Came across this new venture called MAD Orders. Started by a team of IT professionals from an office in Ghatkopar(E), they promise to deliver piping hot food to you between 11pm and 7am the next day. The modus operandi is simple. You register on their site or call them on +91 8080204041 to place your order.

The menu seems pretty decent at first glance and it is an all-veg menu comprising of Pav Bhaji, Burgers, Pizzas, Sandwiches, Soft drinks and Desserts. The food in the pictures above definitely looks yummy though I’d have liked inclusion of non-veg too.

They’ve mentioned corporate incentives on their site, but it isn’t immediately clear how these will be doled out. Nowadays many companies have in-house canteens, especially those that have employees working from 11pm to 7am, often called the graveyard shift. The canteen is on the premises and quickly accessible, though quality depends on the caterer and varies from company to company. It remains to be seen whether MAD Orders can successfully wean away employees from their canteens.

On the residential front, they don’t yet deliver to all locations but that should be sorted out once they ramp up and roll out services across the entire city.

Let’s see how they fare – if you’ve already experienced their food and service, do share your thoughts in the comments.

MAD Orders
106-107, B Wing, Kanarra Business Center, Off Laxmi Nagar,
Behind Everest Garden, Near Ghatkopar Bus Depot, Ghatkopar East,
Mumbai 400075
+91 8080204041

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Told a friend about this when we met. Initially, she wasn’t too keen as she’s a vegetarian and the Malaka Spice menu is more to a non-veg person’s liking, even more so if you enjoy Southeast Asian cuisine. Misgivings aside, we decided to give it a shot and try out the winter menu on a Sunday night.

We’d made a booking in advance, knowing the place is crowded on Sundays and sure enough, once we reached, it was already getting packed. We wanted to sit outside but there was no decent seating available, so inside it was, where a table was kept reserved.

We started off with drinks, and cocktails seemed to be the order of the day – Virgin Mojito for her and a Long Island Iced Tea for me. For starters, we ordered Marital Prawns – crisped prawns paired with chicken, and “A Jolly Good Fellow” – freshly farmed portabella mushrooms with vegetables, balsamic vinegar and basil. Both the dishes were pretty good, though we felt the mushrooms could have been just a little bit ‘softer’. The prawns were a delight, crunchy and crisp.

For the main course, it was Phad Thai – noodles with crunchy peanuts, and Khow Suey (Burmese curry noodles with chicken). Both tasted good, though the noodles in the Khow Suey were slightly cloggy (I prefer home-made Khow Suey). Both these dishes were from the main menu, as we found the winter menu slightly limiting in terms of choices and probably what we wanted to eat just then.

As always, the service was good and attentive, without being obtrusive, though it seemed just a bit slow at times – maybe for the ambience to sink in, as well as letting the drinks and conversation flow, both of which did

For dessert, we decided to order the Chocolate Sin Mousse Cake and Apple Pie with ice-cream, and both of us looked like content Cheshire cats after polishing it all off. They were sheer sinful delights and undeniably the best part of the evening

* The only regret – I didn’t take a single picture. Maybe next time!

Malaka Spice
Lane 5, North Main Road,
Koregaon Park,
Pune 411001
Tel: +91 98230 64050

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They have both indoor and outdoor seating – and as the sun was benevolent that afternoon, we chose the latter. The tables are well laid and decently spaced out. The wooden chairs do tend to be somewhat unstable though, so check before descending on one. I’d been there once before for breakfast (which is served all day), and not much had changed in the layout.

Initially there were just 2-3 people sitting in the outside area. However, this being the kind of place you come to just hang out at on a lazy day, the place was packed within half an hour. Like other joints in Koregaon Park, it’s quite popular with foreigners, who trooped in every few minutes.

The ‘proceedings’ began with a pint of Kingfisher each and before we knew it, we had nine of ‘em down the hatch by the time we had to order lunch. They have a board by the side of the counter which lists the day’s specials. The food on offer at Terttulia is quite varied and we took some time poring over all the dishes before zeroing in on our respective choices. Besides the breakfast menu, they have the usual complement of soups and salads, sandwiches, burgers et al.

The service did seem a tad slow at times, and though the stewards are always smiling and helpful, it only takes the entry of a few foreigners to the cafe in order to divert their entire attention from your table. I really dislike this kind of attitude and I’ve seen shades of it at German Bakery here and even Cafe Leopold in Bombay – one of the reasons I’ve never frequented either of these places much.

We decided to order a burger – the Quarter Pounder – flame grilled beef tenderloin on a sesame seed bun, Herb roast chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, Filet Mignon – quarter kilo of char grilled tenderloin with red wine jus and mashed potatoes.

Owing to all that beer, there was no scope to try out any of the other dishes (maybe next time). The food was pretty tasty and succulent – overall good value for money, though it was hardly surprising that the amount spent on the beer exceeded that spent on the food

Terttulia
393, Sanas Corner, South Main Road,
Koregaon Park,
Pune 411001
Tel: 020-26052180

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It took us just a minute to decide. Also, as she’s a vegetarian, Cream Centre (all-veg) seemed like an obvious, if intriguing choice. Had heard about it from friends in Bombay but surprisingly, not much buzz in Pune. Maybe the veg bit had to do with it?

As we drove towards Kalyani Nagar, we overshot by a bit before Google Maps came to the rescue. Cream Centre is located in the lane which has Marrakesh and Bounty Sizzlers. As you enter the lane and go in further, it feels like such a totally residential area that it’s hardly surprising I had no clue it existed there. It is a part of Hotel Cypress, and the entrance is from the left side as you face it. They have outdoor as well as indoor AC seating.

We thought sitting outside was a better idea but the hostess said it wasn’t open yet, and proceeded to guide us inside, where we were led to a table for two by the side. The interiors are pleasant and the red leather bit on the sofas for family seating reminded me a bit of the decor at TGIF outlets.

Image Credit: Cream Centre

As we sat down to have a look at the menu, the first thing I saw was a sheet with various puzzles and a couple of pencils beside it. Elementary stuff like spotting differences between two pictures, but a fun activity nevertheless. It reminded me of the games at Touché, Bangalore.

The menu is a thick and chunky book with some mouth watering pictures of all the food on offer. They have a pretty diverse menu and it is not possible to do justice to all the food at one sitting. They claim to make the ‘World’s Best Nachos’ so ordering that was a no-brainer. We also ordered Babycorn Crisps, which sounded pretty appetising. The pizzas and desserts looked yummy too.

I don’t know about ‘World’s Best’ but they were definitely the best nachos I’d eaten in a long long time. We just couldn’t keep our hands off them and all that lovely melted cheese (we both looooove cheese), as well as the salsa dip. Absolutely lip smacking to the extent of licking off that cheese from our fingers

The Babycorn Crisps were nice, though a tad too ‘peppery’ in some places. The dip served with it was good too, but both of us kept eating the crisps with the melted cheese from the nachos.They were an ideal snack though, and I liked that they stayed crisp for quite a while and didn’t become soggy.

By now, the place was slowly getting packed, probably the Sunday crowd – which means we arrived at just the right time. Must say between the conversation and these starters, we were feeling quite full already. Question was: skip mains and order dessert directly or check out the offerings in the main course.

We certainly didn’t want to have ragda pattice, chana bhatura, chaats, lebanese stuff, soup/salad/sandwich combo, sizzlers and the like and even pasta had a ‘heavy’ feel about it. However, one look at the pizza options and we decided to go for it. The steward helped matters by saying it was extremely lightweight and thin crust, so Classic Veg Pizza was ordered.

It looked delicious, but we both agreed that the pizza was the let down of the evening. Too salty at some places, totally bland at others, it lacked taste and flavour, and we ended up actually craving a Dominos Cheese Burst The other weird thing was having our fingers covered with flour from the pizza base, which I found quite surprising. Never seen this happening elsewhere at any pizza outlet. We decided to parcel the remaining slices.

Wish we’d ordered dessert directly after the starters – the sizzling brownie and triple chocolate sundae we saw others having were droolicious. Maybe on the next visit!

It’s a nice place with good and decently priced food (Our bill came to just over Rs.650). The service was attentive too. Yes, in spite of the pizza, there will definitely be a next time, to sample all the other delights on offer

Cream Centre
Hotel Cypress, Lane No 10,
Opp. Kalpataru Regency, Kalyani Nagar,
Pune 411014
Tel: 020-40180000

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Located a bit ahead of Kiva Ivy and opposite the LG showroom and Food Bazaar, this is a small cafe, started around 8-9 months ago. It is open all days of the week, from 8am to 11pm. I’d passed this way several times before but somehow, had never seen it till now.

It’s well suited for a quick meet up and they have 2-3 tables outside too. However, with the mercury soaring, the obvious choice was to sit inside. The seating is well spaced out and comfortable. They also have a TV in case you wish to catch up with the news or live telecast of a game.

Met a friend there, and though initially breakfast (sausages, eggs, toast, pancakes etc) was being considered, the need to have something a bit more substantial ensured that the Chicken Pesto Pasta was ordered, which actually tasted much better than it looked.

Besides breakfast, they have a pretty varied menu, with rolls/wraps, appetizers, sandwiches, pastas, pizzas and desserts, which is quite sufficient for a full fledged meal. For kids, they also separately have hakka noodles, pasta and smiley fries.

As I looked around, the first thing that caught my eye was a bookshelf, packed with business and management books, magazines, board games, newspapers and… COMICS!

Initially thought of some board games, but as the friend had to leave early and I anyway had to wait, I happily grabbed a couple of comics to check out. A couple of hours passed by quite easily, poring over the adventures of Tintin and Asterix along with a cup of hot green tea to keep me company.

It was a decent first time experience here and the prices were pretty reasonable too. There wasn’t enough time to sample the other dishes on offer like the Honey Chilli Chicken, Lemon Garlic Prawns, Chicken Calabrese or ‘The Linger On Jumbo”, an open chicken steak sandwich layered with lettuce, tomato, cheese, grilled salami, served with spiced potato wedges and boiled egg. Wonder of wonders, among their “Specialities” they also had Moussaka (a Greek dish), incidentally the only aubergine based dish I like. Phew, a more comprehensive visit is certainly called for.

Oh yes, all that reading stuff also ensures that if you’re looking for a place to kill time, there is ample scope to “linger on” here for quite a while.

Cafe Linger On
Mont Vert Zenith,
Baner Road,
Pune 411045
Tel: 020-46778757

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The war for providing the most affordable and reliable commute just got hotter. For long, radio cabs and regular taxis have ruled the roost in Mumbai. Rickshaws have always been there too, but they either refuse to ply to certain areas or charge a bomb when they do, courtesy ‘fast’ meters. Even though taxis have the same problem, people usually end up hailing a radio cab / taxi rather than an auto, though the former costs more.

This is where Vikhroli based Rickshawale aim to change all that, by having

• Registered drivers & live tracking of every Auto Rickshaw
• Strict Pay-by-meter policy
• No refusal of service
• 24 Hr service
• Computerised call centre with trained staff

They aim to make it worthwhile for the rickshaw drivers too, by providing them benefits like accident insurance, genuine spare parts and qualified servicing for their vehicles as well as financing opportunities to meet personal and professional obligations. This is pretty good because drivers are the backbone of any such operation, and attrition is pretty high so it helps to look after their needs as well.

There is a Fare Calculator on the site which gives you an idea of the approximate fare so it doesn’t come as a surprise when you actually have to pay. I filled in Bandra and Goregaon as the coordinates and was shown the fare as Rs.113 (no idea how accurate this is – I haven’t taken a rick between these places) along with the route on Google Maps.

Their web site could do with some QC as there are typos galore, though I’m just nitpicking. The actual proof will be in the quality and level of service they are able to provide. This is not an easy task, and there will certainly be teething troubles, as Pune based AyAuto have been finding out.

However, the key lies in being reliable and if they crack this, it would provide some much needed respite to Mumbaikars.

Rickshawale are going live on Saturday, October 15th 2011, so we’ll find out then just how they are faring

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The RTO, Pune is all set to make this a reality from today, September 1. Other neighbouring RTOs like those at Pimpri Chinchwad, Baramati, Solapur and Akluj will start doing so from September 11.

In the present system, one usually appears for a test and collects the licence from the relevant RTO after 4-5 days. This new method is sure to ease worries for a lot of people who have to travel long distances more than once just for this purpose.

One good thing to come out of all this is that hopefully, the number of fake licences just might lessen. This is also likely to reduce the usual chaos in the premises, courtesy the hundreds of people who visit the RTO daily.

So, going forward, you need not visit the RTO office to collect these documents personally. However, to ensure that they are delivered to your house, you should provide a correct and accurate address while filling in the application form, as delivery will be via the post office, not a courier company who would call to verify the address. A charge of Rs.50 will be levied towards postal charges.

However, as of now this is valid only for permanent driving licences and not learner licenses. Hopefully this meets with more success than it did at Bombay recently, with a huge pile of returned licences for want of correct addresses.

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The entrance seemed a tad dark as we entered and we were shown to our table. Once there, we were amazed at the sight that greeted us. The entire table is a touchscreen and we spent the next 15-20 minutes just playing around with the options and getting used to it. Beautifully laid out, it is quite well classified with a nice menu system and categories for type of food (veg / non-veg, starters / appetizers, main course, chicken/mutton/lamb/beef etc). Ditto for the drinks menu. Arrows on either side allow you to read the menu from your side of the table.

Selecting an item brings it to the centre and you get information about it. In this case, I’d selected Cocktails->Long Island Iced Tea, and I was shown information about the drink, the price, an option to increase the quantity, and then add it to our order, much like a shopping cart on an e-commerce site.

Once the order is placed, it is sent directly to….. the Galaxy Tab wielding stewards! There is no manual intervention here and the steward only confirms your order to ensure you’ve not clicked the wrong item by mistake. There are several games, puzzles and jokes to help while away the time till your food and drinks arrive. We tried a couple of games which were disasters, mainly because we weren’t pressing the touchscreen at the right place. The angle of viewing and the actual ‘hotspot’ weren’t quite matching. We settled on tic-tac-toe eventually

An interesting feature here is the group buying discount that is available depending on consumption of an item. The more the consumption, the greater the discount. The price of the Long Island Iced Tea was Rs.400. If 1 more person ordered it, the price would drop to Rs.368 and so on, upto a maximum of Rs.288 if 7 people ordered the same.  Similar stats were available for whatever else was being consumed by the patrons there. I think this concept is pretty good and benefits everyone. It is also nice to see what others are ordering, besides being quite nifty and fun too.

We ordered a combination of veg and non-veg starters along with our drinks. The food was good and they have an extensive variety to choose from. However, I wouldn’t say it was excellent, especially some of the veg stuff. The prices are on the higher side, whether for food or even drinks. For eg, the Long Island Iced Tea is priced at Rs.400, which would cost Rs.275 in a comparable place in Pune like Kiva Ivy in Baner.

Overall, the experience was a nice one, although it is definitely an expensive place, no doubt to justify all that tech grandeur. Be prepared to shell out a packet when you head there!

Touché Diner
3rd Floor, #762, Above Reid & Taylor Showroom,
100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore
Tel: 080 30412940

Update: Woohoo! Super thrilled to see this post being referenced in the Business Standard and Rediff

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Are you among those harassed employees with no time to prepare and carry your own lunch box? Do you have to endure horrible food at your workplace? Are you staying in a shared accomodation / hostel with no option but to accept what you get or else eat outside?

Here’s Mealnut, a site I happened to come across a while ago. Turns out it is a tiffin service started in Pune, another addition to the several hundred such services and mess options available. So what’s different with them?

Well, they’ve started out with the intention to improve on the low quality, lack of hygiene, lack of variety and poor customer service offered by existing services. Personally, I’ve been to some of these places with friends who’ve stayed in hostels. The experience was mostly a mixed one, but this was almost a decade ago and lots has changed since then.

Started by Mona Soundankar & Jitendra Salunke, its been a few months since inception and they offer their services in select areas as of now; Kothrud, Erandwane and Karve Nagar. If you stay elsewhere in Pune, you can still sign up and mention which area you live in, so they can expand their services there based on demand. Ordering can be done online or offline, and here’s a pic describing the difference between the two;

You can look up the FAQ section on their website for details on how their service works.

Mealnut
Gr. Floor, Pl. no. 1/5, S.N. 2B,
Mauli Building, Behind SBI Bank,
Off Karve Road, Erandwane
Pune-411004
+91 800-782-9717
+91 770-919-7995

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