We visited Ada Hind Ki this past Sunday based on the suggestion of Harish who happened to drop in on my blog recently. Since Anoushka is now being groomed into becoming a restaurant junkie like her parents, she asked us where we were going? When we told her, she decided to rechristen Ada Hind Ki as "Ada Hindu ki Ma". Maybe it does make sense in her baby world, but to us it served for a good pre-lunch laugh.

It being Sunday, better half and junior decided to rise at 11.30 (that too after being booted out of bed). I was starving by then since I had skipped breakfast and soon we headed out to Ada Hind Ki. Got there easily enough, it being on Museum Road (its on the same road as The Only Place with Empire at the end of the road). Part of the HM Group, its driveway is a really steep one and then you have the luxury of valet parking.

You have to go up a wooden staircase to get to the restaurant. The ground floor is home to the Chinese restaurant In China. Now I was really up for a long a la carte meal and so was really really disappointed when we were told there was a buffet on and that the restaurant was not prepared to handle an a la carte meal. Its been an overdose of buffets in the recent past. Every restaurant seems to be resorting this method.

Anyways, since we were there and my stomach was not up for a long wait, we dove right in. Soup and starters were brought to the table. Chicken soup and a range of starters, chicken kebabs, tawa fried fish, onion-kheema-malai chops and a mutton dish. All of which were very well done and tasted good enough for another round of a few of them.

The buffet tables were set separate for the vegetarian and non-vegetarian courses, which ensured that there was a good spread for both sides. The was also a salad bar as well as a live pani puri counter.

Rotis were brought to the table and to go with that was a methi chicken which was thick, loaded with methi and delicious. Mutton rogan josh was again the onion-tomato based thick gravy. Again, loaded with flavor, piping hot and excellent along with the rotis.

Then came the mutton dum biryani. The wheat seal was broken in front of us. The biryani was wonderfully light, with the rice fluffy and flavored with a raisin paste. The use of raisin paste is something I have seen in traditional Mangalorean cooking which makes a chutney out of raisins to go with sweet pulaos. Anyways, this inclusion made the biryani wonderful. To go with this was the Burani raita, a Hyderabadi specialty. This raita is made out of strained mixture of milk, crushed garlic, yogurt and chilli powder and went wonderfully with the biryani.

I wish I had room for the pani puri which I personally adore, but I was not about to let go of the desserts. There was warm Rajbhog, hot jalebis (so they claimed but they were not), a peach cake and hot sabudana kheer. A lovely end to a satisfying meal. To wash all this down as an nice mint flavored jal jeera as well as tasty buttermilk.

Though a buffet was not really what I wanted, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The number of items were limited, but each one was well made and could not really be faulted. Service was nice without be too in-your-face. The ambiance is nice but can get a bit noisy when the place fills up. Toilets need some work on the maintenance areas as they are not really clean. The entire meal came to Rs 299 a head (Orange Peel can learn a lesson or two on buffets from this place).

The Only Place is a really old restaurant and there is enough of online space dedicated to this restaurant. I have been meaning to go there for ages now and finally got my wish on a Friday afternoon. The place was quite packed even though we got there at around 12.30pm. An open

courtyard with a Mangalore tile roof makes for a nice seating arrangement. I believe the red and white checked table linen is a trademark.

We were seated immediately and menus were brought in. Frankly my salivating mouth took on a life force of its own when it took a look at the menu. A wide array of steaks, burgers, pastas made it difficult for me to make a choice, because I seemed to like it all. After at least 15 minutes of deliberation, we settled for the chicken salad and garlic cheese bread for starters (this is now Anoushka's new staple diet). We also had a new standard for us - lemon ice tea.

The chicken salad was really nice with the portion being good. It had a good mix of shredded chicken and veggies done up in a nothing-spectacular mayo dressing. The cheese garlic bread were bigger compared to the conventional slices served in most restaurants. So three out of four of these made a good lunch for Anoushka.

Next, for the main courses - Sudhakar opted for the steak and eggs. Beef steak with a double bulleyes, steamed veggies, mashed potatoes and sauteed onions. I opted for the Chateaubriand Supreme - Mini, which again was a healthy portion of beef steak, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies and sauteed onions. The Only Place gives you the option of add-ons and in our case Sudhakar opted for a jacket potato with sour cream and I opted for hash browns. And of course there was the mandatory garlic bread accompanying both entrees.

Now for the verdict. The portions were healthy but what I was really disappointed was in the fact that both our meals were not piping hot. In fact they were not hot at all and had me wondering whether we had a microwaved meal placed before us. Sudhakar felt his steak to be slightly stale further emphasizing that we could have been served a microwaved meal. The hash browns too were just about warm and was not salted. Its only when you get to the centre of it will you come across some molten cheese. Sudhakar steak was juicy and much more easier to the knife than mine was. The mashed potatoes were nice and creamy. The jacket potato thankfully was hot but the sour cream was excruciatingly sour (yes I know it is supposed to be that... but this was not nice sour, this was bad sour, and I should know since I love all things sour).

I had read a lot about the pies here and that's why I opted for peach pie for dessert and Sudhakar asked for his favorite creme caramel. He said it was decent. But mine was a disaster on a plate. The pie base was definitely stale and the peaches were dunked in sugar syrup and just placed on top of the base. The whole thing was drowned in cream in all probability to cover up the atrocious dessert. The base was rock hard and would have needed a hammer and chisel to carve through.

Overall I was really disappointed with this visit to The Only Place. I am sure if the meals was served steaming hot like it was supposed to be, then it would have been a better experience. The dessert was really sad. This meal cost us approximately Rs 1200. The loo for ladies was outside the main seating area and if its raining you will need your umbrella to get there. Spacious and clean. I will definitely visit again since I am inclined to believe we went on the restaurant's bad day. I spoke to a couple of friends who feel that they too have had off days at The Only Place, so maybe we should give it another shot.