Visited World Dhaba Food Festival 2015 today afternoon, experience was OK-OK, nothing great! The most annoying part was not much arrangement from organizers to provide shade though they decided to start today at 12 noon. Most stalls owners were irritated as well, it was quite hot in the afternoon very few places which had seating arrangement and some shade were already full.
Though it was not very crowded in the afternoon, most people did not have any lace to sit and eat properly in the shade.
Forget AC arrangements, but can't they even provide canopy & some sitting arrangement for visitors despite charging entry fee? There are better arrangements even in free events. Organizers must look into this if they are planning to do it again next year.
Back to food - not really great, food court of any decent mall or even those so called 'chaupatis' usually have similar, or often better food offerings. Obviously PEO stall was an attraction for us, and I was looking forward to trying few dishes from Adrika, but I was disappointed as they didn't have any vegetarian options available. Stew Art didn't have full range - my favourite Moroccan Stew was missing from their menu, but American Gumbo was good - it turned out to be rather watery than what they usually serve at their outlet, but it was acceptable. Best part was pani-puris at one stall run by a family I guess - they were really nice but not sure if the have any outlet in Pune as such. We also enjoyed 'Strawberry with cream', it was really divine.
There were some variations of fusion pasta offered by Jugaad.in, and we tried "pesto with penne" and it turned out to be quite good! They even had Pasta in Makhani gravy!!! :-O We tried "Jalebi & Rabdi" at Delhi Chat Darbar, and it was probably he wost I have ever tried - the Rabdi was more like thin, pathetic 'chawal or sooji ki kheer' and Jalebi was oily & way too sweet. Strictly avoidable!!
There was one health food stall and they had nice options for beat and another healthy soup, but the lady there informed me that they don't have those soups yet, we visited around 2.30 PM and the festival opened around 12 PM. Anyway!
Bering a hardcore foodie, I didn't expect any surprises as such as I probably know most (if not all) eat-outs in Pune , but was pleasantly surprised to discover Damodar P30 - they had 4 variations in Misal, Damodar, Mastani, Peshwai & Kolhapuri with different ingredients in each one of them - we tried Damodar Misal and it turned out to be quite good, I will be soon visiting them to try out more.
I was expecting more "dhaba food" from around the world, but except Cafe Arabia and one more oriental food stall, I didn't find much offerings there. I don't need to drive 15-20 km from my place to try kebabs & tikka, they are everywhere and we avoided them there.
The DJ tried his best to keep everyone upbeat in the uncomfortable heat and poor arrangements, but he couldn't help much as there was not enough place for people to sit or even stand in the shade in that scorching sun!
So food is a mixed bag, most of it you can get in the food-court of nearby mall (And it will be AC with comfortable seating arrangement). I expected organizers to make an effort to get some different varieties of food from different parts of the world, but I was disappointed. Anyway! Afternoon was avoidable due to poor arrangements by the organizers, but if you're in that part of the city in the evening you might want to try this.
This is being held at Deccan College Ground, Yerawada, Pune from 6th to 8th Feb, 2015 and you can see the in the image below (requires log-in).
- World Dhabha Festival 2015
