Hotel Samudra — Restaurant in Pune

"Samudra" the name is very misleading. It has nothing to do with sea or seafood. Infact, it's a pure vegetarian restaurant that serves South Indian, North Indian and Indo-Chinese food.

Few days back I was wandering around Nal stop with few of my friends. We were very hungry and went here as we thought it's a seafood restaurant, without looking in Zomato, which turned out to be a huge mistake. After seating at the table, we came to know that it's a pure veg restaurant. As we were very hungry, we decided to give it a try.

The ambiance is decent, nothing fancy. This place is very crowded around weekends. Service is very slow and the servers are ignorant.

Coming to food, we had:

Masala Papad: Fried papad topped with chopped onion, tomato and sev. It was decent.

Samudra Special Tiranga: It's a tri-color gravy which consists of mix veg of some sort prepared in orange gravy, malai methi matar and palak paneer. Mix veg and malai methi matar was horrible in taste, palak paneer was okayish out of the three gravies.

Matka Dum Biryani: It was served with salan. It was the worst veg biryani I ever had in my life. And the salan was not salan, but some sort of creamy gravy. Never order this if you are biryani lover.

Samudra Special Kofta: The only saving grace was samudra special kofta. It was good, koftas were cooked nicely and the consistency and flavour of kofta curry was nice.

Cheese Garlic Naan

It was near to closing time, and we asked one of the server for naan. He said, "Aadhich sangitla hota kitchen band karnyachi vel jhali aahe, kalat naahi ka, aadhich order dyaycha hota na". We were shocked by his reply. I have never experienced this kind of behaviour in any restaurant.

This was the worst restaurant I ever visited in Pune. I am never going back to this...

#ankzfoodreviews #comfortfood

Hotel Samudra Veg

Samudra has been one of the oldest players in the food sector across Pune. Old school type which typically started as a south indian hotel and was quick to spread its wings across all the cuisines. Not much advertisement, yet this restaurant has it's vast base of customers. With an excellent location this place has been an obvious choice for so many Kothrudkars for more than a decade.

*Starters #Masala_Papad, the most underrated and popular dish. I've never come across a bad masala papad yet 😊 On table of 4 we had 2 big masala papads. Not so oily Urad papad was topped with onion, tomato and sev. #LovedIt Price : Rs. 40

#Honey_Chilli_Potatoes, boiled potatoes coated, deep fried and than tossed in honey sauce with mix veggies. I liked the boiled potatoes version of this than the French fries version of it. It wasn't much crispy but sweet & spicy! Price : Rs. 180

*Mains #Mixed_Veg, this mixed veg sabzi was delicious and rich. Loved the smoked flavour it had. Price : Rs. 160

#Dal_Khichadi, the dish I love the most here. A comfort food that I most commonly eat at this place. It wasn't much dry, had good amount of lentil. Not very spicy but nourishing and comforting. #musthave #soulfood Price : Rs. 140

*Desserts #Gajar_Halwa, rich and delectable 😍 Price : Rs. 80

#Sizzling_Brownie, two brownies served in one plate with 2 different flavours of icecream scoops vanilla & chocolate and topped with 2 different sauces white chocolate & milk chocolate. Brownie was extremely moist and yummy. #MustTry Price : Rs. 200

Overall, I thought the food is extremely good and pocket friendly. Service was quick, inspite of the fact that the restaurant was jam packed....

1 of the most reasonable family restaurants in Pune with vibrant ambiance and great quality and quantity of food, maintaining cleanliness and hygiene & having a friendly staff giving quick service.

Must try list :

1. South Indian : medu vada, potato vada, masala dosa, set dosa, Mysore masala dosa, onion rava sada dosa, cheese onion uttapam.

2. Quick bites : Amul paav bhaji, spicy masala paav, Paneer pav bhaji, dahi vada, cheese chilli toast sandwich, veg grilled sandwich.

3. Starters: Veg Manchurian dry, veg crispy, veg spring roll, honey chilli potato, Paneer crispy, Paneer in butter garlic sauce, plain French fries.

4. Indian main course: •Sabji - veg bhuna, veg Banjara, veg Maratha, veg handi, Methi masala, aalo Gobi, Paneer butter masala, Paneer Tikka masala, Palak Paneer, Paneer sholay kebab, Paneer chatpata kebab.

•Roti : plain Roti, butter naan, stuffed kulche.

•Daal: spicy Daal tadka or daal fry.

•Rice: jeera fried rice, khichadi kadhi, dal khichadi, triple Schezwan fried rice, burnt chilli veg fried rice.

•Accompaniments : Pineapple raita and masala papad.

5. Chinese cuisine : •Veg Manchurian gravy, veg balls in garlic sauce. •Schezwan Hakka noodles, burnt chilli veg noodles. •Chinese sizzlers.

6. Bevarages: •Special tea • Fresh lime soda (sweet)

7. Desserts: any flavour ice...