Having tasted the gelatos and froyos at Ci Gusta once, I decided to have a lunch there a few weeks back. and end up the meal with gelatos. I probably was setting a higher expectation, because the meal didn't turn out to be upto mark. Being a weekday, time constraint was on my mind. A friend accompanied and we placed our order almost as soon as we were seated. Since sizzlers had been introduced, I opted for a chicken shashlik sizzler and my friend asked for a chicken strogranoff. Apart from this we also ordered chicken wings as starters.
The chicken wings were the first to arrive and I was impressed by the size of the wings. 4 pieces on the plate and they were decently sized for 2 persons. The wings were crispy on the outside and succulent inside. The accompanying barbecue sauce added the right amount of tang to the overall taste. But the amount of sauce made it look more like a garnish than accompaniment.
When the chicken sizzler arrived, it left me flabbergasted. The main dish on the hotplate looked more like the steamed rice and not the chicken shashlik(which was again drowned in a sauce), topped with a handful of fries which were chewy. The ideal arrangement ought to have tactfully displayed chicken shashlik as the main dish. The whole arrangement looked pretty much basic and even lacked blanched/tossed veggies. There were about 5-6 pieces of chicken hidden beneath the sauce, each about an inch in size and no more. This was one of the most dissapointing sizzlers that I have had in my life. The taste was quite ordinary and it denied me the pleasure of enjoying a well prepared and well presented sizzler. Needless to say, I gave my feedback to the store owner. The owner reccomended I try the sizzler with brown sauce on my next visit and assured me that it complemented the chicken shashlik well.
My friend had ordered chicken stroganoff which he said was again an average dish. I did bite into a piece from his plate and I felt it was a bit rubbery with the sauce being a bit bland for the dish. Again, there was a lot of sauce in there. I had never seen a stroganoff served with so much of sauce. Feel there is a little room for improvement here.
In general, I probably would stick to pizzas and pastas the next time I visit them for a lunch, but I will definitely try sashlik sizzler in brown sauce once. Though I haven't tried them myself, but I have got good feedback about their pizzas and pastas.
To end our meal, I chose to have a regular serving of coffee gelato while my friend went off for a more ambitious combination of froyos laden with toppings. The gelatos are good indeed and if I can't drive the distance to go to Eskimos(Gandipet road, outskirts of Hyderabad) for gelatos, then Ci Gusta is where I will head to. In fact, I must say both are head-on with each other in the gelatos sections, but Ci Gusta has the advantage of froyos and the biggest advantage of being in the city. Froyos here are equally noteworthy. In short, if you are only looking forward to a place to satiate your gelato cravings then Ci Gusta(Madhapur) is the place to go to.
Ambiance - 3.5/5
Food - 3/5
Service - 3.5/5
VFM - 3/5(4/5 for gelatos)
Wow Factor - the wide range of gelatos...and yes they have free wi-fi too!
Thumbs down - only select dishes on the menu are upto expectations.
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