Mary in India

Just got back from the Westin Hotel (newly opened) in Koregaon Park, Pune. Since I've been here I'd noticed this monstrocity of a hotel in it's contruction phase. Massive gray modern building along the river near Kalyani Nagar. I'd drive by it almost every day wondering when it's completion date would arrive. WELL...it opened about two months ago, and only now have Remi and I gotten the opporunity to try it out.

Fantastic architecture! Very sleek, perhaps a tad cold, exterior, the inside however is much warmer. Tight security (Mary likey in light of the recent bombing event here in Pune), modern art lining the lobby, the elevators saturate your eyes with a shiny metallic golden floral wall decor, and the restaurants...OMG, must be like five or so just within the hotel itself.

The restaurant we ate at was called "Seasonal Tastes" (pictured above) and it was buffet style (came highly recommended to us by Remi's collegues). We went with our friends Charlotte and Guillaume, who happened to have two friends visiting from France.

The food was wonderful (for a buffet) included a lot of Asian foods, ahem, SUSHI!!!! Woot! We were thoroughly stuffed by dessert time. Desserts (which anyone who knows me knows is my FAVORITE course) were plentiful, along with an extensive cheese selection (which the French loved) they had ice creams, crème brulee, tiramisu, trifle, beetroot cake, fruit tarts, pistaschio bars, apple crumble, chocolate gateaux, mousses, Indian puddings, cookies, chocolates, plus every fruit under the sun drizzled with your choice of chocolate syrup or caramel. It was a relative dessert-lovers heaven.

After a massive overload of sweets + wine I was yawning and ready to pass out. They did bring us some coffee, which I managed to gulp down to waken myself back up.

In total, the buffet was 800 rupees per person (around $18.00)! Though this is still cheap for this class of buffet, still a tad pricey by Indian standards.

Oh, and my only complaint...the drinks took FOREVER. Just bringing us a glass of wine (which was overpriced) took around 20 minutes. I don't know why this was, but they could have made lot more money off of us if they were a bit more attentive with the alcohol. I mean, I ended up having 1 Bellini and 1 glass of wine (and the wine was all my own effort in flagging him down), but had the waiter been around more to offer a refill in a timely manner, I probably would have had 3-4 glasses easy.