Restaurant Review : Zamu's Place, Pune

EL the Cook, today, reviews Zamu's Place, Dhole Patil Road, Pune India.

Once a legendary hangout for sizzler buffs, now wears an "English High Tea" ambiance after its renovation earlier this year.

Zamu's run by a noted Parsi family, who also owns "Touche` The Place" on MG Road used to have a classic 60's look with the plush red couches, and the likes of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe,  Clint Eastwood adorning their walls.

   

These notable celebrities now look at wrought iron garden chairs, fit to adorn an English garden. Comfortable couches have been foregone with heavy, clunky chairs, which will leave you with a hurting behind!

The ambiance is distasteful. The bottle blue of the chairs, the outdoor, garden tiles and the 60's red paint on the walls are a total mismatch leaving the diner in confusion. Their fabulous jukebox is also missing, leaving the diner with the 60's music albeit from a laptop. 

Zamu's Place, known for its fresh fuming sizzlers and sizable portions of food disappoints on this front as well.

Heres what was served.

Garlic Beef

An unappetizing dish to look at, the Garlic beef, is tough and chewy. Over-cooked in a dry crumb, it is thoroughly tasteless. Served with a side of garlic mayonnaise, which is almost split.

Next I attempted to try their "3 step sizzler programme". This used to be Zamu's stand out experience, as they we the pioneers in such a sizzler menu. However this turned out to be less "sizzling" than expected! 

What is alarming is that the staff have no knowledge of flavors. They do not offer advice even if you choose a wrong combination in your 3 step sizzler, you risk having a truly unbalanced meal.

  

Step 1 :Chicken Breast 

Step 2: Mashed Potatoes,Grilled Veggies & Burnt Garlic Rice 

Step 3: Pepper Garlic Sauce

 The chicken though braised well, is chewy,tough and overcooked. The mashed potatoes are too sweet and there is a clear overdose of milk. The sauce is a disaster, with the pepper and garlic at 2 different sides of the bowl, which upon mixing yields a sharp, gaudy taste. Avoid this dish at all costs.

Step 1 :Grilled Basa & Prawns

Step 2: Home Fries,Grilled Onion & Buttered Corn 

Step 3: Honey & Red Pepper

This sizzler had a reasonable presentation, except for the large cabbage leaf, strewn in the center, thwarting a good visual. The basa is perfectly cooked, the prawns however are overdone. The fries are partly burnt and the depressed kernels of corn aren't fresh either.

The honey and red pepper sauce blends well with this dish and compliments the flavor of the seafood.

 Step 1 :Masala King Fish & Prawns

Step 2: Home Fries,Mushroom Baby Corn, Burnt Garlic Rice 

Step 3: Honey Mustard sauce

 The sizable portion of King Fish, makes this dish visually spectacular. The aroma of this dish, is however, peppery, over-spiced and burns your nasal cavity. 

The burnt fries ruin the visual charm. The mushroom baby corn is badly crumb fried and has no salt.

The fish is well cooked but the prawns are again a let down being overcooked.

The Honey mustard sauce, is too strong and overpowers the entire dish.

Zamu's Place, a legendary sizzler house, now with its uncomfortable outdoorsy ambiance, fails to impress.  The food  lacks balance and consistency. Flavor combinations are miserable and a lackadaisical staff doesn't help the customer, make the right choice.

Still a regular hangout for many, Zamus Place continues to serve up sizzlers, just not amazing to the seasoned sizzler palette.