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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Olives & Cheese, Ristorante Italiano



This restaurant with its raving reviews has been on my radar for a long time. When I eat out, I am usually in a fine-dining mood and hence had never ventured there. It is situated at Trimulgherry beside the RTA office.
It is a tiny place beside the Axis bank and opposite ‘mom & me’. Just about 15 tables, all placed close together. I went at 2:50 pm and there were only two tables occupied at the time. I had called and asked whether it was the 'downtime' for the restaurant as is the norm in all Hyderabad restaurants and I was assured that they have service running from 11 am to 10 pm, every time preparing food afresh. Well, the ambiance isn’t much to speak about. Looks more like an artist's studio with little pictures from/of Italy hanging around. One part of the ceiling is painted yellow and has cheese-like holes in it.
I was full of expectation and my order didn’t let me down. There were 10 sections to choose from: soups, salads, appetizers, breads, pizzas, pastas, sandwiches, cold and hot beverages, milkshakes and desserts. As I went alone, I ordered just two of these: one was the salad Mexican supreme. This consisted of a bed of lettuce, jalapenos, olives, corn , topped with nachos and mayonnaise dressing. This had a crunchy taste rendered to it by the crisp lettuce and topped by crispier nachos. Priced at 129/-. I didn't find any distinctive taste of spices and feel that it was the mayonnaise that had rendered the flavor.
My second order was a Hawaiin pizza topped with olives, red capsicum, paprika and pine apple. The pizza base was quite good. There are choices of deep pan and thin crust pizzas. It was slightly spicy though.
Each order took about 20 minutes to deliver. The quantity of salad was overwhelming. I could have only half of it and got the rest packed. The pizza also priced Rs. 129/-, was about 7 inches across. After having eaten the salad , I couldn’t finish the pizza either and had to get that packed as well. The bill came to 270/- with taxes.
The waiter at my table was polite and answered all my questions about the menu. And when I wanted extra cream or nachos, he helpfully brought them instantly. But he was not proactive in informing about the various pizza bases or explaining about various pasta choices or speaking about the cream choices for the salad. Also, tomatoes were substituted for red capsicum in my pizza. In the salad, corn was missing. Upon asking I was told that it was over. The basic idea of having a salad is that you go for all ingredients mentioned and not with some of them missing. The pizza toppings were rather frugal, though the base and the cheese used were awesome. So, if you are a person who is well-conversant with Italian food, you'd better customize your order because whatever you order, the taste is quite awesome.
It no way compares to Little Italy. Do not even attempt to compare, yet in its own way, it presents some decent food. Also to be remembered that the price is at least one-fourth of what you spend in the big one. I wouldn’t call it a must-have experience but by not eating here, you are sure going to miss some great Italian-Italian food.

ps: When microwaved the next day, the pizza tasted as though freshly prepared and hadn't become tough like the ones we get from other (bigger) outlets.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aw, this was a very nice post. In thought I want to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and precise effort to make a very good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and not at all seem to get one thing done.

Beautiful World said...

Thank you for your encouragement. Your comment went into spam, so hadn't noticed it all this while.

The idea is just to put down your thoughts whenever you are inspired to...irrespective of how it turns out.One thing will lead to another and before you know, you'd have put a whole bunch of articles :)