Horn Ok Please Food Festival, New Delhi

Good experience.

Himalaya Sagar Sweets & Restaurant Review

Himalaya Sagar Sweets & Restaurant is located opposite the Uttam Nagar East Metro station. There are two sections to the property, one is a sweet shop and the other a restaurant. The sweet shop does not have “running inventory” for most of the mithai categories. Which means, you must taste before hand whatever it is that you wish to order. Or you risk spending your hard-earned money on stale and not-so-fresh mithai. The Air-conditioning is not effective on the mithaiwala section with a live kitchen preparing Pav-Bhaji and Tikki at the back. Thankfully, customers are permitted to carry their sweets and occupy a table at the restaurant so they can eat comfortably in a cool environment.

I ordered my favorite south-indian dish, the Mix Veg Uttapam. It arrived pretty soon. First bite into the dish and the salt / spiciness of the batter tasted on the higher side. Almost like a layer of spice was applied on the Uttapam after the veggies had been garnished. The Sambar was again too khatta (sour/tangy) and the coconut chutney was stale. The only saving grace was the orange tomato/imli chutney that tasted fresh and balanced at the same time. I literally finished the entire Uttapam with the tomato chutney.

With the bill at Rs 116, you wouldn’t complain but you wouldn’t be overjoyed with the quality either. There aren’t too many spacious and quality restaurants in Uttam Nagar compared to next door Janakpuri or Vikaspuri. So establishments like Himalaya come handy whenever one feels like dining out.

I would go with a rating of 3 / 5 since some items are good and the seating is spacious. The staff members in the restaurant are polite and serve you properly. There is a guy at the sweets counter who isn’t too responsive to customers, you have to literally shout your order twice or thrice before he does any billing for you. His demeanour suggests, he may one of the Jat owners / managers of the property. Nevertheless, customers do walk in because of easy accessibility on the Main Najafgarh Road and lack of quality options in the area.

Google Chromecast Review

Google Chromecast is a game-changer for the Cable TV/Direct-To-Home (DTH) industry in India. Google products are known to disrupt existing technologies and this is a shining example of how they have brought in convenience and free access to all kinds of entertainment on the internet.

I will briefly talk to you about my experiences with Google Chromecast. My wife and I moved to a flat where it was inconvenient to install an Airtel DTH connection. The terrace was owned by our neighbours (where we could not fix our dish) and the satellite signals were next to nothing on our floor. So despite having an Airtel DTH connection, we were forced to deal with the unprofessional local cablewallah (the DEN/SITI Cable variety). When we requested English News and Entertainment channels, we were charged a premium rental every month. To our utter disappointment, every now and then this local guy would black out our English channels and worse, not pick our phone calls setting superbad examples in customer service.

One day a colleague at work explained the benefits of Google Chromecast and we were hooked. After weeks of comparing Chromecast with Amazon Fire TV Stick, we ordered it during the Independence day sale. To set up the device, all you have to do is; (a) plug the device in the HDMI port of your tv (b) download the Google Home app and bingo you have access to Live TV, You Tube, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hotstar, Sony Liv and tons of other apps with movies and television serials.

A couple of days ago, when the cable guy came knocking, we politely discontinued the service. We now use the Airtel TV app to cast Live TV on our television screen. Certain apps will not give you the option to cast the content. For such apps, you will have to mirror your smartphone/ laptop/tablet and whatever is playing on your smartphone/laptop/tablet will get displayed on your television screen. Having in-home wifi is recommended but not a necessity. You can conveniently use mobile data to cast/mirror content from the apps.

Mirroring content from your smartphone has two disadvantages; (1) Your content gets paused when you receive a phone call (for this it is recommended that you use a laptop/tablet to mirror content so the smartphone is free for calls and general browsing) (2) the picture quality on your tv screen dips a little in terms of sharpness but by no means it is compromised in quality. The voice quality is good and the picture good enough for your family to enjoy TV together.

If you are using wifi at home, both the smartphone and Chromecast should be on the same wifi network.

The diverse content that one can access through the apps cannot be found on the DTH platform. For example, Airtel DTH does not provide access to what is popular on Amazon Prime or Netflix. We watched “Comicstaan” on Amazon Prime and “Sairat” on Netflix (the popular maharashtrian movie) by simply mirroring our smartphones on the tv. Chromecast enabled us to do that. YouTube allows one free access to multiple seasons of “Friends”, the latest movie trailers and the best in the entertainment industry.

If there are 3-4 friends watching together, each one has the ability to connect to Chromecast via his or her smartphone and stream content from a range of apps.

Overall, Chromecast has brought unlimited entertainment to our lives and freed us from the monthly cable bill. We are truly delighted with such a technology and once again thank Google for staying true to its mission; “organising the world’s information and making it universally accessible.”

Sugar & Spice, Unity One, Janakpuri

The Blueberry Cheese and Fresh Fruit Pastries we ordered were not fresh. The Cheese Cake was stiff, heavy and dry like it was a day or two old in the store. The Fresh Fruit pastry had a slight sour taste (kadwa) because even this one lacked the softness or freshness of a freshly baked item. We asked the Cashier if the items were fresh and he said, ‘all items arrive fresh in the morning’, but I really doubt it. A fresh pastry that has arrived in the morning will not be heavy, thick or kadwa by 6pm in the evening. The Cashier explained that the stiffness in the cheese cake is because of the Gelatinous quality of the cheese that makes it stand in a rectangular frame preventing it from wilting but I have tasted quality cheesecakes before (as far as The Cheesecake Factory in Atlanta) and somehow fought it difficult to believe that the Gelatin would make it stiff.

Overall it was a poor experience and we would carefully scan the items for freshness before making a choice the next time around.

Carnatic Cafe, Sec 15 Gurgaon

Walking distance from my office in Sec 15, I decided to have dinner after listening to the positive word-of-mouth feedback from colleagues. Spacious, peaceful, less crowded, simple and beautifully laid-out furniture, overall the ambience inside the restaurant is relaxing and one can enjoy with family and friends.

My colleague Karan ordered Orange and coffee flavored ice-cream. They took out two scoops and placed it in a coconut shell, interesting. From the main course, we ordered their famous ‘Malleswaram 18th Cross’ Dosa (detailed description from the Menu is visible in a photo clicked while ordering).

The Dosa is a really unique experience for Delhi NCR customers. In most, famous South Indian restaurants, the stuffing inside is usually a potato/veggie/paneer paste. Not this, though. One, they use good quality butter to fry the Dosa batter. Second, they stuff the Dosa with ample amount of Gunpowder. What is Gunpowder, I asked the Manager/Executive, quite amused with the word? They mix 3-4 varieties of lentils and roast it. Then make a powder out of it mixing a variety of spices to perk up the taste. That powder is then stuffed inside the Dosa. It has got a spicy, grainy taste to it and is a unique experience.

The green chutney on the plate is the tastiest and (I could not verify this) tasted like ‘Tapioca’ paste. Yum and fresh. Equally tasty were the red and white chutneys. The Sambar was good too. The chef can reduce the amount of butter in the Dosa because it makes the preparation a little greasy. My colleague Karan pointed out that reducing the butter may compromise the rich brown/red look of the Dosa. Hmm, I would not play around with the look if I were pitching my best-selling stuff. So you taste it and decide if you found it a little greasy too!

Overall a fun and unique experience when it comes to the Dosa and it is indeed recommended that you come with your family, friends and colleagues to savour it. You won’t be disappointed, take my word for it. Bon Appetit!

Dewdrop Classic Fall Resort, Mussoorie

What is good about the Hotel property?

1) Rajesh Bhai at the reception desk is kind enough to arrange for sightseeing cabs. He personally called up cab drivers for our sightseeing on Saturday and Sunday. Both the days, thanks to him, we had great drivers cum guides to show us around in Mussoorie. We can’t be grateful enough to him for the gesture.

2) Beautiful property situated under the hills.

3) Nice view from the machan at the top of the property.

4) The management offered us Tea and Butter toast when we had to skip complimentary breakfast for early morning sightseeing plans to Kempty Falls (18 kms from the Hotel). In the evening they promised Sandwiches but in the morning lazy staff at the kitchen could only manage Tea and Butter Toast.

5) Beautiful weather in June (cloudy, cool weather with on/off sunshine)

6) Nice room, bed and soft comforter for the cool weather. Geyser was fully functional for early morning bath.

7) Complimentary breakfast (not so great an experience, average food)

What are some of the challenges at the property?

1) Taps in my Parents’ room went dry at 9 pm in the night and in the morning. On both occasions my father had to call the reception desk and they managed a bucket of water after half an hour/45 minutes of frequent calling. Mechanics were seen repairing the motor at the property.

2) Liquid soap was missing in the Soap dispenser in my room (we had reserved two rooms for our trip). Shower in the washroom sucked, we had to use the bucket for a bath.

3) Swimming pool and kid's pool were dirty and banned by authorities due to lack of water in Mussoorie.

5) Slightly expensive food items on the In-house Restaurant menu.

6) Rooms situated at a higher altitude, senior citizens can face problems climbing and getting down from the rooms.

8) Location is a little secluded and there is no easy access to buses, autos and taxis. You must hire a taxi beforehand to move around anywhere in Mussoorie from the property. It is approx 11 kms (27 min) from The Mall Road (centre of sightseeing in Mussoorie).