Do pet pooja under the stars

The Guide spotted a lounge that is ideal for cocktails and starters but needs to go the extra mile in terms of food and serviceA rectangular, sea-green pool; cane glass-top tables and comfy, sink-in cane sofas; blue-lit canopies with an al fresco bar, live music and a show kitchenu00a0-- Sayaji's latest open-air poolside lounge and restaurant has all the trappings that could make it a winner. When we visited on a week-night, the seven-day-old restaurant was almost half full.TurqueFood: Average Service: Attentive Ambience: Poolside lounge We made ourselves comfortable with their complimentary nachos and spicy chewda. The bar menu offers reasonably priced Indian as well as foreign liquor and an assortment of regular cocktails such as Cosmopolitan, Caipiroska, Mint Julep and Bloody Mary. We enjoyed reading their drinking quotesu00a0-- 'Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy' by Benjamin Franklin.The menu is a melange of Oriental (predominantly Thai and Chinese), Mediterranean and Indian (predominantly kebabs). For starters, we opted for a Greek Salad with Roasted Chicken (Rs 190) that claims to be made with a Turque twist. It's a generous portion of cubed chicken with bell peppers, a tad less Feta cheese than we would have liked and a parsley, tahini and salad dressing seasoning. It may not have been freshly Greek but it was delightfully crunchy and flavourful. Next came the piping hot French Onion Soup with Parmesan Crostini (Rs 135). It was white, thick and with the crostini cut up into croutons and dunked in. The warm broth complimented the zing of the onion with the saltiness of the cheese. The potage turned out to be the star dish of the meal. Our mains sound promising but failed to live up to the expectations. The Rosemary Roasted Chicken Breast with Mushroom Risotto (Rs 415) was two huge chunks of chicken steak in a sweet and sour sauce, with a strong flavour of dried rosemary. We loved our first few bites after which the rosemary got a bit too much and the chicken a little too chunky for the completion of two steaks. Unfortunately, the warm, moist risotto that we were looking forward to turned out to be cold and with not a hint of mushroom. It merely seemed like sticky rice pressed together into a flat bundle. A suggestion to Turque: transform the rosemary chicken into a starter and skip the risotto. For our Vegetarian Stir Fry (Rs 265) we choose noodles over rice and picked a garlic-pepper sauce among the many options. Again, the generous portion with generous amounts of zucchini, broccoli, baby corn and bell peppers tasted good like the regular spicy Indian-Chinese that we all love.Finally, it was time for dessert. theu00a0 Chocolate Sin (Rs 195) definitely managed to shock us on arrival. It was a heap of crumbled brownies topped with semi-melted vanilla ice-cream and a tiny smudge of chocolate sauce. Worse, the brownie was so burnt that we had to send it back. Our second version arrived: this one had better brownie (still not hot) and ice-cream that hadn't melted. Instead the tiny swirls of kiwi and raspberry preserves went well with the chocolate on our palate and were a relief to the let-down dessert. The service is as any starred hotel service would beu00a0-- polite and attentive, but it doesn't go the extra mile. Turque has the location going for it, now they need to lift up their ambience and work harder on their food. But if a couple of cocktails by the pool are what you are looking for, Turque is the place for you. At: Turque, Sayaji, 135 / 136, Mumbai-Bangalore bypass highway, Wakad.u00a0 Call: 42121212

Do pet pooja under the stars

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