Zeta – Hyatt Regency Pune

Unbelievably; located inside a 5-star property, this place is an extremely comfortable café next door. Apart from the intimidating access, it has all the attributes of a café where you could spend hours and enjoy the food too. Warm staff and an open kitchen welcome you to a good food journey.

Lot of cafés I visit now, have this concept of mixing the menu with popular dishes from the global cuisine and to a lot of extent fusion food too. Zeta does that and succeeds in doing that.

This was originally a full Italian fine – dine, which they converted to a more global cuisine and a casual dining place. They have a mix of Mediterranean, Indian and Italian cuisines. Had the pleasure of meeting the Executive Chef, Anirban Dasgupta. He explained, that,they wanted the restaurant to be very comfortable and without the frills of a fine-dine. They wanted to give the look and feel of a casual dining place. And, yes that is exactly where I will fit this restaurant in.

 

 

Let’s go straight to the food I had:

1. Zeta Sherbet

Started off with the Zeta Sherbat. A nice classic rose sherbet mixed with lemon and soda. The rose and lemon mix was balanced. Most of the times we err on the sweetness of such sherbets but this one was heavenly as it was hot outside.

They also have Street hawker Soda bottle on the menu. They did not have this when I asked for it. But I am guessing it will be the kind of goti soda which we used to have on the streets as kids.

 

2. Apple and Walnut Salad

Another lovely preparation. Each ingredient of the salad was so well taken care of. The walnuts were sweetened. The apples were thinly sliced, and the dressing was just perfect.

When I say perfect, I personally do not like my greens wilted by the dressing. It puts me off the salad. Salad for me should be crisp, the flavours of the ingredient maintained, and the dressing should just about enhance the flavours and not overpower them.

The sweetened walnuts were the highlight.

 

3. Kolmi No Patio

It is straight out of a Parsi household.

The prawn curry is sweetness, sourness and spice balanced. They use sugar to add a bit of sweet and vinegar for the sourness. Have had this at the house of a Parsee friend and Zeta made it exceptionally well.

This was literally finished off in within a couple of minutes. Served along with two mini multi-grain pav and cheese. This is something that you should not miss when you are dining here.

 

4. Pescotore

Here is where I got adventurous a bit.

We wanted to try the pizza as we could see the oven and could also see the chef rolling the pizza in front of us. It was a delight to see for my daughter to see this.The pizza we chose was pescatore. The pizza was large 10 inch, thin and soft. Topped with the right sauce and good amount of cheese. A pescatore pizza is topped with anchovies, shrimps, squids and other seafood. As regular pizza eaters, seafood on a pizza is not really what one tastes often.

Having said that, I did like the squid, shrimp and the fish on my pizza. The squid specifically adds a unique flavour to the combination. I enjoyed the pizza, but If you are a regular pizza eater and have never tasted seafood on a pizza, then you could go with the regular chicken toppings.

In-fact, we packed the left-over pizza and had it for breakfast the next day morning.

 

5. Devil’s Chicken

 

Grilled chicken perfection served with hummus and caramelised onions. There were some onion rings served along with that and some salad.

If I could call chicken to be perfectly grilled, moist and flavourful; this is what was. I could easily knife through the chicken and the flavours had soaked in completely. With a brush of hummus, it was the perfect Mediterranean dish for me in quite a while.

The onion rings were crisp and was nice thing to bite on with the soft chicken.

This is surely their highlight. I would not miss this the next time I go there. In-fact would go there specifically to have the devil’s chicken.

 

6. Chocolate Mousse

This was recommended by the Executive chef himself and we could not say no. He did say that the Chocolate Mousse was to die for and both of us having it were just short of that.

My daughter loves marsh-mellows and the sight of roasted croutons of them on the mousse lit her eyes up. Dip in the layer into the mousse, where a soft gooey and warm layer of mousse was awaiting you. The mousse was light and fluffy with a hint of peppercorns if I am not mistaken.

Myself and my daughter have a sweet tooth and like I have said in a few of my blogs, anyone can buy me with a bowl of deserts.

It’s a full 5 on 5 for me. The ambience, the comfort, the staff, the menu, the pricing and above all the food. Do book your business meetings there or just go around for a lazy Sunday afternoon with family or friends. Highly recommended place.