Cafe Ohiyo - A quaint little cafe in Noida

I was staying in Noida Sector 62 and wanted to go to a cafe. Having lived in Bangalore and Hyderabad I am pretty used to visiting cafes that have really good food. Although Delhi has good cafes, I was surprised that Noida didn't have too many options close by. So when a friend suggested Cafe Ohiyo I decided to give it a try more so as it was pretty close. The top floor is very pretty, it is Chinese themed with wallpapers from China and cute little couches with lots of pillows. There is an outer sitting as well but it is infested with mosquitoes so we preferred sitting inside. We started off by ordering Penne in white sauce. The Pasta was creamy and cheesy and cooked quite well. I would have preferred the pasta breads as opposed to the plain bread that was served.

Next we ordered the Herbed Chicken Bruschetta - this was garlic bread that was topped with diced chicken marinated in Italian herbs and oil. Again I was disappointed with the normal bread as opposed to the Bruschetta bread. Also, there was no herb garnish. Apart from that, the taste was great.

After that we ordered Chickrum. This dish was made out of succulent chicken cubes that was marinated with dark rum and a secret marinade, served with cilantro and cheese dip. Every bite of the chicken had a strong hint of rum so it felt like having alcohol. But unfortunately, the chicken wasn't juicy and had no flavors as well.

Lastly we ordered the Chicken Quattro Pizza. Ideally a quattro pizza has four different toppings in four quarters but this pizza just had four different toppings - Ham, Sausage, Peri peri Chicken and Garlic Chicken. Unfortunately while having the Pizza I couldn't taste all the four varieties.

Overall: This definitely has a great ambiance. The food is good if you just judge it by a normal measure, but as a food enthusiast there are definitely quite a few gaps.

Ambiance: 4.5/5

Service: 4.5/5

Food: 3/5

Price: Budget-friendly

The Best Chutneys in Town

I am a huge non-veg food fan. So much so that I hardly touch vegetarian stuff. So one Saturday evening when friends decided to go to Chutneys I was absolutely disappointed. But who can resist hunger? I had skipped lunch and could just about gobble up anything. So while I was going through their menu I really ended up liking their Babai Idli. This dish originated at the Babi Hotel at Vijaywada and Chutneys have a replica of the same. So once the dish came in there were only two idlis.

I was famished when I saw just two idlis on the plate and made up my mind that once this was over I would order again. The idlis had dollops of butter on them and were super soft. Now we come to the main part - their chutneys. They had 4 varieties of chutneys - the sweet coconut chutney, the tangy garlic chutney, the peanut chutney and the parippu chutney.

I absolutely loved the chutneys. So much so that I didn't touch the sambar. I haven't tasted such good chutneys anywhere else in the city. The sweet coconut chutney was my favorite. I absolutely love coconut from my childhood and hence no wonder I loved its chutney as well. The peanut chutney had a strong flavor of peanuts that again made it go absolutely well with the idlis. I am not much of a ginger fan and hence didnt like the tangy garlic chutney. Overall: This is an absolute must visit just for their chutneys. I ended up finishing the chutneys and going for second rounds and finishing them up too. I was too full with the chutneys and didn't have to order additional idlis.

Ambiance: 4/5

Service: 3/5

Food: 4.5/5

Price: Cheap

Barcelos - A taste of Portugal and the native Peri-Peri

Barcelos serves authentic Portuguese food and drinks. Portugal is the home of the Peri-peri sauce and they serve quite a few variants of the same. Their only outlet in Hyderabad is the one at the Forum Sujana Mall in Kukatpally. It is done up really well. Once you enter the doors the restaurant greets you to its almost perfect ambiance.

Every table has paintings hanging that are very soothing as they add to the Portuguese feel of the place.

Overall it gives you a feeling of walking into one of the lanes in Portugal one a quiet evening.

All the tables have four variants of sauces - salad dressing, mild Peri, Peri peri and very Peri. The salad dressing is the spiciest in the lot. You can taste each of the variants and choose to order your chicken in any one of the four.

We ordered the 9 piece chicken drumsticks. They clearly live up to their flavors as the chicken drumsticks are layered with peri spices, grilled with peri sauce and served with a peri mayo.

I had ordered the Sonho Portuguese. This is supposed to be a sweet creamy drink made with red port and ice-cream with raspberry flavors. Unfortunately the drink wasn't sweet at all. It had a strong red port flavor with no hint of ice-cream or raspberry.

Finally we had the Chicken Steak which we had requested with the Very Peri sauce. The steak was soft but I didn't find the sauce spicy as should be the case with the Very Peri.

Overall: The food is good but definitely could go up by a notch. I wouldn't recommend the cocktails based on my experience as they are completely different from what is promised. The staff also have no idea about the food. When asked they simply say they don't know. A restaurant promising Portuguese food needs to have staff who are well acquainted with the cuisine.

Ambiance: 5/5

Food: 3.5/5

Service: 2.5/5

Price: Expensive

Malabar Food Festival at Ohri's 70MM

We happened to visit Ohri's 70MM when they had their Malabar Food Festival going on.

We started off with the Chicken Soup which was a light almost clear soup with chicken chunks flavored mostly with pepper.

We then started off with the Kerala Style Fry Chicken. This is very similar to the Chicken 65 that you get in Tamil Nadu but very succulent. Even though the chicken if fry it does not lose its tenderness.

The next item was the Paneer Pakoda. The Paneer was coated in besan and then deep fried. So at the same time you had the crisp coated while the Paneer inside was soft.

We then started ordering the cocktails. We initially ordered a mild ice tea based cocktail that was pretty good.

Then we got the Berry Blossom - which was primarily a cocktail that had a blackberry base.

The next one up was the cranberry smoothie. I have had cranberry drinks before but a cranberry cocktail with a milk base was a first and it was pleasantly surprising.

The final drink was the apple and cranberry cocktail. I must say the combination definitely went well together.

The started that we ordered next was potato fry. Unlike the normal ones this one had a very mild coating of besan on top. I don't like the ones with a thick coating and hence loved it when the potato flavor was strong.

We then ordered the Kerala Mutton Curry. This went fabulously well with the Malabar Parathas.

The Malabar Fish was crispy fried with a coating and garnished with fried curry leaves.

Coming to the main course now, we started off with the Kadala Curry. This is a black chickpeas curry that goes really well with puttu.

We then tried the Mutton Nadan Curry which is a Kerala style Spicy Mutton Curry.

We enjoyed this with the Malabar Fried Rice.

Then we tried the Kozhi Kuzhambu. This is a chicken dish that originated in Madurai and is popular in both Tamil and Malabar cuisines.

We then had the Cabbage Thoran. This is the Malabar version of the stir fried Cabbage that you will definitely find as a part of Onam Sadhya means.

We then went on with the desserts. Here they had their normal desserts as well apart from the ones that were a part of the Malabar Food Festival.

We then had the Ari Unda which is primarily a sweet that is made out of rice balls.

We finished off with the Payasam which was lip smacking.

Overall: This place has an amazing ambiance if you love Bollywood. The Malabar Food Festival had authentic Malabar Food that you will love. The variety of desserts could definitely be increased.

Ambiance: 4.5/5

Food: 4.5/5

Service: 4/5

Price: Budget Friendly

AB's Absolute Barbecue

We had gone for a team lunch to AB's Absolute Barbecue in Banjara Hills. I had already been to the one in Bangalore and this was pretty similar. We started off with the grill items. I headed towards the wish grill as that always has the exotic variety of grill. I tried out the rabbit meat. This wasn't too good.

Then was the shark meat - this was average and I just couldn't feel the flavors in the meat.

The duck meat was overcooked as well. As a result again the actual flavors of the meat had gone and it was no longer succulent.

I then headed over for the main course. The mutton Biryani was extremely well done, the flavors were rich although there was hardly any mutton in the biryani.

The butter chicken was tasty. The meat was soft and the gravy was well cooked and blended off really well.

The Mutton curry was spicy but the mutton pieces were bony. This could have been improved.

The Fish curry had too much of masala. The gravy could have been mild but the fish was soft and fresh.

I loved the crab curry. They made it really well and the crabs had enough meat in them. Just to making eating feasible they should have crab cutters as well like Barbeque Nation does.

The desserts were the best part about their spread. They had a plethora of desserts and everything was good. We started off with the soft gulab jamuns.

Next I tried the Malpua with Rabri. The Malpua was perfectly cooked and the combination with the thick rabri made it delicious.

The Firni was also done really well and it set perfectly in the mud cups in which they were served.

I finished it off with the pan ice-cream, which I then decorated with the toppings that are kept there.

Overall: The desserts are the normal grill are definitely good and worth it. The wish grill and main course could do with some improvement.

Ambiance: 3.5/5

Food: 4/5

Service: 3.5/5

Price: Budget-friendly

The Original Buffet Restaurant - Barbeque Nation

When I had started college almost a decade back, there was only one buffet restaurant in town and that was Barbeque Nation. Nowadays there are a variety of options to choose from but to me Barbeque Nation will always remain the Original Buffet Place. I went to Barbeque Nation after a really long time during Dussehra. Make sure to reserve your table otherwise you won't find a place when you arrive. We started off with their barbeques - Chicken Shistawook, Achari Fish and Curry Leaf Prawns.

The Crispy Corn was cooked really well. I generally love sweet corn and this was fried well with chillies and onions.

Next was the Cajun Spice Potatoes. These are my all time favorite starters. They are spicy, crisp and cheesy at the same time.

The next item was the Chicken Wings. These were juicy and tantalizing to the taste buds.

In the main course I absolutely loved the Fish in Garlic Sauce. The fish was fresh and soft which the sauce blended well with the fish.

I was too full for desserts but then they had the kulfi. And this is the good old kulfi that served with rose syrup and not the ones that you get readymade on sticks. I relived my childhood days with this.

Overall: Definitely visit this place if you love barbeques.

Ambiance: 4/5

Food: 4/5

Service: 5/5

Price: Mid-range