“A rooftop restaurant must have a beautiful night view and good meal to compliment the view”
Conveniently located in the heart of IT HUB Hinjewadi, Vandaag is standing tall at the roof top of The Gateway Hotel.
With all the human traffic clogging up the streets it makes perfect sense to dodge the chaos at ground level and escape up when you want to relax and have few drinks.
Vandaag is “One Day” in Dutch and it has all the right elements to make at least your evening beautiful.
Interestingly they also have Live Nights on Thursdays, Bollywood night on Saturdays and Ladies Night on Wednesdays.
The restaurant has an all outdoor seating concept which I feel can be an issue in cold winter nights specially if you are a teetotaller.
The main essence of the place is in their cocktails. Very few places in Pune can do justice to cocktails and serve too sugary or bitter drinks. Vandaag has a whole array of beautifully concocted drinks I enjoyed specially in pleasant December.
The Vandaag is a Tiki Bar inspired drink, combination of white and dark rum with musk/water melon, pineapple juice, strawberry juice making it a very exotic yet relishing cocktail
Chocola Met Rum is if you want to wake up all night and party. Dark rum with coffee combined with sugar is enough to give you a boost!!!
Then you have this smooth Orange Ginger to make you sip all day long, more as a summer cocktail though.
Favourite of the evening was Melon Martini, perfect blend of sweetness from fruit and strong enough to titillate your senses.
If you are looking for a shooter, then V-57 (V for Vandaag) is potent when served as a fire shot.
With all this artsy cocktails, there is an utter disappointment in non-alcoholic section, with boring options of Iced tea and Fresh lime. Seriously? Hope they will come up with equally amazing mocktails too
The food menu is designed around drinks with South East Asian flavours, local Indian cuisine and some part of Europe too. To give a Dutch twist, many dishes are written in Dutch language and staff is polite enough to assist.
The must haves are sausages and the goda masala chicken, served on skewers. Goda in Marathi means sweet and the masala makes any ordinary dish interesting with its subtle sweet flavour. The sausages were served with German style Sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. One of the best I had in Pune.
Sushi Plaat or Sushi platter is another good option though I did not enjoy the smoked salmon in Sushi. It felt more dry in the Sushi.
One dish to point out is Chef’s new creation of healthy taco’s made from Ragi and filled with red beans, vegetables and sour cream. Every bite had a freshness of salsa and beans did not overpower the palette. I hope to see the dish in regular menu.
To end the meal on sweet note, Vandaag offers very few options. Try Chocolate – different textures of chocolate, a visually stunning and thoughtful dessert which presents chocolate in the form of brownie, mousse and every imaginative form. Makes every chocolate lover happy.
The other dessert we tried was Paan – I – Poori, a clever rendition of paan in the form of favourite street food. The flavours of gulkand and beetle leaf are bang on but its more of a mouth freshener than a dessert.
Whether you’re planning a date night to sweep your beloved off of their feet or just looking for somewhere in the open to spend a lovely evening, Vandaag is definitely a place to consider.
Grab a drink and take it all in.. as all it takes is One Day to live a lifetime
hungrynomadblog 