Café 88 — Restaurant in Pune

⏺"HYATT PUNE" - Ever since I was a child I have had burning curiosity to visit this intimate & idyllic place which has got ecstatic ambience. And finally got a chance to enjoy their splendid food dishes & regal service.❤ . ⏺Ambiance - Perched in the Hyatt Pune, the Eighty Eight restaurant has got elegance that you'll admire & beauty that will obligate you to spend more time over here. As soon as you step in you'll see a kitchen setup on your right hand side & a huge dessert spread on your left hand side which might blow your mind. Seating arrangement is enhanced by the big wooden tables & chairs whereas you'll see walls are graced by some stunning wooden artifacts. Inside the decor is elegant & outside is euphoric. Without wasting time we decided to pounce on food plate. . ⏺What I had there - I was here to try out specifically Risottos along with other small - big food bites. . ⏺Mocktail - Thymeorro It's a staple orange mocktail that is loved by everyone.The tropical mocktail has given an extra flavor by adding cranberry juice in it but the dominant flavor belongs to orange only. Works great in summer & will leave you wanting more . ⏺Bread ▶Focaccia Bread - Focaccia bread is my recent favorite.❤ A wonderful,brown & crusty flat oven-baked bread. Slightly crispy on the outside & soft as well as chewy on the inside. Bread was topped with fresh Rosemarie. Tasted so rich & delicious. . ⏺ Risotto ▶Spring Veg Risotto with Poached Eggs - Not only light but also a hearty risotto which is a mix of spring vegetables & has a rich flavorful & creamy consistency. The luxurious texture of poached eggs saturating the rice brings no need for cream. Smooth & seasonal. Flavorful & warm as well. Wonderful things come to those who wait & this risotto is worth waiting till chef makes it just in front of your eyes! A feast for eyes. A delicious spring dish.Enjoyed it thoroughly till last bite. ▶Creamy Shrimp risotto with Mascarpone. I am not a seafood lover but this is something which stunned me for a while. Yeah, a seafood risotto!Well cooked rice was suspended in a thick,creamy sauce. Seafood like shrimps & prawns were scrapped into the rice & stirred in the mascarpone. A mind blowing risotto & missing this will do utterly injustice with it.Must try for all seafood lovers.❤ ▶Roasted barely with spinach pesto - What a delicious thing! Rice was mixed with spinach & herbs. Rice was tender on outside but still slightly firm to the bite in the centre. Barley had a soft texture that almost resembled that of cooked rice. Not too starchy & with a great texture. Fresh & Warm. A perfect combination! What my foodie soul needs more than this?😍 ▶Farrotto Primavera - It's like risotto but only using whole wheat.Delicious farro meal with goodness of grains. Nutty flavor & slightly chewy texture & it was cooked properly. Taste was mesmerizing & I bet you gonna lick your plate while having this.One more thing about this dish is that using farro in place of rice adds nutritional benefits as well.So definitely worth trying! . ⏺Desserts - This spread was damn huge! It had many varieties of desserts starting from Rasmalai, churma to freaking delicious Tiramisu & different types of cakes.I couldn't eat every single dessert because I was already stuffed with risotto but whatever I had was superb. I specially loved the tiramisu a lot. This was best tiramisu till date with different delicious layers inside it & how could I forget to mention about our most divine Indian dessert "Rasmalai".It literally stole my heart. . All-in-all, It was one of the best days in my life & now Hyatt is the place where my heart belongs. Food is no doubt freaking awesome & Hyatt is word more than enough to describe everything out there.Also thanks to all the chefs who hosted us & made everything in front of us also staff was very enthusiastic. Once again I got the best memories from Hyatt & also learnt new things about risotto as well.To everyone out there who is reading this, I'll highly recommend to try out this " Risotto Special" before it gets...

Hyatt Pune is hosting a food festival "Royal Rajasthan" specially focused on Rajasthani and savory food items. The super delicious dishes are being made by Chef Premsukh from Hyatt, Ahmedabad. The amazing ambiance, super food and great taste describe Hyatt very well. Basically, this is dinner buffet served from 7pm to 11pm and from 21st June to 30th June. Being a marwadi, I really liked the authentic food here.

So, list of amazing foods goes here,

Starters

Papad Paneer Bhara – this was something new I had. The outer layer was fried with stuffing of soft paneer in it. Super yumm.

Pyaz ki Kachori – I liked the pyaz ki kachori over dal kachori. This kachori was according to my taste. The kachori masala was not dry which made it tastier. Served with green chutney.

Dal kachori – Dal ki kachori was too dry to taste. This might be the reason I may have not liked it. Again, I think this could have been served with tamarind chutney.

Mutter ke Samosa – The crispy small samosas won my heart. A must have item. The stuffing was made with mutter(Pea) and potato. My favorite.

Palak Patte ka Chat – Nothing new in this. This was just plain Palak leaves deep fried in gram flour. You can enjoy this with green chutney. I think this type of starters could be enjoyed with tamarind chutney.

Main Course

Haldi ki Subz – Don’t worry this don’t not contain that much haldi. Basically this was made with chopped cauliflower, pea(mutter), onion. This was good enough but had lot of oil.

Aloo pyaz ki sabzi – A homemade style sabzi which was delicious. This was dry and had finely chopped potato pieces mixed with red chilies and onion. A must try.

Ker sangria – I never heard of this dish, but trust me this was amazing. A traditional Rajasthani dish made with sun dried Ker berry and sangria beans. Basically, the berry is bitter in taste, but this was made tasty. The preparation of dish takes away the bitterness and makes it tasty. #Musttry.

Shahi Gatta – Again my favorite, Gram flour Gatta. This was made in tangy flavor in which the gravy was thick, spicy and tasty.

Rajasthani Batti, Dal, Churma – Rajasthani food is incomplete with this dish. Basically, the dal that is served with bati is prepared using tuvar or Chana dal. The bati is hard bread made using wheat flour. This dish is incomplete with Churma which is again prepared using wheat flour and ghee. Churma gives a sweet taste making the perfect combination. #Highly Recommended

Gatte ki Khichadi – Marwadi khichadi made up of rice. Well balanced taste with great aroma. The khichadi was mixed with Gatta along with onion etc. I really enjoyed this with Rajasthani kadi.

You can enjoy the mains with typical bajri ke roti which was super yummy

Dessert

So, in dessert I tried various items like caramel custard, Strawberry Pastry, Moti Chur ke laddu, Malpua with rabdi. Some of the Rajasthani desserts were a little bit dry but the taste was average for the dessert.

The Price for buffet is 1450 + Taxes.

Overall a lovely experience.

Would surely going to visit this place again.

A big thanks to Hyatt and chef Premsukh for such a lovely dinner.

Best of luck to...

We went there yesterday on a Sunday night. Had reservations for buffet. It wasn't crowded when we reached. They charge more for dineout bookings. When I had called I was told lunch and dinner prices are same for both on Sundays.

There was intense smell of non-veg items all over, Chimney alert. After settling down, I went to check out the buffet counters.

To my utter shock there was no paneer in starters. This was my first time seeing no cottage cheese in starters sections😲

The options for vegetarians were extremely limited. The buffet was underwhelming to say the least. Most of the items were cold.

No dumplings, no sushi, no live stir fry section. ❌ Tofu was bad, noodles were just OK, tomato 🍲 was so watery. All the dishes weren't hot.

Salads section was no delight either for vegetarians. Hummus was good though. Pita breads were soft 👍

There was lady sitting right to Salad bar along with her kid on a high chair was using her hands to take Salad 🍃 Staff wasn't there to ask her not to do that. 🤦

I had ordered pasta which arrived literally towards the end of my meal when I was having 🍰 I comprehend cafe got crowded but still more than 1 hour to serve? Spaghetti 🍝 wasn't available as well.

That too I had to ask for it a couple of times, saw chef munching at the pizza live counter. 🤦 They had given my pasta to 51 table hence mine never reached me on time at table 52👎 Nevertheless server asked if he could pack for takeaway and since I hate wasting food, I agreed.

🍕 🍕 was crispy and didn't have Margherita flavor. Should start making mini 🍕 to avoid wastage. I couldn't eat.

Main course didn't have plethora of options 🙄 no dal makhani, no malai kofta, no Thai curries nothing rich or extraordinary ❌

There was curd rice, dal tadka, palak, paneer do pyaza,baby corn,dry cauliflower, all were ok. Peas pulao was yum. Took tablespoon of each.

Asked for garlic butter roti and got plain butter roti.

I had to voice my concern about Chef handling 🐟 shouldn't be handling rotis, as a strict vegetarian I was skeptical.

Live chat counter was better than other sections, since there was barely any starters I ended up having chaat items. Chef asked if I want spicy but that doesn't mean red chilli powder. Should use green chillies for vitamin and onions..papadi chat was good. I ended up with upset tummy after consuming 🌶powder.

Saved the best for the last. Desserts were so much better than Pune 14, hyatt and there were so many eggless options which I must appreciate 👍 I really liked 🍎 🍏 crumble although it could've been baked and caramelized more. Moong dal halwa was alright but not warm. Most of the 🍰 🍰 were yum. Chocolate Gulab jamun was different but good enough.

There were no ice-creams 🍦 🍨 ❌ even mosaic of the crown plaza hotel serves plethora of flavors of 🍨 This was so astonishing in this real scorcher 🔥 😑

All in all it was a big-time disappointing experience 😞

Good thing that they had wet wipes. I got them...