Cafe from the tree, Baner — Restaurant in Pune

I normally refrain from sharing negative reviews unless something is very very off, because I am cognizant of the hardwork that small enterprises put into the business.

We visited the place today for dinner, with prior reservation, and for some reason everything about the place was off.

Starting with the check-in, we arrived at the restaurant and there was no one who we could speak to to enquire about our reservation. The kitchen staff, the servers, everything was jumbled up. Understood. Happens with the best of us. We somehow caught hold of someone and enquired about where we could sit since we have a prior, CONFIRMED, reservation. The staff was as clueless as anyone else about what we were talking about. He requested us to wait a few minutes before a table gets cleared and he can accomodate us, to which we cordially complied.

Got the table after waiting for a few minutes. Got the menu. We could see that the restaurant was full and grossly understaffed so we decided to place all of our order at once.

Ordered for a pizza, a pasta and a pizza bomb

The pasta arrived 1st. Good taste. Nothing to complain. Nothing to appreciate beyond regular.

Then came in the pizza. We have travelled to Naples and have eaten pizza there so we are quite acquainted with what True Napolitano pizza really is. The pizza that came in looked familiar, smelled good but the bite was not as pleasing as the visuals. Salt was absent. Like non existent. As blasphemous as it gets, we had to top up the pizza with oregano packets stacked on the table to cover for the missing salt and flavour quotient of the pizza.

By now, our hopes were already dead and we asked the server for some water and he gave us a bottle of Himalyan water. I am generally against buying bottled water, in the interest of saving another piece of plastic ruining our already messed up ocean eco-systems, unless the situation is precarious or i am at a place where I cannot trust the drinking water, but none of that applies to Pune and hence I requested the server to get us regular filtered water in a glass. To my utter dismay he said, sir we don't serve regular water here.

Now i have read the legislation on this subject and THIS IS UNLAWFUL. A restaurant cannot coax its guests into buying bottled water and refuse them regular water. Not in this part of the world atleast. However, the management is either oblivious to this or is not bothered about the law of the land they are operating in. I did not open the bottle and immediately pulled out my phone and dropped a whatsapp message on the number shared here on google maps about the whole situation. Till the time of writing this review, I hadn't been able to hear their take on this.

Moving on to the third item. It was rightly titled a bomb. Because it totally bombed our evening. The bomb is a conical version of what you get at Mc Donald's by the name of pizza mc puff, albeit at some 8-10x the price.

Thereafter we asked for the bill. Thud came the cover and the QR code. I pulled out my card only to learn "Sorry sir, we don't accept cards"

Dude, really, like seriously?? When you are running a restaurant where the average cost for 2 is north of ₹1700, where you refuse to offer tap water to customers and have 750 ml water bottle priced at ₹50, you are wanting to save on that 1-2% TDR by refusing to accept cards?? This is beyond imagination.

Any we paid by the QR, left and sat in the car and a staff member came running after us. He had to click our phone screen to record the transaction. Simply wow.

Left the place. Don't have much...

Went here a few days ago. Had been to the other branch in KP and since it was wonderful, had come here expecting the same quality and service. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the reputation. We ordered a hot chocolate, mexiacan fries and pasta. Fries were great and even though taste-wise pasta was good, the sauce wasn't fully smooth. Big chunks of pepper as well. The hot chocolate was extremely bad. It was undrinkable. There was a burnt smell to it and it tasted very burnt as well. We asked the waiter to confirm by simply smelling, if that was their usual way or if it was a mistake. He took it with him and brought it back, saying that the chef agreed that it was how their hot chocolate always is. Having such a drink wasn't the worse part, but bringing back something which had been taken away from the table was what irked me the most. And knowing that the chef had examined it, probably tasted it, before returning it was a bit unhygienic to me. Overall, the atmosphere and music of the cafe was lovely but I was dissapointed with the staff. I would have prefered if he had simply let us know that the drink was not a mistake, or called the chef over instead of taking it with him. We payed fully...

Amazing place with calm and free vibes.

Most of the ingredients are self made by the cafe which gives a nice unique taste. The veggies are grown by them at their terrace gardens, the cheese is made inhouse along with the other important sauces.

The fries are a must try with so many options to choose from. They have a assortment of these insane additions along with variety of sauces to go with.

My favourite has been the pizza. It is made with the right way and method as the Napolitano Pizza.

The pastas are a must try for.

The shakes are the best in the entire town, made with a very unique and different recipe. I bet you cannot find such good shakes around so easily.

As it's said, the right use of the right ingredients for the right dish can make it the best thing in the world. Well it surely does apply over here.

And needless to say, as mentioned before this places oozes out such a welcoming and cozy vibe. The plants around, the live pizza fire in the open, the large word in the wall, the games to play, the books to read.

What more do we want .. A sure visit is...