[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Lunch Buffet is Rs.149++ roughly Rs.180 Nett.
Dinner Buffet is Rs.299 ++ roughly Rs.342 Nett

Ah-ha ... another one with SC ... the above calculation says that they have 5 % service charge at lunch ... since VAT is 14.5 %. But that does not change the VFM factor. And, the lunch @ 149 is only Mon-Fri, it is @ 299 on Sat-Sun.

[MileCruncher]

Today on the on the way back from Hitec City went to Hard Rock Cafe at 10.30 pm. We ordered beverages and Chicken wings as snacks. My wife was forced to have a beverage as her usual stuff was not available.

Since the place closed down at 11PM today, we were there only fo rabout half an hour. The damage was Rs 940/- including VAT of 14.5% & Service Charge

To top it all they are charging 10% SC on food and 5% SC on beverages. HRC should be for bringing in bad practices to the city of Hyderabad. Even though the music was ok, I'm going to boycott them for sometime due to this SC issue.

[mobike008]

Ani, Looking at 3 duplicate posts, i find it hard to beileve you spent only half hour at HRC

For a change i slept too darn early last night saw your ping only at 5:30am when i got up to go for a walk.

Last time i went to HRC, they didnt charge SC separately. I am going to boycott every restuarant that charges SC

[hillram]

HRC doesnt charge SC normally.It must be part of the local commercial laws.I have been eating in HRCs in India and abroad for the last 10 yrs.Never was SC part of the bill in MUmbai,Bangalore or Pune !!!
Ani you attract special tax !!!

[ranjitp1]

The argument given out by restaurant owners who charge SC is that "Indians are poor tippers,so this way they ensure that their staff are tipped"how lousy and irresponsible a comment can that be?There was this whole section on places that charge SC in last week's Times of India's Crest edition.These were the views of the owners of Sigree/Flme & Grill /Olive Bar & Kitchen(AD Singh)I wanted to ask these guys what if I am not satisfied with the service,with today's scenario I am still forced to pay up the service charge-thats plain extortion.

An incident to this effect happened with me @Sahib Sindh Sultan(city center),we ran up a bill of close to 6k(was a large group)and the service was horrible and they messed up with the orders etc and they had the cheek to put in a service charge at the end,when this was raised with the management,they waived off the service charge and whats more amusing and surprising was that we got a printed bill without the service charge component printed on it(which means its a classic case of crying baby gets milk lol)

[SILVERWOOD]

Today i had been to 36 barbeque (sec-abad) with my extended family for lunch (10 adults + 5 kids).

The kebabs were excellent, execpt mutton sheek kebab, which was very spicy.The buffet had few sindhi dishes and i just loved them.

Total damages:4,443 after 10% discount.

[kippu]

had lunch at wonton ( I am just going through the thread list and visiting one by one , so thank you guys for all the recommendations)

wanton soup, Phuket fish ( which was missing the taste of the fish ,unfortunately)
Chicken wonton fried rice with chicken pepper steak ., both good and different

Total came to 582/- for 2 people , VFM as mentioned before

Wife approval rating : 6/10

so till the wednesday , i shall keep reading and thinking where to go next

[SILVERWOOD]

Last evening i had been to Santosh Dhaba (pure veg), opp jain mandir, sec-abad. (6 people)

Ordered the following

Tandoori Paneer Tikka-Dont miss this, yummy.
Aalo 65-Spicy,great taste.
Veg 65- Good
Aalo Paratha-good stuffing and taste
Kaju paneer- Great taste
veg chatpat:spicy.
Dal fry:Good
Lacha paratha, roti and zeera rice.

Total Damages:871. Had to wait for 30 mins, worth the wait, excellent service.

Good vfm restaurent.

[MileCruncher]

Visited The Grand Wok on Saturday night with my in-laws. Since the restaurant was quite empty ( 2 other groups apart from us), they gave us one of the enclosed cabins upstairs. We ordered the Buffet and the choice of Soups and Starters were good ( 3 veg & 3 Non Veg) but the main course was a disappointment with 1 dish each of Rice , Noodles, Veg & Non - Veg Gravy.

The desert was Fried Banana with Vanilla Ice Cream

Overall - 3/5 for good soup, starters and ambience.

This is also another restaurant that charges 10% SC

So Buffet @ 299/- became 342/- per head with the added levies.

Hyderabad is not reasonable any more!

[traveloholic]

This weekend's been great on the food front, posting the details soon. It all started on Thursday Afternoon and continued till Sunday Night

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Visited The Grand Wok on Saturday night with my in-laws.

Been to Grand Wok on Sunday afternoon for Lunch Buffet. Was about to put the review. Looks like Fried Banana with Vanila Ice Cream is a standard desert they serve in Buffet. I wanted Darsaan with Ice Cream but it wasn't on the buffet menu

Originally Posted by kippu

had lunch at wonton ( I am just going through the thread list and visiting one by one , so thank you guys for all the recommendations)

Been to Wonton on Thursday, loved their Buttered Prawns a lot.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Today i had been to 36 barbeque (sec-abad) with my extended family for lunch (10 adults + 5 kids).

The kebabs were excellent, execpt mutton sheek kebab, which was very spicy.The buffet had few sindhi dishes and i just loved them.

Total damages:4,443 after 10% discount.

Wasim bhai, a more detailed review would have been awesome. How much was the buffet cost per head NETT?

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD

Last evening i had been to Santosh Dhaba (pure veg), opp jain mandir, sec-abad. (6 people)

Ordered the following

Tandoori Paneer Tikka-Dont miss this, yummy.
Aalo 65-Spicy,great taste.
Veg 65- Good
Aalo Paratha-good stuffing and taste
Kaju paneer- Great taste
veg chatpat:spicy.
Dal fry:Good
Lacha paratha, roti and zeera rice.

Total Damages:871. Had to wait for 30 mins, worth the wait, excellent service.

Good vfm restaurent.

I have been to Santosh Dhaba at all their outlets and really like their food. but, my mom is bit averse to their food and ambience.

What i dont like about their food is its quite a bit oily and i dont like dry fruits in my food. I absolutely hate that.

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Visited The Grand Wok on Saturday night with my in-laws. Since the restaurant was quite empty ( 2 other groups apart from us), they gave us one of the enclosed cabins upstairs. We ordered the Buffet and the choice of Soups and Starters were good ( 3 veg & 3 Non Veg) but the main course was a disappointment with 1 dish each of Rice , Noodles, Veg & Non - Veg Gravy.

The desert was Fried Banana with Vanilla Ice Cream

Overall - 3/5 for good soup, starters and ambience.

This is also another restaurant that charges 10% SC

So Buffet @ 299/- became 342/- per head with the added levies.

Hyderabad is not reasonable any more!

So did you like it or not? Not able to make out from your review. Can you list out the starters that were served?

@Nikhil, Please post your review separately for each place you visited over the weekend ( preferably in separate posts). Need everyone's input for sure and be as detailed as possible.

Last evening was partying at a cousin place in Sainikpuri and on way back it struck us to try out Chen's Chinese Kitchen in Sikh Village.

Ambience was just about average.

Ordered the following :-

Apollo Fish ( Rs.130)
Chicken Drumsticks ( Rs.100)
Egg Soft Noodles ( Rs.80)
Schezwan Fish Gravy ( Rs.130)
Softdrinks
Total : Rs.475 ( For 2 people including 4% VAT)

Both Apollo fish and Schezwan fish at first had a bit of smell but, after a few spoonfuls felt it was my "Wahem" as i cannot stand any smell in my food. Later on felt it actually tasted quite nice

Chicken Drumsticks were those thin boned less meat types. It was totally average.

Egg Soft Noodles. This was horrible. Can you imagine, they made omlette and added to it. I mean, large pieces of omlette in it. Dont order this dish.

Shezwan Fish, apart from slight issue mentioned above. It was actually the best dish of entire lot.

Will I go back again? Hmmm, Not sure

On the way back, we stopped to have the much talked about Kulfi wala outside DPS. Me and Wifey shared a Kesar Dry Fruit Falooda ( Rs.35).

It was mind-blowing. Almost as good as you get at Gianni's in Old Delhi. I will now visit this bandhi more often for sure.

[Ravveendrra]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

The argument given out by restaurant owners who charge SC is that "Indians are poor tippers,so this way they ensure that their staff are tipped"how lousy and irresponsible a comment can that be?

Indians are horrible at tipping. That however is only half the story. Indians are also poor paymasters. A SC increases the workers pay without the owner having to shell out.

I remember reading an article bemoaning the demise of the system of professional waiters in Europe. They were not employees & their only income was the tips.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

All the 3 are priced at 950+taxes.open from 7pm to 11pm on weekdays and until 12am on weekends.IMHO,these are simply overpriced.

Try the lates buffet in town at The Park,same range,the only saving grace being that you can check out a newer place as compared to The Westin.
...

Well, the Westin buffet is darn good though. Even the Novotel one (The Square) is ok but somehow I still find the Westing one far better. The range and breadth both are amazing. And food is also pretty good.

On a different note, I tried out the N Grill recently. I was thinking of this for the last 1 year since it opened but somehow never materialized, probably because we do not feel the urge to once again make the fabled Hitec city run on a weekend. If you ask me the long and the short of it, well, the food is absolutely yummy but the service is not so good.

Another place you guys may want to peep in is Maayabazaar in Karkhana. All ethnic setup with bamboo shamboo and all. The food again is pretty good and the pricing is extremely reasonable. I initially thought that the place will not last because of it's peculiar location. But looks like it is finding a pretty good clientele even though it sits in that awkward gully where it is never visible to people. In case you want to know where it is, it's in the gully where earlier the Karkhana ICICI used to be. Just next to the chaotic bus stop and opposite to the mandir a slope goes down for Vasavi Nagar. It is the 2nd or 3rd place on the left after getting down that slope.

P.S.: On the issue of Tips, the valets at the Kebab Factory are just plain horrible. Beware! Last week I went there on an official dinner with some of our guests. The kerb side in front of the location was absolutely packed with vehicles with no place to stop. And the Valet guys were busy shooing off people from in front. No amount of convincing them that I am client will get them to listen, till I shouted my guts out at the idiot who came with a stick and hit the boot to take the car ahead. Then they grudgingly accepted the car.

While leaving the place the same valet brought my car out from the basement. He stood next to me with a smirk on his face the reason for which I could not figure out at that time. The moment I took out a 10 rupee note (I should not have taken out even a tenner on hindsight but then felt that let me make up for the shouting earlier in the evening) he just threw it at me and said "bheek de rahe kya?" and walked away! I really do not know what was his expectation. I was left speechless for a while... Do we really pay 30 or 40 bucks to a restaurant valet?

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Zappo

Well, the Westin buffet is darn good though. Even the Novotel one (The Square) is ok but somehow I still find the Westing one far better. The range and breadth both are amazing. And food is also pretty good.

On a different note, I tried out the N Grill recently. I was thinking of this for the last 1 year since it opened but somehow never materialized, probably because we do not feel the urge to once again make the fabled Hitec city run on a weekend. If you ask me the long and the short of it, well, the food is absolutely yummy but the service is not so good.

Another place you guys may want to peep in is Maayabazaar in Karkhana. All ethnic setup with bamboo shamboo and all. The food again is pretty good and the pricing is extremely reasonable. I initially thought that the place will not last because of it's peculiar location. But looks like it is finding a pretty good clientele even though it sits in that awkward gully where it is never visible to people. In case you want to know where it is, it's in the gully where earlier the Karkhana ICICI used to be. Just next to the chaotic bus stop and opposite to the mandir a slope goes down for Vasavi Nagar. It is the 2nd or 3rd place on the left after getting down that slope.

Deb, Great to see your input here. I was wondering if you had stopped eating out

Whats the price at Westin Dinner Buffet?

N Grill, did you try out the New Zealand Baby Chops?

Thanks for the tip of Maaya Baazar. Should check out that soon. What to order?

Btw, I can never forget that lane as ICICI Kharkana was designed by my ex-girlfriend?

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Deb, Great to see your input here. I was wondering if you had stopped eating out

Whats the price at Westin Dinner Buffet?

N Grill, did you try out the New Zealand Baby Chops?

Thanks for the tip of Maaya Baazar. Should check out that soon. What to order?

Btw, I can never forget that lane as ICICI Kharkana was designed by my ex-girlfriend?

Not exactly Avi... Just that I hardly get much time nowadays to sit back and chat at leisure. The Westin has a good few buffet options there. But then I have always been to the lobby level open space, next to the glass wall that separates out the pool-side open air terrace. I think its called Seasonal Tastes. It serves world cuisine. Pretty nice.

On a different note, staying at Westin is something else. They have imported the US culture lock stock and barrel right here and expect you to abide by the same as well! Those who have stayed here will know what I mean. Its pretty galling. They are in India but they expect you to play it by their rules. To give an example, they expect you to use paper you know where. And you can NOT have it any other way. They frown upon other dirty practices and will play cat and mouse with you if you try otherwise.

N Grill... yeah, I tried out the tenderloin steak and the Stroganov. And both were yummy.

Go to Maayabazaar without any expectations and you will like the place. They do not have any pretensions and they have also priced themselves accordingly. And that is why they come up nicely. Nothing "Starry" about the food but just good tastes at reasonable prices.