Polka Dots – Bistro & Bar – Old wine in a new bottle

Polka dots – bistro & bar, Westend mall, Aundh
A couple of days back Polka dots started their much awaited Bistro at Westend mall. Located next to Shoppers Stop in the GF section, this is a huge step up from their original site. Swanky, classy, high end are words that pop into your head as you walk into Polka Dots Bistro and Bar. Do not get mislead by the term ‘bar’ – they serve only mocktails for now.

While they have retained their ‘Polka Dots legends’ like the Gescnetzetes and Paprica Chicken, their expanded menu boasts some amazing sounding dishes.

We started off with a White Orchid, a guava and lime based mocktail and a lemon iced tea. Both were beautifully made, refreshing to the core.

Lemon Iced Tea

White Orchid

For starters, we ordered the Thai pork Balls – mince pork balls served with a light fish sauce. I wish the minced pork had been a tad more moist.

Thai Pork balls

Fish and chips were excellent as always, with the tarter sauce playing the perfect accompaniment. Pihu wiped it off.

Fish n Chips

Main course included the Bratwurst with Onion relish – delightful presentation, sticky sweet onion relish, classic as always

I ordered the Buffalo Tenderloin Steak. All i say is I am still looking for a chef in Pune who has the guts /talent to cook a medium rare steak. Here again the steak turned out slightly tough and medium well. I could possibly blame the quality of the meat though. Served with and onion jam, veggies and a cheese covered baked potato, the accompaniments were excellent.

Buffalo Tenderloin Steak

We ended the meal with the absolutely phenomenal Philadelphia Blueberry Cheese cake and a rather runny Red Velvet Lava Cake.

Philadelphia Blueberry Cheese Cake

Red Velvet Lava Cake

While Polka dots has a new avatar, it retains its old charm,with familiar faces to take your order. Stick to the old favorites. The new items, while beautifully plated, are a hit n miss.

Thai Pork balls

R’Adda – 5 star awesomeness!

The #FriendsOfTheBTeam were invited to the launch event of R’Adda, part of The Ramee Grand’s international chain of 5 star hotels. The decor here is similar to their outlets in Dubai and Mumbai, maintaining the same standards – including the uber-cool biker theme

R’ Adda specializes in some amazing, super-innovative cocktails. Designed by their 5* chefs, their line of signature cocktails and mocktails are an absolute #MustTry.

My personal favorite? The Maska Ferni – a melon flavored white-rum based cocktail. Extremely innovative, very pretty to look at and absolutely delicious!

Maska Ferni

Another favorite – something that must be ordered in a group is the #Kadak Maal – an orange ‘balti’ filled with dark rum and coke. Simple, effective and very very potent.

The list of cocktails/mocktails goes on – Safe Sex on the beach (cranberry, orange, peach, hazelnut), Mucchadwala Mojito (white rum, pan, green apple, mint) and the Lipstick (strawberry, mint, Orange) were definite crowd favorites.

The Telephone Booth LIIT and the baby nip of whisky (a quarter of neat whisky served in a baby bottle ftw!) were truly brilliant concepts (though I did need to spike up the iced tea to suit my taste)

The beauty of this place is the amazing food to go along with the mad range of cocktails. My personal favorites? The Onion rings (a rare non-oily onion rings platter) and the Adda Wings (chicken wings with a beautiful bbq sauce, served with potato wedges). The garlic pepper mushrooms were also really good.

Onion Rings

Adda Wings

Their mains selection is simple but perfectly done. The Mutton Rogan Biryani was served with delicate, tender mutton pieces, perfectly cooked, falling of the bone – so delicious, that we had to order more! The Kheema Paratha was just as good – requiring just a squeeze of lime to take the taste over the top.

Kheema Paratha

Mutton Rogan Biryani

To end it all, we were served a classic chocolate+walnut brownie with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, as well as a cheesecake. The cheesecake was a tad grainy, but the brownie was warm, gooey and oozing with yummy-ness!

R’ Adda being part of a 5* hotel will remain open till 3:30 AM, a definite plus point for those post-post-party scenes! The pricing is pretty competitive for a 5* hotel (all prices are inclusive of all taxes)

All in all, this is a great addition to the Pune nightlife scene. Definitely one that deserves multiple visits!