Jonathan's Kitchen, Holiday Inn Express

Jonathan's Kitchen at Holiday Inn Express, Gachibowli is the newest kid on the block and I was pretty impressed by the range of cuisine they had to offer. We had all been invited for a tasting session and the first thing that greeted us were the stony walls complimenting the contemporary seating arrangement.

We took time to settle down, and when we did, we were presented with the menu. I must say I have never seen a mean heavier(literally) than this! It was bound with hard board and needed a bit of muscle to handle it. After all, I wouldn't mind a little bit of exercise before a meal!

The first set of dishes to make their way to our table were sushi. Shawar-maki was a sushi stuffed with chicken, vegetable-maki was a veg version of sushi and a crispy cottage cheese version which was more like a fusion between Indian and Japanese, and finally crab sushi. The sushi were delectable indeed with the right balance of sticky rice, weed paper and meat/vegetable inside. The Wasabi was bang on target with its strong flavor. I have always liked the pungency of wasabi, though I refrain from taking in more than what is necessary. All the sushi dishes were accompanied with dark soy sauce as well.

The marinated olives were quite good with the flavors very clearly hinting at Mediterranean origin of the recipe. The accompanying garlic bread was equally tasty as well. There was nothing which might say that the two didn't go well together.

The next dish presented was falafel. It was warm and tasted average. Apart from that I couldn't recall anything special in this dish.

Foccacia Olive Melt was the name of the next dish presented on the table. The bread was quite soft and fluffy and obvious by its name, Olive was the predominant ingredient and flavored the bread. I liked this dish for its simplicity in taste and flavor. It was accompanied with marinated cherry tomatoes and olives.

Baby corn tempura was about average I would say. They might try to draw away my attention to the veggie strips wrapped in weed paper, but that distraction would only be momentary. I would pass off this dish as a regular fritter.

Oriental chicken drummettes was what they call this. Hot and mildly sweet, it had crispy crust and did taste quite well. I would have loved to take more helpings, but a slightly under-cooked piece of drummette stopped me from doing so. It felt like it was taken out from freezer and straightaway dipped in the coating and let off into the fryer. Feedback given! And I would safely assume that it may have been a one-off instance.

Dragon prawns were tasty in my opinion. I loved the flavor they had.

Buttered prawns - were decent, but I didn't like the idea of covering them with "egg floss". the taste of egg didn't quite gel with the prawns.

Chicken satay tasted just perfect. But then I felt they were a bit too moist inside. I would have preferred a bit of dryness inside.

Minestrone di verdure was a complete disaster. One sip and most of us didn't like it at all. It felt way too artificial and felt as if canned tomatoes or puree was used to make this. A complete pass from my side. But hopefully they would have taken the feedback and improved upon this dish.

The chicken noodle soup was quite nicely prepared. The noodles weren't thick and there was a good amount of veggies tossed in along with shredded chicken.

Green Apple Carpaccio was nicely done as well. A good balance in flavors, if I were to ignore the excess of lemon(Apple sliced can be dipped in lemon juice in order to preserve their color) on the apple slices.

Nicoise salad is something which I may be ready yet to appreciate. Having lived on canned or cooked tuna, I found the taste of raw tuna a bit weird. But I am sure connoisseurs would have a liking for it.

Peanut crusted fish tasted nice. The fish was fresh and the proportion of coarsely ground peanuts was just enough to give a mild flavor to fish.

Involtini di pollo was the best dish in my opinion. The chicken breast was quite tender and the beans very nicely added up to the flavor.

Grilled tenderloin on a bed of mashed potatoes, bacon, buttered vegetables and Madagascar sauce.

They did have a good list of burgers and sandwiches. Since the breads were made in-house, they were quite fresh. All the burgers were served with sauces and a tiny bucket of fries alongside. Pictured below is a veggie burger(Healthy Mix) 

Crispy chicken burger and hamburger

Hamburger

Crispy chicken burger

It was indeed good to note that they have given equal attention to Indian cuisine as well. The chilli olive naan, paneer lasooni palak, makai ki subzi, dal tadka and chicken tikka masala were a proof of that!

The baked cheese cake was absolutely yum. I had almost two servings of it! But I cannot ignore the fact that the lemon tart and tiramisu were equally good!

The food at Jonathan's Kitchen was scrumptious and appealing to look at! Initial hiccups can always be ironed out and if they maintain this consistency in flavors and presentation(which I believe they will do for sure!) then it could become a hot destination for contemporary food in Gachibowli IT area catering to locals and visiting foreign nationals as well.

~By Invitation~

Hello Curry!

If you thought made-to-go food would always be packaged in bland looking white plastic boxes or aluminum foil packs, then you definitely need to try Hello Curry once. Be it your regular lunch and dinner, or a gathering with friends and colleagues, Hello Curry ensures that you do openly (or even secretly) admire their colorful and innovative packaging while enjoying delectable selections off their menu.

I attended a tasting session recently at the first restaurant that Hello Curry has opened in the Hitech City area and I must say they have gone to great lengths in making their restaurant as colorful as their packaging. Most of their stories printed on the boxes and on the restaurant walls have been derived from Bollywood masala, with a twist of food added in each of them.

Since this was an tasting session for new dishes to be introduced, they hadn't named any of their dishes yet. The first veg dish had a good mix of veggies and spiced just about right. It did have mild Andhra flavors(like all the other dishes presented afterwards) and went great with rice or chapati.

The rice was a let down. It was hard and under cooked. Or rather, cooked then frozen and then thawed, making it quite chewy. But feedback was taken promptly and assurance for properly cooked rice was given. I would say it was a one of instance, a rare one too, considering I had been a customer for close to a year and I had never encountered this before. The chapati - quite average. Somehow I feel they really need to improve on chapati.

The paranthas have come a long way. But they still have scope for improvement. When Hello Curry initially started their operations, the paranthas were something I felt missed the tang that other dishes had. At the tasting session, the paranthas were moist, soft and tasted much better than they used to be. Yet, scope for improvement is there.

The mutton curry in a thick gravy base was the star of the show, only if I can ignore the fact that it was a bit chewy. This would be ideal for people looking out for a spicy non-veg dish. Both rice and chapati would complement it.

These are some of the new dishes that they have planned to introduce. The dish pictured below is a crispy corn pulav. The pulav rice was something very close to baghara rice that is very popular in Andhra/Telengana cuisine. The battered fried baby corn was crisp, but I felt it wouldn't taste as good if it were cold. Would recommend having this hot.

The crispy paneer pulav was okay, nothing great to talk about. I would say the crispy corn tasted much better than the paneer pulav, ofcourse the pulav rice was exactly the same.

The next set of pulavs were of chicken flavors - one a Andhra style fried chicken pulav and the other one a sort of battered fried chicken pulav. The Andhra fried chicken pulav had that tangy and spiced flavor which is very popular in this region. The pulav rice is obviously the standardized baghara rice that has been used for the veg and non-veg pulavs. The battered fried chicken was quite good as well, giving out different taste and making itself distinguishable from the Andhra fried chicken and I liked both.

The chicken curry that followed was something I did enjoy. It had the right balance of spice and flavors and went well with steamed rice.

They have also introduced parathas. We got to taste a corriander-chicken paratha and a jeera onion stuffed paratha among others. The jeera onion paratha had quite good flavor and the jeera was not really over-powering. The chicken corriander paratha was decent, but I would be complaining of not enough stuffing inside to call it a stuffed paratha. Feedback given!

Creative artwork on the packaging boxes is always top-notch!

Hello Curry now has a face to their name by way of a restaurant and the pricing is pocket friendly. The tasting session went quite well with substantial feedback - both positive and negative. Mr. Sandeep Varma and Mr Raju Bhupati, the entrepreneurs have really done a job well with Hello Curry delivery system and they did note down all the feedback to make their restaurant a go-to place in Hitech City area. Wishing them all the best for their venture!

~By Invitation~