Restaurant Review: Ruci and Idoni

Place: Ruci and Idoni
Location: Above Godrej Nature Basket, Road No. 10, Banjara Hills
Cuisine: European
Meal: Dinner (with couple of friends)

Food: 8/10
Service: 8.5/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Meal for 3: Rs 1795/-

Verdict: 8/10

For a detailed review, please visit sasikanth.me :)

Restaurant Review: 100 Degrees

Place: 100 Degrees
Location: Necklace Road, Ranigunj, Secunderabad
Cuisine: Continental Meal: Dinner (with mom and dad)

Food: 9/10
Service: 8.5/10
Ambiance: 9/10
Meal for 3: Rs. 1006/-

Verdict: 9/10

For a detailed review, please visit sasikanth.me :)

Restaurant Review: Pizza Den

Place: Pizza Den

Location: Sindhi Colony, Behind Paradise

Cuisine: Vegetarian Pizzas and Ice-creams

Meal: Dinner

Ive been wanting to visit this place for a long time now. It used to be a small pizza shop near Secunderabad Club, but later moved to Sindhi Colony. Back then, it served about 12 really good vegetarian pizzas and ice-creams for very reasonable prices, but not anymore. Its not a restaurant, but a road side shop (you have to sit and eat on the road, or in your car).

So, today for dinner, I again drove about 8 kilometers to have their pizza. Ordered a Cream Cheese pizza. As the name suggests, it was a creamy cheesy pizza with onions and special seasoning as topping. 10 minutes of waiting and my pizza was ready. An 8", delicious looking pizza. It was creamy and cheesy, yes. The crust was really good too, and the pizza almost melt in my mouth. But for 100 bucks, I thought the pizza was really small. It dint fill my tummy!!

To stuff myself better, I ordered a Nutty Hot Chocolate ice-cream. It was good. Instead of the the base being vanilla ice-cream, it was chocolate. Vanilla would have tasted much better.

Overall, I should say I was not so happy about my long drive. Yes, the food was good, but I could get something similar right next to my house for maybe a lower price. Being an on road food place, they dint even have dust-bins around, and so all the paper plates and ice-cream cups were thrown right next to the shop.

I would suggest it for its variety of vegetarian pizzas though. If your driving by, you can probably pick up a pizza to eat in the car. But not worth a special visit, especially if you live far away.

Food: 8/10

Ambiance: 3/10

Service: NA

Meal for 1: Rs. 150/-

Dumbo's Verdict: 7/10

Restaurant Review: Olives and Cheese

Place: Olives and Cheese

Location: Trimulgherry, a little further from RTA Office, Secunderabad

Cuisine: Italian

Meal: Dinner

Olives and Cheese is a new Italian restaurant in town. The place is small but yet bright. They serve a wide range of Soups, Antipasti, Breads, Pizzas, Pastas, Sandwiches and Salads, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. They have a small desert menu.

I read about this place on Burrp, listed as a cheap fare Italian restaurant, famous for its Pizzas. So here I was. Drove exactly 11 kilometer to taste their pizza. The place was not so full at 9 PM, so I seated myself in a corner. There was no music playing, probably because of the cricket match on TV. I ordered a Szechwan Mushroom Delight pizza. I dint want Capsicum on my pizza, so I asked them to replace it with Olives. Being named Olives and Cheese, they were out of olives. So I asked him to replace it with Baby corn. Unfortunately, they were out of Babycorn too. So finally settled in for Jalapenos. Unable to withstand the temptation, I also ordered a Fettuccine in Alfredo Sauce pasta.

I was hoping for the pizza to come out first, but it was the pasta. It was really cheesy and creamy, just the way I like it. They added Mushrooms, Zucchini and Onions to it. The portion was sumptuous. I was almost full, and was wondering why I ordered a pizza. Pretty good start I should say.

It took a while for the pizza to arrive. This gave me time to make space in my tummy. I asked for a thin crust, but they actually brought a regular crust, which was not so thick after all. It dint matter much cos the crust was really good. The cheese dint seem to be mozzarella, and therefore was breaking way in chunks. But still it was a decent pizza. It wasnt huge, about 8" in size. I liked the pasta better.

Overall, a pretty decent experience. Its no where close to Little Italy, Banjara Hills (one of my favorite restaurants in Hyderabad). But for its prices, its worth it. They started turning off the lights and closing down the place while I was in there, at 10:30 PM, which was a turn-off. Anyways, I would definitely go back to this place, even if its a long ride. I would also recommend it to you guys.

Food: 8.5/10

Ambiance: 8/10

Service: 8/10

Meal for 1: Rs. 238/-

Dumbo's Verdict: 8/10

PS: Its ironical that this place opened just after I left to the US. Back then, I always used to hang out a lot on this road, and there was no good place except for Vacs and McD. Now I see that there are quite a few restaurants here.