ITP Indian Travel Places: Food, Travel, Tourism Business Events and Trade Shows
Phone: 020 41057120
Address: 361, 5, Near Tanishq Showroom, Bund Garden Road, Pune, Maharashtra India
Time: 12:00 Noon – 3:30 PM, 6:30 PM – 11:30 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 1,000
Cuisines: Modern Indian, North Indian
Facilities: Home Delivery, Valet Parking Available, Indoor Seating
Akss opened its doors a few months back at Bund Garden Road, and serves vegetarian, modern Indian cuisine.
Akss, Bund Garden Road, Pune: Decor
The decor is vibrant and colorful. The seating is comfortable and the eclectic quirky chairs are inspired from the Mad-hatter’s tea party from Alice in Wonderland. The vibrant wall art depicts different cultural aspects of our country. The cozy space is filled with interesting embellishments reminiscent of curio shops.
Akss, Bund Garden Road, Pune: Food
Akss serves vegetarian food and some of our country’s most popular dishes have been given a contemporary, modern twist using the concept of molecular gastronomy. The menu has been put together with a lot of thought about food and flavor combinations that work together and of course the presentation too.
As we sat, we were served a basket-full of ‘bobby’, the all-time favorite crisps alongside different chutneys, sauces and pickles. Along with the food, the beverage menu has also been given a twist. We started with the delightfully smoky and spicy smoked tandoori bloody mary and the sweet and spicy ananaaas (a concoction of pineapple, lychees and jalapenos).
The pani-puri bar has a special version of pani-puri served with bar equipment. The cold, crunchy puris chilled in liquid nitrogen were served in an ice box, the chana and ragda in drink measurers and the imli paani in a cocktail shaker. Extremely fun to eat, the paani poori hit the spot. The palak patta chaat was prepared on the table. The fried palak was made crunchier with the addition of liquid nitrogen and topped with dahi mousse and different chutneys. This was a miss for us as the assembly took too long and the excessive use of liquid nitrogen felt too gimmicky. The crispy stuffed kachoris of the kachori chaat were delicious and filled with dahi and topped with chutney caviar. The bitesized kachoris were the perfect appetizers. From the appetizers, we tried the broccoli kalimiri, which is currently in trend. The broccoli was spiced with black pepper, grilled to perfection and served with a cheddar mousse. The pav bhaji bombs came next. These were bite-sized soft brioche buns filled with delicious pav bhaji and topped with cheese. Definitely inspired by Durban’s bunny chow, these pav bhaji bombs were extremely messy to eat, but oddly satisfying and delicious. The misal pav was something I was keen to try. It is difficult to put a contemporary twist on Pune’s favorite dish. The twist here is only the presentation. The sample or katt was served in a fondue pot (sans cheese, thankfully) and the farsan and onion served separately along with chunky pieces of crusty pav. The misal impressed me and I was glad that the modern twist was only the presentation.
For the mains, the dum subz biryani was the right dish after an array of chaats and appetizers. The smoky charcoal flavor was infused well in the biryani. We paired the biryani with the boondi raita.
The description of the Akss chocolate garden was too hard to resist. This was a sinful and indulgent dessert where the garden is created with different textures of chocolate – Oreo crumble, chocolate mousse, brownie and fondant. Nothing that can go wrong!
Plus & Minus:
Akss manages to put a contemporary spin on classic Indian dishes like pani-puri, misal and pav bhaji. But the modern twists works only when the flavor and taste combinations work. The presentation, though creative, can seem slightly gimmicky, particularly with the excessive use of liquid nitrogen.
