starter and dessert. Salad was just about okay. We customized the box as Pizza Napoli, Pasta Penne, Mushroom Sauteed as appetizer and the Blueberry cake. Being Italian ristorante, they have mastered the art of making pizza. Pizza was delicious. Thin crust, nicley cooked , good amount of vegetables and their own seasoning,sauce. Pizza was so good we didn't even try to locate the sauce either in the box or at home. Which, we eventually did ,for the penne pasta. Sauteed Mushrooms were done well. They maintained to cook well , retaining the thickish density of Mushrooms. Little oily but sporadic basil and minimal spices, made this one a top notch starter. Penne pasta was little under cooked. Whatever they did it was palatable but the chewiness didn't go away. Unfortunately it didn't have any pasta sauce so we have to rummage thoroughly our fridge and found a habenaro sauce. Tomato and chilly, which I smeared a copious amount to make the pasta delectable. Salad was good. Fresh Iceberg lettuce, Olives and dressing which was not very discernable, but was alright. Blue berry cake was more like the whipped cream on ultra thin base. But the topping was super tasty. Seems like Little Italy got most of the things right in the box. I would recommend to try it once and also request the ristorante to somehow add their signature soup, whichever they beleive is the best, in the box. And one last thing, Once you offer a box the options should never have additional price tags , unless some exquisite and expensive ingredients are used. Hope they listen to customer and make him happier next time. All in all , very good meal , though for the...

Ambience - 5/5 (soft music, properly lit, variety of tables to accommodate 1/2/4/larger groups, secluded, pleasant exterior as well)

Service - prompt, we went by online recommendations and didn't ask for in house recommendations so not sure how well versed they are with their own menus

Food - ordered nachos with cheese sauce, sicillia pizza, chocolate bomb and had to compulsory take bottled water due to covid

Packaged mineral water - 65/- utter loot.. absolutely didn't like them charging this for a bottle of kinley just because they are little Italy. We asked for normal water, they refused so had no choice but to take it

Nachos - over hyped, the sauce was bland, visually not appealing at all, we were served almost cold ones.. was expecting hot cheese sauce but it was just name sake warm.. thanks to the seasoning and the on table salsa, it added taste to the nachos. Also quantity was not justified as per the price, see image

Pizza - lived the hype! Was good, proper crust thickness (they gave option to make thin ya thick and we opted for thin, although it wasn't like paper thin, but was proper, filling).I couldn't really taste the other ingredients mentioned on the menu card as mushroom was the highlight of it and being a mushroom lover, worked for me.. but would have been good if the other ingredients flavor come out well too.. oh forgot to mention that basil wasn't fresh really.. they had darken..

Chocolate bomb - freshly baked chocolate cake was good not best, enough gooey inside.. good option for dessert.. again overpriced.. the portion could...