A day with International Street Food Festival at Café Piano, The Grand Bhagwati

Food is the new religion. Touching people across states, countries and communities, it has become an integral part of our life. Not stopping to just Indian, people today want to try more cuisines and varieties as possible.

Sometime I think, is it even possible for a single human being to get the luxury of tasting various cuisines?

My query was sorted when my dad decided to take me to International Street Food Festival 2014 at Café Piano, The Grand Bhagwati, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Food festivals like these prove to be an idle place to sit and enjoy dishes across world. Encouraging foodies to come and experiment is the best thing that a hotel/restaurant owner can do! Kudos to TGB for taking this step and bringing Amdavadi’s closer to authentic & exotic food.

We had to pre-books the table to avoid waiting and chaos. So, we booked a table for 27^th April, 2014 (Sunday). We reached the venue on time chosen by us and were warmly greeted by the manager. As we moved to our table, we were served with welcome drink, soup & its companions and starters within 5 minutes. Here, they had already got all the binus marks on quick & efficient service. The serve included:

Sugarcane Juice as welcome drink:  This was definitely different from the one I normally have. It had a refreshing taste and there was a flavor (which I could not figure out) added to it, that made us gulp it down easily so that we can enjoy it to fullest.

Onion & Corn Soup: This soup was new to me. It contained corn, onion, tomatoes blended I guess and had diced spinach. It was a sour one, a desi flavoured one.

Soup’s companions: Now that I forgot to ask the name of these platters, I gave them ‘soup’s companion’ name. Well, the first platter had soup sticks in two different forms. One was the regular long one but with a spicy touch. And another was molded one, a normal bread taste. The second one included bread and butter. At first look, I thought it was garlic bread but it turned out to be fresh bread that had oregano flavor. Even, the butter was toasted in oregano – a unique thing to do and which I really relished!

Starters: Yet again, there were two platters in starters. The first had American hot dog and South African Bunny Chao. The American hot dog had mayonnaise, vegetables and tikki. The bread that covered it was very crisp and the soft. The South African Bunny Chao had filling of potatoes that were wrapped with some good flavors; stuffed into circular bread and baked. The second platter included Paneer marinated in different sauces: one being a green one that had coriander taste and other being red on that had spicy taste.

The food narrated and tasted so far were decent in proportion and had occupied major portion in stomach.  We decided to move on to main course after a break. The main course was arranged in a buffet system that was divided into two parts: live and normal counter.

The live counter included options such as pav bhaji, chaats and pani puri. Since, I was inclined to try western cuisines; I choose to stick to normal counter.

Main course: From the widespread of delicacies, I choose to have Thai Flat Noodles, Italian Pasta, Mexican Burritos and Hyderbadi Bryiani. My personal favorite among all these scrumptious portions were Italian Pasta and Thai Flat Noodles. The pasta was the best I had eaten so far. Thai Flat Noodles taste was enhanced due to the perfect balance of aroma and taste.

Deserts: I have never been found of deserts or sweets until now. The way it was arranged was enough to capture heart. After a long thinking, I took Chocolate, Blueberry mousse and dry Sandesh piece. The Blueberry mousse was tangy in taste and it melted as soon as I ate it. The Sandesh was also good, being a dry thing, the flavors were different and more a moment it did confuse me with ingredients. However, stealing my heart as usual was chocolate mousse; so perfectly balanced. The dark chocolate smoothened and strengthened my taste buds. Nothing can beat Chocolate after all!

Well, it was a sweet adieu! 

But, among all these the best part was the continuous live Piano being played by Piano player Yesha Patel. The delicate tunes of songs some old some new gave the cafe's perfect ambiance, a radiance. Her efforts are highly appreciated by me and I am thankful to her for playing such amazing tones. Being a fan of old songs, I and my dad appreciated and enjoyed Good Food & Good Music. 

Overall rating:

Ambiance:  9/10

Service: 9/10

Food: 10/10

Share your journey/experience of food whether it is in a renowned restaurant or a roadside stall. E-mail me the details and I will blog it for you. Send in your experiences with photos at cuisinesbynikita@gmail.com@gmail.com having 'Journey of a foodie' in subject line.

--Nikita Dudani